「全球第一CEO」杰克·韦尔奇去世

被誉为“最受尊敬的CEO”，“全球第一CEO”，通用电气（GE）董事长兼CEO，杰克·韦尔奇（Jack Welch）于2020年3月2日逝世，享年84岁。

Jack Welch: Legendary General Electric boss dies at 84

BBC

Jack Welch, a titan of American business who transformed General Electric (GE) into America's most valuable company, has died aged 84.

He ran the US conglomerate from 1981 until 2001, and was once named "manager of the century" for his achievements.

巨头，大亨

· mogul 表示“（尤指新闻、影视界的）大人物；大亨”，英文解释为“A mogul is an important, rich, and powerful businessman, especially one in the news, film, or television industry.”如：an international media mogul一位国际传媒大亨。

· magnate /ˈmæɡneɪt, -nɪt/ 表示“大亨，巨头”，英文解释为“a rich and powerful person in industry or business”。

· tycoon /taɪˈkuːn/ 表示“巨头，大亨（工商界）”，英文解释为“someone who is successful in business or industry and has a lot of money and power”如：property tycoon 房地产大亨。

· conglomerate /kənˈglɒmərɪt/ 表示“联合大公司；企业集团”，英文解释为“A conglomerate is a large business firm consisting of several different companies.”如：the world's second-largest media conglomerate 世界第二大传媒集团。

· giant 来表示“巨头，大公司”，英文解释为“Giant is often used to refer to any large, successful business organization or country.”如：Japanese electronics giant, Sony 日本的电子业巨头——索尼公司。

· behemoth /ˈbiːhɪmɒθ/ 表示“巨头（指规模庞大、实力雄厚的公司或机构）”，英文解释为“a very big and powerful company or organization”。

· titan表示“巨人；巨头”，英文解释为“If you describe someone as a titan of a particular field, you mean that they are very important and powerful or successful in that field.”

Nicknamed "Neutron Jack" for his cost-cutting, he became a best selling author and confidante of US presidents.

confidante

尤指女性，表示“红颜知己”，英文解释为“Your confidante is a woman you can discuss your private problems with.”举个🌰：

You are her closest friend and confidante. 

你是她最亲密的朋友和红颜知己。

男性：confidant /ˌkɒnfɪˈdænt/，英文解释：Your confidant is a person you can discuss your private problems or feelings with. 知己，心腹。

此处BBC不知道为啥用的是confidante.

President Donald Trump Tweeted that Mr Welch was a business legend and friend.

Born in 1935 to Irish-Catholic parents in Massachusetts, Mr Welch spent his entire career at GE, which he joined as a chemical engineer in its plastics division at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

division

表示“（机构的）部门”，英文解释为“a large and important unit or section of an organization”，如：the company's sales division公司销售部。

Made the company's youngest vice-president in 1972, he became vice-chairman in 1979. By the end of 1980, it was announced that he was to become chairman and CEO of the firm, a position he held for 20 years before retiring in 2001.

While at the helm in the 1980s and 1990s, he bought and sold scores of businesses, expanding GE into financial services and consulting.

at the helm

表示“（政府或组织的）领导位置；掌管，负责”，英文解释为“You can say that someone is at the helm when they are leading or running a country or organization.”举个🌰：

After more than a decade at the helm of the university, he today announced his retirement. 

在掌管大学10多年后，他于今天宣布退休。

score

1）表示“大量”，英文解释为“If you refer to scores of things or people, you are emphasizing that there are very many of them.”举个🌰：

Campaigners lit scores of bonfires in ceremonies to mark the anniversary.

参加活动的人们在仪式上点起了许多堆篝火，以庆祝这一周年纪念日。

2）表示“乐谱”，英文解释为“The score of a piece of music is the written version of it.”举个🌰：

He recognizes enough notation to be able to follow a score.

他认识足够多的音乐符号，能看懂乐谱。

3）表示“（电影、戏剧等演出的）配乐”，英文解释为“The score of a movie, play, or similar production is the music which is written or used for it.”举个🌰：

The dance is accompanied by an original score. 

舞蹈由一支原创配乐作搭配。

He was also known for his focus on straight-talk, efficiency and streamlined bureaucracy. He would regularly cull the lowest-performing 10% of staff each year. "The underperformers generally had to go," he wrote in one of his books.

cull

1）原义表示“宰杀（病弱动物以减少其数目）”，英文解释为“To cull animals means to kill the weaker animals in a group in order to reduce their numbers.”举个🌰：

To save remaining herds and habitat, the national parks department is planning to cull 2000 elephants.

为挽救余下的兽群及其栖息地，国家公园管理部门正计划杀掉2000头大象。

2）表示“采集”，英文解释为“If items or ideas are culled from a particular source or number of sources, they are taken and gathered together.”举个🌰：All this, needless to say, had been culled second-hand from radio reports.

