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Summary: Let Me Tell You Jack Straight
Review: I'll give it to you jack straight. This is one of my two all-time favorite books on character and leadership. And I think I have read everything put out over the last 30 years. You have to get this. Don't miss it. It's inspiring as heck. No lie. That's the Jack straight truth! (The other one, by the way, is Norman Thomas Remick's, "West Point". That one's educational as heck.)
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Summary: Thanks Mr. Welch for the Book.
Review: No doubt the MBA's of the hallowed halls of our business colleges will debate for many years to come..'was the total effect Mr. Welch had on GE equal to and/or greater then the influence of sum of the parts of GE on the world'?I am sure Mr. Welch can be taught but I am not so sure that his leadership style will be learned. The GE Jack Welch dug up Deming's and Drucker dusted them off and employed their volumes of principles into a few straight forward and quantifiable edicts that drove GE to become the greatest American company in the world. I enjoyed the frankness and truthfulness in this book.
I was initially appalled in the 1980's at the ease with in which Mr. Welch shed tens and thousands of jobs and traditional GE branded manufacturing divisions. And had a policy of firing the the bottom ten percent performers annually. However when you consider GE's global growth, diversity and corporate work culture you finish up approving and admiring the company you wish you joined twenty years ago! As Jack sits back and enjoys his retirement and grandchildren the rest of us hope he will find the time to tell us some more of his traits and how he sees it affecting us tomorrow!
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Summary: Entertaining Read, Good Ideas
Review: Although I didn't walk away from this book knowing any more about Six Sigma than I did walking in, I didn't expect a detailed explanation of the legendary quality control system. I expected, and received an entertaining read about one of America's legendary corporate chieftains, Jack Welch of GE. Other than Warren Buffett, there is no CEO held in higher esteem than Welch. His philosophy seems, at first blush, astonishingly simple: Focus on the people. Although this may seem to contradict GE's massive layoffs in the 80s, Welch would have you believe, quite convincingly, that laying off employees to build a stronger GE was fair to the employees being laid off, who could be more successful at another company, and fair to the employees retained, who had a stronger company. Welch's caution about the internet, much like Buffett's, is looking more and more intelligent with each closing .com. Overall, a quite interesting book with a simple philosophy fleshed out. My only question: How did Welch manage to run such a large company and still golf so much?
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Summary: Review of jack
Review: I work as a leasing accountant in London and business is always of interest to me. Over here in England, we know about GE because GE are so acquisition hungry but here Jack Welch has a lower profile than in the US. I saw this book in a bookstore and decided to educate myself about the legendary Jack Welch. I read this book in a week. It is very easily digested. However, a week after reading it much of it has evaporated. I still dip into it at lunchtimes or when I want something to get into quickly... on the train etc. Once startd, it is hard to put down. It is not often that one gets much of an insight into the workings of a company. I never met any executive who admitted that bad trading results send them rushing to throw up in the toilet. This fly on the wall stuff from someone at his level is a rare treat. This book has clearly been scrubbed up and sanitised for the easy reading market but as a business accountant I would say that it has an appeal for anyone interested in business. Many business books can be a bit theoretical but you know that this one is based on things that have been tried out and work. One thing that struck me about Jack Welch was this. I just searched for Jack Welch in Yahoo and got an impressive 112,000 webpages. What a popular guy I thought to myself. No-one else comes even close. Bill Clinton gets 450, Neil Armstrong gets 10, FDR gets 159, Tony Blair gets 17, Ike gets 49, Nixon gets 102, Ghandi gets 27, JFK gets 120, Madonna gets 101. Even poor old Jesus Christ only manages 1,096. This was just using Yahoo but you get the idea. Jack Welch seems quite human really (at least in the book he does). The proceeds go to charity so go and get your wallet out and think of the people this will help whilst you are reading about Six Sigma and GE's annual cull of the bottom 10% of management. John Rice
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Summary: Mom and the real CEO
Review: I would have loved to have read more about the specific success of each endeavor and business transactions in part for selfish reasons other than not. I agree Jack gets the job done but of course there are many others who paved the way. As within most companies including the giants, expert tough go-getter employees help us to set and obtain our goals. After it's all said and done, it is a valid doable read and worth the bucks. I would like to encourage women including all moms - whether you work outside the home or not - to read the book and realize many a woman (and mom) contributed in many facets to the big and the small of the success of GE and the building of the company. Jack no doubt gets many a thought and follow through from his own mom who is the real CEO. Women need women as CEO role models just as much as men need men and what better way to give us a pat on the back than for Jack to include inspirations from his mom. Look for and read "Mommy-CEO" and "Your New Life As a Mom," as additional books for moms who are the real back bone for family and business success as well as creating many a strong personality as Jack has so neatly brought to light in his book. Pardon my reflection but if he can offer credit where credit is due - maybe it is moms who are the core in life to help us set the tone for all else. If you have already read the book, read it again and think about mom. Thanks Jack - you've opened our eyes to ponder many a thought.
