Why Al Gore didn't have a ghost of a chance to succeed Jack Welch as GE's CEO....
Monday November 27, 4:46 pm Eastern Time
GE Names Immelt to Succeed Jack Welch
FAIRFIELD, Conn. (Reuters) - General Electric Co. on Monday named Jeffrey Immelt, the 44-year-old head of its high-flying Medical Systems division, to succeed John ``Jack'' Welch, the management legend who has run GE for two decades, when Welch steps down at the end of next year.
Immelt, long considered by Wall Street to be the front-runner to replace Welch, was named president and chairman-elect of the Fairfield, Conn.-based industrial, financial services and broadcasting giant, effective immediately.
Immelt will become chairman and chief executive officer when Welch retires in late 2001, becoming only the ninth person to hold those titles in GE's 108-year history.
Immelt has been with GE for 18 years -- all his working life -- and most recently served as president and chief executive of GE Medical Systems, a $7 billion GE unit that develops medical diagnostic and information systems and is among the
conglomerate's most profitable operations.
GE, the world's biggest company in terms of market capitalization, is widely considered one of the world's best-run big companies. Analysts say that is largely thanks to chairman and chief executive Welch, the feisty Massachusetts native who transformed GE from an old-style manufacturer with a valuation of $13 billion when he took the helm in 1981, to an Internet-savvy services giant valued at about $500 billion today.
The selection of Immelt ends months of speculation about who would succeed Welch, who was named ``Manager of the Century'' by Fortune magazine last year.
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biz.yahoo.com
So, my point comes to this: suppose Al Gore and his bogeymate Lieberman were co-Chief Financial Officers of a global behemoth like GE Corp. It's the end of fiscal year 2000 and, in order to compile the consolidated balance sheet and the annual report of the company, our two fussy CFOs start sifting through all the financial red-tape and commercial data supplied to their corporate HQ by hundreds of GE subsidiaries scattered across the globe.... And guess what: THERE ARE ACCOUNTING DISCREPANCIES!!! One GE subsidiary located in Papua New Guinea shows a $100 mismatch in the BOTTOM LINE!! Do you REALIZE?? A $100 glitch that will trickle up to GE's global bottom line of $1,000,000,000,000+!! That's unacceptable! As co-CFO Al Gore would put it, A buck is a buck! We have to chase down those dishonest Papuan book-keepers who've swindled GE out of ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS. Let's bring in our corporate lawyers! An audited statement of accounts is required! Such a serious miscalculation shall not be passed over.... If necessary, the SEC shall be involved and co-CFO Lieberjam is already filing a "Chapter 11" procedure.
Get the picture? The fallacy in the Democrats' indignation is to pretend that there never were ballot-rigging and skulduggeries in US presidential elections so far... However, all of a sudden, in the 2000 presidential ballot, evil Republicans have broken the rules! While the sad truth is, US presidential polls used to be a foul play since day one.... As exposed in the Kennedy/Nixon race in 1960 --at that time, however, Nixon refrained from challenging JFK's victory (for the sake of the US's foreign duties, btw).
Gus. |
