It's comforting to know that even the mighty can make mistakes and admit them too.

After 19 years in one of the toughest jobs in industry - chief executive of GE - Jack Welch this week admitted that the US conglomerate and other large companies had allowed upstart new companies to lead the Internet revolution.

"We thought the creation and operation of websites was mysterious, Nobel Prize stuff, the province of the wild-eyed and purple-haired," he told shareholders at GE's annual meeting in Richmond, Virginia.

He now accepts that any company, old or new, that does not see this technology as literally as important as breathing could be on its last breath.

However, the straight-talking boss of one of the US big-three wasn't abandoning the principles that have stood to him over the years. Dismissing the distinction between old economy and new economy, he said they were just trendy buzzwords.

"There is now and will be in the future only one global economy. Commerce hasn't changed," said Mr Welch.