Jack Welch, who upended the business world in the 1980s and 1990s by transforming General Electric Co. from a stolid maker of light bulbs and washing machines into the most valuable US public company, has died at 84, GE said.
通用电气公司：杰克韦尔奇颠覆了商业界。在上世界八九十年代，他把一个灯泡和洗衣机制造商转变成为美国最具价值的上市公司。而在他84岁时，他的传奇停止了。
Known as “Neutron Jack” for cutting thousands of jobs, Welch bought and sold scores of businesses, expanded the industrial giant into financial services and produced steadily rising profits. His success led other CEOs to begin using financial wizardry to improve earnings and wow Wall Street.
因裁员数千人而为人所知的“中子弹杰克”，他通过买卖数十家企业，把工业界的巨人拓展到金融服务并且持续盈利。他的成功，启发其他的企业领导人也开始使用金融的魔法提高收入，是华尔街都为之震惊。
In Welch’s 20 years as chief executive, GE’s market value grew from US410 billion, making him one of the most iconic corporate leaders of his era.
在韦尔奇20年首席执行官生涯，通用电气的市场价值从120亿美元增长到4100亿美元，这使得他成为他那个时代的标志性的企业领军人物。
“When the book about business leaders in this century is written, Jack Welch will be near the very top,” said Thomas Cooke, professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. “What he did as the leader of GE was remarkable.”
“当在写关于本世纪的商业领军人物时，杰克韦尔奇将是站在顶端的人，“乔治大学麦克唐纳商业学院的教授汤姆斯·库克说，”他作为通用电气的领导人，他的事迹是卓越非凡的。“
US President Donald Trump tweeted: “There was no corporate leader like “neutron” Jack,” adding his warmest sympathies “to his wonderful wife & family!”
美国总统特朗姆发了推特表示世界上不再有第二个像“中子弹”杰克这样的企业领导人，他还像杰克的完美妻子和家庭表示了最温暖的同情。
But Welch’s innovations, which included ruthless personnel management, cost-cutting and offshoring, also set the stage for problems that would hit the company years after he left.
韦尔奇的创新之处，包括无情的人事管理，成本削减和离岸外包，也为在他离开之后为公司能避免不少麻烦。
John F. Welch, Jr., followed Reginald Jones as CEO in April 1981 and served in that role until he retired in September 2001, choosing Jeff Immelt as his successor.
小约翰韦尔奇跟随Reginald Jones在1981年4月出任CEO，并于2001年9月退休，选择Jeff Immelt作为他的继任者。
Two of Welch’s other top disciples – and Immelt rivals – left GE to head other major companies, helping spread Welch’s gospel: Jim McNerney at Boeing Co. and Bob Nardelli at Chrysler and Home Depot Inc.
两位韦尔奇的顶级门徒——Immelt的竞争者——离开通用电气去了其他大公司，开始传播韦尔奇的哲学：波音的Jim McNerney和在克莱斯勒和家得宝的Bob Nardelli。
“Today is a sad day for the entire GE family,” current GE chairman and CEO Larry Culp said in a statement. “Jack was larger than life and the heart of GE for half a century. He reshaped the face of our company and the business world.”
“今天对于通用电气这个大家庭来说是个悲伤的日期，“现任通用电气的董事长兼首席执行官Larry Culp在一份声明中说。“半个世纪以来，杰克比通用电气的声明和核心更重要，他重塑了我们公司的面貌和商业世界。”
The outsized financing business Welch built nearly toppled GE during the 2008 financial crisis, requiring a bailout from legendary investor Warren Buffett. Immelt sold most of GE Capital and GE now trades at a fraction of its peak value.
韦尔奇打造的庞大的金融在2008年几近破产，不得不向传奇投资家巴菲特求助。Immelt卖掉了大部分GE的股票，而现在GE交易的价格仅为其峰值时的一小部分。
The stock closed at US57.68 in August 2000, according to Eikon data from Refinitiv.
星期一股市以11.21美元收盘，上升了3个百分点。据Refinitiy的Eikon数据，它在2008年顶峰交易价格是57.68美元。
Welch acquired new businesses and did not hesitate to use layoffs and outsourcing to streamline them, sometimes leaving shattered, embittered communities behind.
韦尔奇收购了新的企业，并毫不犹豫地通过裁员和外包来精简这些企业，有时还会留下一些支离破碎、痛苦不堪的团体。
He faced criticism – particularly after he retired from GE – for his cavalier attitude about offshoring and shutting US plants, a theme that has grown more potent since Trump’s election.
尤其是在他从GE退休之后，他因对离岸外包和关闭美国工厂的傲慢态度而受到批判，自美国总统选举以来，这一主题影响力越来越大。
The US industrial belt is dotted with communities devastated by GE’s downsizing. At its peak, for instance, GE employed 30,000 at a sprawling integrated industrial plant in Schenectady, New York, that now employs fewer than 3,000.
随着GE规模的减小，美国产业带变得支离破碎。例如在GE发展巅峰的时候，他们在纽约的庞大综合工厂雇用了30,000人，而现在的工人不足3,000。
Both Welch’s style of management and the strategy he pursued to expand GE have since fallen from favor. CEOs who order mass layoffs now get attacked in tweets from the Oval Office, and Wall Street has lost its appetite for conglomerates.
自那以后，韦尔奇的管理风格和他所追求的扩张GE的战略都因此失宠。企业CEO们因大量裁员遭到白宫办公室在推特上的攻击，并且华尔街对企业集团也失去了胃口。
Welch also made GE a training ground for business leaders and advocated aggressively ousting poor performers. In a 2001 New Yorker interview, he said, “If they’re in the bottom 10, they get zero raises, zero stock options, they don’t get a bit of bonus, they get zero.”
