The Adris Business Forum is attended by some 1,000 business people from Croatia and the region and some 200 top students from economy faculties and business schools across Croatia.
The central event of the Adris Business Forum will be a talk delivered by Jack Welch, a highly regarded figure in business circles.
Jack Welch, born in 1935, was chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001. He gained a solid reputation for uncanny business acumen and unique leadership strategies at GE. During his tenure, the company increased its market capitalisation by over $400 billion. He remains a highly-regarded figure in business circles due to his innovative management strategies and leadership style.
His net-worth is estimated at $720 million.
Welch joined GE in 1960. He worked as a junior engineer in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, making $10,500 a year. Welch was displeased with the $1,000 raise he was offered after his first year, as well as the strict bureaucracy within GE. He planned to leave the company, however, Rueben Gutoff, a young executive two levels higher than Welch, recognised that Welch was too valuable resource for the company to lose so he convinced him to stay. Welch was named vice president of GE in 1972. He moved up the ranks to become senior vice president in 1977 and vice chairman in 1979. Welch became GE's youngest chairman and CEO in 1981. By 1982, he had disassembled much of the earlier management put together by the previous chairman.
Welch's philosophy was that a company should be either number one or at least number two in a particular industry, or else leave it completely. Although he was initially treated with contempt by those under him for his policies, they eventually grew to respect him.
Welch's strategy was later adopted by other CEOs across corporate America.
Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
During the early 1980s he was dubbed "Neutron Jack" (in reference to the neutron bomb) for eliminating employees while leaving buildings intact. When Jack Welch left GE, the company had gone from a market value of $14 billion to one of more than $410 billion at the end of 2004, making it the most valuable and largest company in the world.
At the time of his retirement, Welch received a salary of $4 million a year, followed by his record retirement plan of $8 million a year. In 1999 he was named "Manager of the Century" by Fortune magazine.
His personal life is nearly as interesting as his business life. Welch underwent triple bypass surgery in May 1995 and returned to work full time in September of the same year and also adopted an exercise schedule that included golf. He has also been married three times.
Given that Welch's business philosophy can bring interesting and unexpected messages, the Croatian business elite that will attend his presentation scheduled for this afternoon would most probably accept Welch's predator instincts and recipes for brutal expenses cuts, including the employees lay off.