Jack Welch

 

     Throughout my 41 years at GE, I’ve had many ups and downs. In the media, I’ve gone from prince to pig and back again. And I’ve been called many things.

     In the early days, when I worked at our ¹⁾fledging plastics group, some called me a crazy, wild man. When I became CEO two decades ago, Wall Street asked, “Jack¹ who?”

     When I tried to make GE more competitive by ²⁾cutting back our ³⁾workforce² in the early 1980s, the media ⁴⁾dubbed me “Neutron⁴ Jack.” When they learned we were focused on values and culture at GE, people asked if “Jack has gone soft.” I’ve been No. 1 or No. 2 Jack, Services Jack, Global Jack, and, in more recent years, Six Sigma Jack and e-Business Jack.

     When we made an effort to acquire Honeywell in October 2000, and I agreed to stay on through the transition, some thought of me as the Long-in-the-Tooth Jack hanging on by his ⁵⁾fingertips to his CEO job.

     Those ⁶⁾characterizations said less about me and a lot more about the phase our company went through. Truth is, down deep, I’ve never really changed much from the boy my mother raised in Salem, Massachusetts.

     When I started on this journey in 1981, standing⁵ before Wall Street analysts⁶ for the first time at New York’s Pierre Hotel, I said I wanted GE to become “the most competitive enterprise on earth.” My ⁷⁾objective was to put a small-company spirit in a big-company body, to build an organization out of an old-line industrial company that would be more high-spirited, more ⁸⁾adaptable⁷, and more ⁹⁾agile⁸ than companies that are one-fiftieth our size. I said then that I wanted to create a company “where people dare to try new things - where people feel assured in knowing that only the limits of their creativity and drive, their own standards of personal ¹⁰⁾excellence⁹, will be the ceiling on how far and how fast they move.”

I’ve put my mind, my heart, and my gut¹⁰ into that journey every day of the 40-plus years I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of GE.CE

 

18、杰克·韦尔奇

    全不球第一CEO

 

纵观我在通用电气的41年，我经历了许多起伏沉浮。按照媒体的说法，就是从王子到猪猡，然后再反过来的过程。我曾得到过多种称呼。

早先，当我还在初成立的塑料集团工作的时候，就有人说我是一个疯狂野蛮的人。而我20年前当上CEO时，华尔街有人问道：“是哪个杰克？”

二十世纪八十年代初期，当我试图通过裁员使通用电气更具竞争力的时候，媒体授予我“中子弹杰克”的称号。而当他们随后发现我们主要关注的是通用电气的价值和文化时，他们又说，是不是“杰克软下来了”。我曾经是“数一数二的杰克”、“服务的杰克”、“全球化的杰克”，近年来，又变成了“六西格玛杰克”和“电子商务杰克”。

2000年10月的时候，我们几经努力收购了霍尼韦尔，而我又同意留下来完成这次过渡，于是乎有些人把我看成死皮赖脸占着CEO职位不撒手的“老不死杰克”。

我说这些不是为了表现自己，而是想借此描述我们公司这些年来经历过的一些阶段。事实上，我——一个在马萨诸塞州的塞勒姆由母亲带大的小男孩——本质上从来没有过太大的改变。

1981年起步的时候，我站在纽约的彼埃尔大酒店里接受华尔街专栏分析家的采访。当时我说过，我希望通用电气能够成为“世界上最富竞争力的企业”。我的目标是将一种小公司所拥有的精神注入到通用电气这样的大公司中去，建立起一个摆脱传统企业保守思维的组织，从而使之比只有我们五分之一大的公司更有活力、更灵活、适应性更强。同时我还说，我理想中的公司能够做到“每一位员工都勇于尝试一切新鲜事物——即每一位员工都可以确信，除了他们自身的创造力和主动性以及个人价值标准的限制外，没有任何阻力能够妨碍他们奋斗前进或前进的速度”。

我是如此有幸成为通用电气的一份子，并将我的头脑、我的热情、我的勇气投入到了这40多年生命历程中的每一天。CE

 

1) fledging [5fledVliN] a. 羽毛初长的（雏鸟），刚建的（公司）

2) cut back 削减，缩减

3) workforce [5wE:kfC:s] n. 工作人员

4) dub³ [dQb] v. 授予称号

5) fingertip [5fiNgEtip] n. 指尖

6) characterization [kAniktErai5zeiFEn] n. 描述

7) objective [Eb5dVektiv] n. 目标，目的

8) adaptable [E5dAptEbEl] a. 能适应的，可修改的

9) agile [5AdVail] a. 敏捷的，灵活的

10) excellence [5eksEns] n. 优秀，美德

 

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。

3 dub   

vt.（以某种称号）授予，给...起绰号，复制

参考例句：

• I intend to use simultaneous recording to dub this film.我打算采用同期录音的方法为这部影片配音。
• It was dubbed into Spanish for Mexican audiences.它被译制成西班牙语以方便墨西哥观众观看。

4 neutron   

n.中子

参考例句：

• Neutron is neutral and slightly heavier than the proton.中子是中性的，比质子略重。
• Based on the neutron energy,the value of weighting factor was given.根据中子能量给出了相应的辐射权重因子的数值。

5 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

6 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

7 adaptable   

adj.能适应的，适应性强的，可改编的

参考例句：

• He is an adaptable man and will soon learn the new work.他是个适应性很强的人，很快就将学会这种工作。
• The soil is adaptable to the growth of peanuts.这土壤适宜于花生的生长。

8 agile   

adj.敏捷的，灵活的

参考例句：

• She is such an agile dancer!她跳起舞来是那么灵巧！
• An acrobat has to be agile.杂技演员必须身手敏捷。

9 excellence   

n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德

参考例句：

• His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
• My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。

10 gut   

n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏

参考例句：

• It is not always necessary to gut the fish prior to freezing.冷冻鱼之前并不总是需要先把内脏掏空。
• My immediate gut feeling was to refuse.我本能的直接反应是拒绝。