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Summary: Jack: Its all about Me!
Review: If your looking for ideas from this book, from the master of ideas, this book falls way short. But if your interested in reading about Jack talking about Jack, then this book is for you. My suggestion to the person reading the book to obtain ideas, I would borrow a copy and then skip the first 100 pages. The middle section (approximately 100 pages) are quite good, especially the chapter about "the people". Stop again, when he starts discussing the various GE acquistions, as the art of each deal is missing. Sorry, Jack, but your book doesn't due the work you did at GE justice.
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Summary: CEO = Charismatic + Entrepreneurial + Opportunistic
Review: Superb. Dr. Welch not only shares with the reader his insight as to what he was thinking at different points along his distinguished career, but just as importantly, how he views these actions from a retrospective perspective as well. People skills, financial goals, managerial style, and organizational behavior impacts are all covered in this book and if I were organizing a curriculum for managers from line to senior, this would be a must read. All in all, I found the book very enlightening as it gave me a peek of what it must be like leading a gargantuan organization from what many people would probably call both the best and hotest seat in the house.
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Summary: He'll kick ya, curse ya, hug ya, and love ya if u r Class A
Review: I was attracted to this book for two reasons. First, of course, Jack Welch is the most celebrated CEO of an American-based company of the past half decade. Second, it was written with John Byrne, and I believe that Byrne, after 1,000 hours of interviews, and past books on the early brain trust at Ford, Scully at Apple; the evil Al Dunlap, and a book on cancer causing product defects, knows the salient issues for a CEO book. And so, last week, I completed two books on life at General Electric. In both, the narrators became so frustrated by the firm's bureaucracy and sloth that they tendered their resignations. In 'In Good Company' by James Martin, he leaves GE to become a Jesuit priest. In 'Jack' by Jack Welch, he is talked out of his resignation, stays, and becomes the firm's celebrated CEO and Chairman. I approached 'Jack' warily; I was so disappointed with other recent CEO books by Viacom's Redstone and Disney's Eisner. I was even more wary of the book when the first chapter opened with the story of Mr. Welch's seventh consecutive high school hockey team loss and followed with his humble origins (just as Iacocca started with his firing at Ford, Redstone's began with his surviving a hotel fire, Al Dunlap injures a muscle, and Eisner's has chest pains) But my cynicism was proved wrong. This book is the best since Sam Walton's autobiography. Welch is honest. He admits that he is extremely competitive, loud, impatient, and abrasive. And he lies to himself about his height (saying that he is 1.5 inches taller than he is). There is even a glimpse of sex and death in the book, when, as a doctoral student, he is caught by a cop on a car-date with his pants down, and when he is having a heart attack, he runs into a hospital, hops on a gurney and starts screaming emotionally. He also spends a whopping 2 short paragraphs on his divorce from his first wife. He writes that he got the top job at age 44 even though the HR head felt he had significant limitations, was detailed, arrogant, and emotionally overreacted. Welch discusses his impatience, brashness, his proactivity of asking for promotions and assignments, his audacity to ask to remain in Pittsfield even though all senior staff had to move to the NYC area, and his penchant for BOTH kicking and hugging his staff (his advice to one underling was to fire 5 of his 6 direct reports). The other reviews posted here tell you what you need to know. My only addition is that I found Part 2 to be the most valuable section, especially Chapters 11 and 12. In them, the reader learns about how Welch took control of GE. We learn the source of the 'Sell, Fix, or Close to be #1 or #2 in high margin growth businesses' philosophy (Drucker), and his sale of three businesses, including GE small appliance housewares. He