GE chair handling departure like management style

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Nov 3, 1999

STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- In preparing for his retirement in 2001, General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Welch is displaying the same careful, forward-thinking management style that caused Fortune magazine to name him "Manager of the Century."

Welch, who will turn 64 on Nov. 19, announced in 1995 that he would retire at age 65. Since then, rampant speculation has persisted about who would replace him at the helm of GE, one of the most successful conglomerates in the world.

In an interview Monday with CNBC, the business news cable television network owned by GE, Welch said he would depart in April 2001, five months after his 65th birthday and exactly 20 years since he was appointed chairman and chief executive officer. Analysts and others who follow Welch say the way he has handled his departure is typical of his management style: hands-on, forward-thinking and market-conscious.

"It's consistent with the fact that he's just a marvelous manager and he wanted to make sure that his exit strategy in retirement was going to go very smoothly," said David Mauer, a professor of finance at Southern Methodist University's Cox School of Business. "The beauty of having Welch announce that well in advance allows analysts to carefully look at the management GE has... and come to the conclusion that GE will not skip a beat after Welch leaves," he said.

GE has been tight-lipped about who Welch's successor will be except to repeatedly say that the new CEO will come from inside the company.