Chapter 4, Flying Below the Radar Summary and Analysis

Jack has a great career and family as he enters a transition phase. It begins with the passing of his mother and then his father shortly thereafter. He also moves from being "Dr. Welch," the engineer, to "Mr. Welch," the businessman. Jack becomes less humble and more of a braggart, feels he inherited gold when he got the entire plastics operations, and, as he says, "... was so completely full of myself." His only redemption is that he remains insulated from the GE bureaucracy and flies far enough under the radar to still operate as he chooses to do.

Plastics grows fast in the 1970s. Jack adds marketing people and hires celebrities for TV ads and radio spots in prime time. Billboards advertise Dr. Fox's miracle plastic, Lexan, which is intended to be used...