discusses how he thought of boundarylessness while on a vacation island and he discusses how he forced his managers to face realities and contradict other's forecasts (How could they believe that they could sell new nuclear reactors after 3-Mile Island?). In Chapter 11, Welch discusses the candor and openness of the Vitality Curve and his ranking of managers into three classes and ridding the company of the bottom 10%. The Class C managers should get no raises. He writes that he is doing them a benevolent favor, since they aren't growing at GE. He gives credit to Noel Tichy and Crotonville. He also describes his Work-Out sessions, and his four E's: Energy, Energize, and Edge, but also an ability to Execute passionately.
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Summary: Anecdotes from world's greatest equity builder
Review: Jack Welch has a well-deserved reputation as the man who made General Electric the most valuable company in the world, as measured by market capitalization. In twenty-one years, he changed an American icon into a global juggernaut. He created millionaires by the score. Few investors, globalists or capitalists can argue with the financial success of his methods. His "fix, sell, or close" strategy, along with his determination to be Number 1 or Number 2 in any market, has become an MBA case study mantra. His "Neutron Jack" moniker, is a harsher reputation than he deserves, but an accurate image of his desire to shed unproductive jobs. He notes that the jobs had to go, not the people, but they both did. We remember the people, not the jobs. He introduced basic, visionary themes to GE: the boundaryless firm, statistics-laden but leader-driven Six Sigma (but how he "reduced the vibrations by 300%", p. 334, I still can't understand), and e-business. He was simultaneously a cheerleader and one very tough manager. His method of driving out of GE the bottom ten pecent of his performers strikes me as a harsh, Spencerian "Survivor" contest, although it appears to be accepted as a service to those top performers who were left standing. Failing to make budget goals or targets may merit a demotion, even a termination. But this decimation process may be a step too far. He re-built in-house, management education at his Crotonville facility, restoring what had become a lost art. He taught many of the student-managers himself. He clearly has a gift for names, details and the big picture. He has been very willing to gamble big, both on projects and people. His winning percentage appears to have been very high. He is an avid golfer. No, he played A LOT of golf. This appears to be a generational and corporate feature not enjoyed by many aspiring managers today. There is little glimpse of the personal side of the man until he introduces his second wife in the second half of the book. After 28 years of marriage, he all-too-casually seems to write off his first marriage as some personal form of his own "fix, sell or close" strategy. But he claims they remain the best of friends. Later, when questioned as to "How can you be a good Catholic and a businessman at the same time," he answers simply, "I am." He offers little evidence other than to claim that his first priority was to "maintain integrity", and that he was always "straight and honest". It would have helped to read more about his personal values, other than those manifested in golf and his second marriage. His late chapter, "What this CEO thing is all about," really leaves a serious reader looking for more substance, content and structure. But this is not that kind of a book. This is a highly readable book, despite the plethora of names that are required to poputlate the life of the leader of such a large organization. He doesn't bog down in details and it is clear that his primary regret after forty years is that he did not move fast enough. My regret is that he did not stop long enough to reflect.
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Summary: So Good it makes your brain hurt!
Review: I love any book that makes my mind continually update my own company strategies. This book captures so many things that my brain continually kept thinking about how things applied to what we do at Genesis. Great read, nice to hear from one of america's smartest business leaders.
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