韦尔奇也在GE创建了一个为企业领导人的训练基地，并积极提倡驱逐表现差的人。在2001年的纽约报采访中，他说，“如果他们在倒数后十名，他们不会得到任何加薪，没有任何股票期权，他们不会得到分红，什么也得不到。”
Thomas F. O’Boyle, author of the 1998 book, At Any Cost: Jack Welch, General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit, was an early critic of Welch’s tenure.
托马斯·O·鲍伊尔（Thomas F. O’Boyle）是1998年《不惜一切代价：杰克·韦尔奇，通用电气和追求利润》一书的作者，他是韦尔奇任期的早期批评者。
In an interview on Monday, O’Boyle said: “You have to look at the totality of what occurred based on the strategy Welch initiated: the de-emphasizing of manufacturing, offshoring as many jobs as possible, and emphasizing financial services in GE Capital for earnings growth.”
在一个周一的采访中，O'Boyle说：“你一定要根据韦尔奇所开创的战略来审视一切：通过削减生产制造业，尽可能的离岸外包，并强调GE股票的金融服务来实现经济增长。”
O’Boyle noted that 80 percent of the some 1,000 acquisitions under Welch were in financial services. “And that strategy had terrible, terrible consequences for General Electric in the long run.”
O'Boyle注意到，韦尔奇所收购的1000家企业中，有80%是在金融服务领域。“那样的战略对通用电气的长远发展有着非常可怕的影响。”
Diminished conglomerate 企业集团减少
In 1980, the year before Welch became CEO, GE recorded revenues of US130 billion. In 2001, GE was one of the largest and most valuable companies in the world, up from America’s tenth-largest by market cap in 1981.
在1980年，韦尔奇成为CEO之前，GE的收益记录是268亿美元；在2000年，他离开之前，收益达到了1300亿美元。在2001年，GE成为从1981年的市值排在美国第十位之后的公司一举成为世界上最大的和最具价值的公司之一。
Yet today, GE has sold most of the divisions Welch added, and many fault him for much of GE’s recent decline.
然而今天，通用电气已经卖掉了韦尔奇新增的大部分业务，许多人都为通用电气最近的下滑感到难过。
“He was lauded in business schools, and many CEOs considered him a role model, but few today would praise his tactics,” said Erik Gordon, assistant professor at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. “He left a bloated, hollow mess to his successors. GE went from being a titan of industry to a dismembered wreck.”
“他曾被商业学校的人赞美，许多CEO把他视作榜样，但是今天很少人会赞扬他的那些策略了，“密歇根大学罗斯商学院助理教授Erik Gordon说，“他走之后给他的接班人留下了臃肿的空洞的烂摊子。GE从一个行业巨人变成了残缺的沉船。”
The company spun off its insurance business into Genworth Financial Inc. in 2004, for example, but kept a large batch of money-losing policies written during Welch’s tenure. Those forced GE in 2018 to take a US15 billion in reserves.
该公司把他的保险业务剥离后成立了Genworth Financial公司。例如，在2004年，在韦尔奇任职期间保留了一大笔亏本政策。这些都迫使通用电气在2018年承担了62亿美元的费用，并拨出了150亿美元的储备金。
In 2015, activist investor Nelson Pelz’s Trian Partners bought a US$2.5 billion stake in GE and pushed for further focus on core industrial businesses, prompting Immelt to sell most of the remaining parts of GE Capital.
2015年，激进投资者纳尔逊·佩尔兹（Nelson Pelz）的Trian Partners购买了GE 25亿美元的股份，并推动进一步专注于核心工业业务，促使伊梅尔特出售了GE Capital其余大部分股份。
Engineer by training 培训出来的工程师
Born in 1935, Welch earned his B.S. degree in chemical engineering at the University of Massachusetts, and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering at the University of Illinois in 1960.
韦尔奇生于1935年，获得了理学学士学位。马萨诸塞大学化学工程学士学位及其硕士学位和博士学位1960年在伊利诺伊大学获得化学工程学位。
That same year, Welch joined GE as a chemical engineer at its plastics division in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He was elected the company’s youngest vice president in 1972 and became vice chairman in 1979.
同年，韦尔奇加入通用电气，在马萨诸塞州匹兹菲尔德的塑料部门担任化学工程师。1972年，他当选为公司最年轻的副总裁，并于1979年成为副董事长。
While his GE career is mostly seen as an upward trajectory, it included an early setback. In 1963, the Pittsfield plastics factory had an explosion that tore off the roof, and Welch was nearly fired. He later touted the experience as part of what created his management approach, noting that a manager at the time talked him through what he could have done better.
虽然外界普遍认为他在通用电气的职业生涯处于上升期，但也有早期的挫折。1963年，皮茨菲尔德塑料厂发生爆炸，屋顶被掀翻，韦尔奇差点被解雇。后来，他把这段经历吹嘘为自己管理方式的一部分，并指出当时的一位经理告诉他，他本可以做得更好。
Books by Welch include Winning, from 2005. He co-wrote a column with his wife Suzy Welch for Reuters and other media.
韦尔奇的著作包括2005年的《赢》。他与妻子Suzy Welch共同为路透社和其他媒体撰写了专栏。
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others,” Welch wrote in Winning. Reuters
最后一段：不想翻译了。。。原来这句话是他说的，这句话在科比身上也体现的淋漓尽致！
吴一清/译
