Jack: Straight from the Gut

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Summary: I paid money for this?
Review: Words can't express how much Jack Welch loves himself. That doesn't stop him from trying to on each and every page of this trip down ego lane. If you want to hear about all of his globe trotting vacations with friends and associates, or how he took up golf and won a club championship, or better yet all of the CEO jobs his underlings got because of his masterful tuteledge, this book is for you!! If none of this interests you - don't waste your time.

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Summary: You won't want to put this book down......
Review: While at my son-in-laws home over christmas,I picked up Jack-Straight from the Gut, and started reading--I could not put it down. I think anyone who is in Corporate America, or who has an entreperneural bent will enjoy the book. It reads fast, is sort of a tutorial on how to survive in the Corporate world and is a very interesting comment on how good companies get that way, and how they get better. When I went back for another visit recently, my son-in-law presented me with my own copy of this very interesting book.

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Summary: PPO
Review: Early in the book, Jack mentions his first real job was to develop polyphenylene oxide (PPO). I think he dropped this subject after he blew up the prototype factory and was handed a plum, easy, lucky assignment, fast growing Lexan... from which he zoomed. Whatever happened to PPO?

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Summary: Wonderfully accessible & insightfully informative
Review: In Jack: Straight From The Gut, Jack Welch (the recently retired chairman and chief executive of General Electric) tells his personal and professional story with the able assistance of Business Week journalist John Byrne. It was under his leadership that General Electric quite literally reinvented itself throught the integration of new and innovative business practices pretty much across the board. Welch vividly recounts his career with an emphsis on the his management style that materially and directly served to establish GE one of the most successful American corporations of the 20th century. This informative autobiography begins with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, then goes on to recount his first job in GE's plastics division, and then his remarkable rise up the GE corporate ladder which culminated in 1981. A very substantial, 496 page read, Jack: Straight From The Gut is wonderfully accessible, insightfully informative, and strongly recommended for business students, corporate managers, and the non-specialist general reader. Jack: Straight From The Gut also available in paperback, as well as an abridged audiobook, and as a down-loadable ebook.

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Summary: Local Boy Makes Good
Review: This is an autobiography, but it is also the story of success and "the American dream". Along the way, you can learn much about how to run a business efficiently from one who has done a massive amount of hard background work. I recommend this book. And, speaking of learning from one who has done a massive amount of hard background work, I also recommend "West Point" by Norman Thomas Remick for a veritable education on what Jack Welch said are the most important reasons why a local boy made good --- integrity, character, and leadership.

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Summary: Egomaniacal ranting!
Review: As someone who has served as chairman of a publicly-traded company, I had a considerable amount of respect for Jack Welch before I read this book.

Upon reading it and learning something of his personality, I discovered that he seems like a profoundly insecure, self-absorbed little man. Talk about a vaccuous personality! Of course I can appreciate his professional accomplishments at GE, but I can also respect those of IBM's Louis Gerstner, who doesn't need to wallow in hundreds of pages of self-congratulatory drivel. Alternatively, give me founder/innovators like a Bill Gates or a Steve Case, who, incidentally, avoid the limelight unless it's thrust upon them to further their aspirations. To me, this book represents the embarrassingly pathetic ramblings of a soft-handed cookie-cutter corporate executive for whom a game of golf is about as creative as it gets. Simply put, "Jack" is a rather uninteresting book about a notably uninteresting person.

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Summary: Takes two to tango
Review: Take the book for what it is -- a personal account from the Jack Welch perspective backwards in time on his life at GE -- and no more, no less.

You won't get heavy-handed business philosophies. You won't get any magic formula to success. You won't get juicy details on his private life either.

What you will get is what makes Jack tick, and an account of a life-long journey of a person who changed the world along with the sweat, the tears, the blood and, always, the joy of it all.

What makes Jack tick are two principles instilled in him by his mother: 1. face the world as it is, i.e. reality-check. 2. be confident. They serve as the unifying thread in his life and this book.

It takes two to tango, and this book is a one-sided account of "life according to Jack." I would recommend reading "Control your destiny or someone else will" along with it to get a balanced view on Mr. Welch's life at GE.

Only then will you truly respect Mr. Welch for sticking with his two principles throughout his life. Only then will you understand why these two principles are so vital to his success at GE. Only then will you fully appreciate his accomplishments.

Because for every Jack Welch succeeding, hundreds of thousands perish trying. For every journey you embark on, life pulls you in a thousand directions. It might even dawn on you that reality is what you make it to be, even if only partly.

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Summary: A Classic for Your Collection Library
Review: With 462 pages, I read thirteen pages a day and completed the book in a month. What can I say? The man is a legend, transforming General Electric from a great American company into a great global power. I was highlighting a lot of Jack's thoughts, concepts, and feelings; such sharings as the objective to have only the number one or number two businesses, to retain only the very best employees to get the company moving toward that objective, and to have a global perspective. Jack's mom instilled in him some of the same encouragement he imparts to employees to get them to face reality and move outside the stranglehold of bureacracy, "If you don't study," she often warned, "you'll be nothing, Absolutely nothing. There are no shortcuts. Don't kid yourself!" Jack also had his humbling experiences; such as, the time a Kidder peabody trader had created a three hundred million dollar crisis deficit in the financial records.

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Summary: One big Acknowledgement list
Review: I believe the other reviewers have done a great job in summarizing this book, so I won't reinvent the wheel. Instead, I'd like to focus on my impressions of the book.

* It felt like a long Acknowledgement list. In it, Jack must have mentioned over 50 names who have in any way, shape or form have had contact with Jack. He naturally puts all these names in the context of a story. Perhaps this was his intention. After all, "Straight from the Gut" could've been what he felt when he wrote a list entitled "My Heartfelt Thanks To". But after a few chapters and dozens of names later, I was completely confused about the timeline and relevance of these names.

* It most definitely is NOT a business book! If it were meant to be a business book, I believe the reader will be sorely disappointed. In this book, he spends a short chapter in the end recapping some of the principles he's stood by as chairman of GE that have made him successful. I felt it was "too little and too late in the book" to have made any impact on the reader as a business book.

* It's not exactly a groundbreaking autobiography either. Although I wish he had kept his tone in the first few chapters (while describing his childhood) for the rest of the book. Those first few chapters were precious. In it, Jack described how vulnerable he felt as a child. What his family situation was like. His motivations. His sources of inspiration. After he started work for GE was when the book started a downhill descent and never recovered.

* After reading the book, did I think Jack Welch was "King of the World" and "Mr. Perfect"? No, he made mistakes along the way (professional as well as personal). Did I learn anything from him? Maybe (to surround myself with competent people). Could this book have been better? Yes (I wish he talked straight from the gut).

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Summary: A SINCERE AUTOBIOGRAPHY THAT HOLDS INTEREST
Review: The information learned in this book should apply to all, but putting it into practice is something else. It seems all the top people in G.E. are all MBA's and are talented far above the madding crowd.

You feel the effect of smallness in about the largest corporation in the world. The way Welch describes the various parts of General Electric, each unit is a "small" business by itself [ of course they are NOT small, but seem that way in the description of development]and growth by the executives are described in detail as to how accomplished and where the CEO fits in to the G.E. picture.

I was out of my league as to abilities in business and education, but learned a lot of the details of big business. I listened to the unabridged tapes for this book rather than reading it, and would recommend this to anyone interested in business and learning of anothers' accomplishments in life!