Calhoun said he saw “early signs” of trouble at GE under Jeff’s stewardship. “I’ve stayed close enough to everybody to sort of watch it unravel,” he said. It didn’t happen overnight. “It took all of fifteen years to do it,” he said, adding that if anyone had raised his or her hand during the first eight years, “a lot of it was fixable.” But no one did, in part because Jeff didn’t like to hear dissent or bad news and praised loyalty, perhaps to a fault. Plus, as ever, it was very difficult to push back on a CEO—unless that CEO, like Jack, mostly encouraged and rewarded outspoken executives.
...more
