Just a quick note - I was a newly minted management trainee back in 1982 with the incredible fortune to have a connection to someone on the Board of Directors of General Electric...so, I got a job and got to meet the Man a couple of times. But the Board member had one piece of advice for me - that I should only stay at GE a few years to learn business skills because, as I was of mixed race, I had no chance of advancing in the company. After several examples of out-and-out racism, I did move on.
It would seem that Mr. Welch's ability to judge a situation is still weighted down by his pre-occupation with a person's skin color.