People Scan - a look at executive movements
By Ananth Koovappady | 11 Sep 2001
No two persons have been the centre of attention globally and more closely watched than John Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt. On Friday, 7 September, Jack Welch, the worlds most famous corporate manager, formally stepped down from the helm of the most valuable company in the world, General Electric. He was laying down office after a scintillating innings that spanned twenty years and five months, an innings during which he raised the market capitalisation of GE from a mere $14 billion when he took over to over $400 billion when he leaves.
His successor Jeff Immelt is a long-time GE veteran, who was chosen after one of the most detailed and deliberate succession planning exercises mounted in corporate America. This exercise, personally supervised by Mr. Welch, was spread over two years and evaluated three leading internal candidates, before finally settling on Mr. Immelt.
The real challenge before the young new CEO will be to maintain the fantastic pace of earnings growth of a conglomerate that has $130 billion in revenue, 340,000 employees and over three dozen businesses.
Another succession planning issue seems to have been resolved in Germany. Volkswagen, the German automobile giant, is understood to have found a successor to its long serving chairman, Ferdinand Piech, when he retires next year, thus ending months of speculation over the top job at VW.
Bernd Pischetsrieder, the former BMW chairman, will succeed Mr. Piech as chairman of the management board at Europe''s largest carmaker. He joined VW after resigning from BMW following a boardroom battle over its ill-fated ownership of the Rover Group,
Since joining VW, Mr. Pischetsrieder, has been managing the group''s Seat brand and overseeing product quality. Analysts believe that if Mr. Pischetsrieder gets the job he would concentrate on building brands.
