Neutron Jack's fallout and the disaster at Boeing As Boeing CEO David Calhoun resigns following the 737 Max debacle, can we just stop thinking about CEOs as heroes? THE INK Today, Boeing CEO David Calhoun finally announced his resignation. The series of disastrous 737 Max crashes and malfunctions (which began in 2018) has underscored for the public the myriad ways in which corporate cost-cutting poses a very direct threat to human life. As you wait for his exit (he's sticking around until the end of 2024) it's a good time to reflect on the fact that Calhoun is one of the leading disciples of Jack Welch, the longtime General Electric chief who defined the greed-is-good philosophy of the 1980s and paved the way for the current crop of American business leaders with his relentless — and sadly trendsetting — turn to financialization and downsizing. So we look back to our conversation with journalist David Gelles, in which he digs deeply into Welch's legacy and the brokenness of the business media that cast Welch and his heirs as heroes rather than villains.
Welchism is the ideology that encompasses all of Jack Welch's skewed priorities. I identify several tactics he used to propagate this, like downsizing, deal-making, and financialization. But Welchism is the full-throated belief in shareholder primacy, mixed with an aggressive, materialistic, and domineering style of management that sidelines opinions that run counter to that ideology and thrives on self-promotion and the celebration of the CEO as a national hero.
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