In one sense, Jeffrey Immelt ought to be a man at peace this weekend. A week ago he learnt what he would be doing for at least the next 10, possibly the next 20 years.
But although the new chairman-elect of General Electric says he "just couldn't be happier", Mr Immelt knows the job he will inherit from Jack Welch in January 2002 is no sinecure.
In footballing terms, it is more like promotion from offensive tackle - the protective position Mr Immelt played on the Dartmouth College football team in the 1970s - to quarterback. Suddenly, everybody wants to get you. Jake Crouthamel, who coached the varsity team, is one of thousands who have just polished up their memories of the likeable 6 foot 4 inch executive on learning of his elevation to one of the highest-profile positions in world business.
"He was industrious, attentive to detail, a leader, a hard worker," he recalled this week. "Jeff was a team guy. The team meant a lot to him."
The GE team is a large one. The addition of Honeywell, the industrial group for which GE launched a surprise $43 billion (€50 billion) bid a month ago, will increase its payroll by a third to more than 460,000. Employees are as eager as anyone to know how "the new guy" the nickname they gave to Mr Welch's successor before he was named - will shape up.
What are the skills that recommended Mr Immelt, the quintessential consensus-builder, as successor to the feisty and sometimes autocratic Mr Welch? At the New York coronation of Mr Immelt, in front of an audience of press and analysts, GE executives first identified the chairman-elect's ability to handle people as his most important quality.
"You can't run GE without almost an obsession with people," said Mr Dennis Dammerman, the company's vice-chairman and the man who hired Mr Immelt from Harvard Business School. "That's certainly one of the great things that he brings to the party."
By all accounts, Mr Immelt relishes meeting people. He said in an interview this week that his priority as chairman-elect would be to "take some time, even before the (Christmas) holidays, to go see big customers around GE".
Indeed, last week he went on from New York to Chicago to attend the Radiological Society of North America's scientific assembly and annual meeting. It was a chance to court 30,000 healthcare professionals - actual or potential clients of GE Medical Systems, the division Mr Immelt ran until his promotion.
Those who have dealt with Mr Immelt are impressed. Kathy Murray, chief operating officer of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, praises the way he has helped the Chicago hospital improve its working practices, including seconding expert managers to help reorganise the emergency room.
To the cynic, it sounds like a fancy way of selling more of GE's advanced imaging equipment. But Ms Murray says it feels as if "we are working together to make both organisations work better". Devotion to the customer pays off: Northwestern Memorial has put about $8 million of business GE's way in the past two years.
This is one reason why GE enthusiasts say the challenges facing the company - integration of Honeywell, a slowing economy, Mr Welch's delayed departure - have been overstated. They point out that the next two years for GE are about completing the digital revolution set in motion by Mr Welch last year and using e-business to squeeze additional market share from existing customers.
Nick Heymann of Prudential Securities, one of the most bullish GE analysts on Wall Street, says Mr Immelt will reap the benefits of the digitalisation of the conglomerate "whether the economy is growing or shrinking".
Analysts are divided about the implications of Mr Welch's decision last month to stay on nine months longer than originally expected because of the Honeywell deal. It means Mr Immelt will in effect share power for the next year as part of a four-person corporate executive office, including Mr Welch, Mr Dammerman and Bob Wright, who runs NBC, the GE-owned television network.
"There's plenty for us to do," Mr Welch said. But some still wonder whether the chief executive's delayed departure will frustrate the heir apparent. "It's still going to be a teacher-mentor relationship," says Robert Friedman, equities analyst at Standard & Poor's.
Mr Immelt, who will be 45 in January 2002, the same age as Mr Welch when he took the top job in 1981, does not seem the type of man to defer to his elders.
If GE is to realise the full benefits of the e-business initiative, he will have to prepare for some tough decisions about people. For example, it may fall to Mr Immelt to implement job cuts once the integration of Honeywell is under way.
Unions are certainly not preparing for an easy ride once Mr Welch departs.
"I'm not optimistic that GE in the person of Mr Immelt or anyone else is going to change for the better in terms of their attitude towards the unions," says Mr Ed Fire, chairman of the GE unions' co-ordinated bargaining committee.
Nick Heymann of Prudential Securities expects measured change at the top of GE but he is not forecasting any let-up in the aggressive approach Mr Welch has taken in managing the conglomerate.
"Jeff's a big guy; he's a friendly guy; he may have a sixgun in his holster but I've never seen him haul it out, let alone use it. Welch carries a big stick - and uses it," he says.
Mr Crouthamel, Mr Immelt's former football coach, recalls that as offensive tackle, Mr Immelt did not have "much opportunity to dictate". As America's top corporate athlete, he will have the biggest opportunity there is.