不必说，这一切都是从无线电广播报道中搜集来的第二手信息。

'Sad day'

"In grade school you're graded, in college you make the team or you don't, you graduate or you don't. People are graded all along why at age 22 when you quit school should you stop being evaluated, it's nonsense," he told the BBC in 2001.

grade school

表示“（美国的）小学”，英文解释为“In the United States, a grade school is the same as an.”举个🌰：

I was just in grade school at the time, but I remember it perfectly. 

我当时刚上小学，但我记得很清楚。

This ruthless approach was credited with helping to grow GE's market value from $12bn to $410bn (£321bn).

ruthless

ruthless /ˈruːθlɪs/ 表示“残酷无情的；残忍的”，英文解释为“(of people or their behaviour) hard and cruel; determined to get what you want and not caring if you hurt other people”举个🌰：

The way she behaved towards him was utterly ruthless.

她对待他真是无情至极。  

credit

表示“认为是…的功劳；把…归于”，英文解释为“to believe or say that sb is responsible for doing sth, especially sth good”，用法：~ A with B/~ B to A，举个🌰：

The company is credited with inventing the industrial robot.

发明工业机器人是那家公司的功劳。

The invention of the industrial robot is credited to the company.

工业机器人的发明应归功于那家公司。  

In 1999, Fortune magazine named him the "Manager of the Century", crediting him with keeping GE nimble and showing the way to a generation of business leaders facing the shift to a more globalised, less manufacturing-based economy.

nimble /ˈnɪmbəl/

1）表示“敏捷灵巧的”，英文解释为“Someone who is nimble is able to move their fingers, hands, or legs quickly and easily.”举个🌰：

Everything had been stitched by his nimble fingers.

样样都是他敏捷灵巧的手缝制成的。

2）表示“机智的”，英文解释为“If you say that someone has a nimble mind, you mean they are clever and can think very quickly.”举个🌰：

A nimble mind backed by a degree in economics gave him a firm grasp of financial matters.

一个机智头脑加上一个经济学学位使他对金融问题能准确把握。

"Today is a sad day for the entire GE family," GE's current chief, H. Lawrence Culp Jr., 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."

Data claims

A guru to thousands of management hopefuls, his books "Winning" and "Jack: Straight from the Gut" were bestsellers during his retirement.

guru /ˈɡʊruː/

1）表示“专家”，英文解释为“A guru is a person who some people regard as an expert or leader.”举个🌰：

Fashion gurus dictate crazy ideas such as squeezing oversized bodies into tight trousers. 

时装大师们常表达离奇的想法，例如把肥硕的身子塞进紧身裤中。

2）表示“（尤指印度教的）精神领袖”，英文解释为“A guru is a religious and spiritual leader and teacher, especially in Hinduism.”

More recently, a turn for the worse in GE's fortunes has also prompted a second look at Mr Welch's business accomplishments.

prompt

表示“促使；导致；激起”，英文解释为“To prompt someone to do something means to make them decide to do it.”举个🌰：

His speech prompted an angry outburst from a man in the crowd.

他的讲话激起了人群中一男子的愤怒。

During the 2008 global financial crisis, losses at the firm's financial services arm delivered a blow to the firm, which subsequently scaled back its operations, selling off many of its less-profitable businesses.

arm

表示“分部；职能部门”，英文解释为“a section of a large organization that deals with one particular activity”，如：the research arm of the company 公司的科研部门。

scale back

表示“减少（数量）；缩小（规模或范围）”，英文解释为“to reduce the number, size or extent of sth”举个🌰：

We are thinking of scaling back our training programmes next year.

我们考虑在明年缩小培训计划。 

Mr Welch's generous retirement package also drew controversy as an example of excessive executive compensation after details of it aired during his divorce from his second wife.

air

1）表示“公开发表”，英文解释为“to express your opinions publicly”举个🌰：The meeting enables employees to air their grievances.

会议可以让雇员诉说他们的委屈。

2）表示“播出；播送”，英文解释为“to broadcast a programme on the radio or on television; to be broadcast”举个🌰：

The show will be aired next Sunday night.

这个节目将在下周日夜间播出。

In his retirement, Mr Welch founded a business degree programme, wrote columns with his third wife, Suzy, and spoke frequently, preserving his reputation for delivering unvarnished opinions.

unvarnished

1）表示“不加掩饰的；质朴的；坦率的”，英文解释为“with nothing added”举个🌰：

It was the plain unvarnished truth.

这是简单确凿的事实。

2）表示“未加涂层的；未涂清漆的”，英文解释为“(of wood, etc.) not covered with varnish”。

In 2012, he suggested in a Tweet that the government under Barack Obama was fudging economic data - a claim, he later acknowledged as "somewhat incendiary".

fudge /fʌdʒ/

表示“模糊处理”，英文解释为“If you fudge something, you avoid making a clear and definite decision, distinction, or statement about it.”举个🌰：

Both have fudged their calculations and avoided specifics. 

双方都模糊处理了其计算结果并回避了细节。

incendiary

表示“煽动性的”，英文解释为“causing strong feelings or violence”，如：incendiary remarks 煽动性言论。

His advice to women in the workplace, in which he emphasised performance and warned that making choices to put family first would have a career cost, was also criticised as out of date.

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