As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, Jack Welch has built its market cap by over $500 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that ...
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As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, Jack Welch has built its market cap by over $500 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people (most notably his Irish mother) who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career. Starting at GE in 1960 as an engineer earning $10,500, Jack learned the need for "getting out of the pile" when his first raise was the same as everyone else's. He stayed out of the corporate bureaucracy while running a $2 billion collection of GE businesses--in a sweater and blue jeans--out of a Hilton in Pittsfield, Mass. After avoiding GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters for years, Jack was eventually summoned by then Chairman Reg Jones, who was planning his succession. There ensued one of the most painful parts of his career--Jack's dark-horse struggle, filled with political tension, to make it to the CEO's chair. A hug from Reg confirmed Jack was the new boss--and started the GE transformation. Welch walks us through the "Neutron Jack" years, when GE's employment fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to "fix, sell, or close" each business . . . and how he used the purchase of RCA to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. There were mistakes, too--and Jack confronts them openly. In "Too Full of Myself," he describes one of the biggest blunders: the purchase of Kidder Peabody, which ran counter to GE's culture. The riveting story of his last year--the elaborate process of selecting a successor and the attempt to buy Honeywell--is also told in compelling detail. This book is laced with refreshing interludes, such as "A Short Reflection on Golf," that capture Jack's competitiveness and the importance of friendship in his life. Jack: Straight from the Gut is both a business classic and a deeply personal journey filled with passion and a sheer lust for life.
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Seller's Description:
Good. Good condition. A copy that has been read but remains intact. May contain markings such as bookplates, stamps, limited notes and highlighting, or a few light stains.
I ordered this book on a recommendation for operations management. While it fulfilled my needs, it also gave an insight into American corporate culture and sociopaths that run it.
Jack seems like an alright guy, but sometimes comes across as unsympathetic to the needs of those working for him, and considerate only to the needs of shareholders.
exmasher
Oct 5, 2007
Bottom Line And Nothing But....
I picked up this book because I thought it would be good to know something about someone who has won high acclaim as a CEO. Normally I at least get warm, fuzzy feelings of admiration when reading of someone who has fought through adversity to make it to the winner's circle. One problem...this is a book about leadership and it's impossible to get on that subject without things like loyalty and integrity coming up. He has some good things to say, no doubt. But I would have a hard time following a boss who didn't have the self discipline to leave the room when he first realized he was in danger of cheating on his wife. So intead of savoring what he had to offer I found myself spitting out a lot of bones. Still worth a quick read, but don't expect too much.
Humpy
Mar 19, 2007
In this biography, Jack Welch talks about his family and how from a college grad and working all the way up to be the GE's chairman, how he dealt with office politics, and a little about hislove life, the deals he has made and the new management principles he helped founded that completely revolutinized GE as the world's biggest company by share market.
