- Jack Welch was CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001. General Electric had been a conglomerate since the 1960's. Jack Welch and his executive team at the corporate office would insist that their divisions (such as jet engines division, power generation division, medical equipment division, and others) must be the No. 1 or No. 2 in their industries or else they would be sold off. Also, Jack Welch and his executive team would insist that the divisions must attain a return on investment of 18% per annum or else .... To what specific topic in Chapter 8 of your textbook would these matters relate? A brief explanation would be in order