251General Electric (GE)
turnaround of GE’s dying medical diagnostics business. He fought the internal battles necessary to
invest in CAT-scan technology and established GE as world leader in medical imaging. Still later,
as vice chairman, he began transforming GE capital from a nancier of refrigerators and turbines
into nancial services powerhouse. Today, it is the nation’s 14th largest lending institution. In short,
Welch stood almost alone in his ability to grow business despite GE’s controls. And Welch had done
it three times.
Welch rst focused on reversing the trend of declining earnings; he felt it essential to earn cred-
ibility in this domain in order to have latitude to maneuver later. GE was not under any perceived
crisis; the on ...