Rating: 
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Review: Robert Slater's book is an inside account of General Electric's history since Jack Welch became Chief Executive Officer in 1981. Under Welch's direction, GE made great strides in the economic community, both domestically and internationally. Welch is considered to be the toughest boss and the most admired manager in the United States. Although this is a company biography, it also contains hands-on advice that will serve any company well. It teaches companies how to restructure and how to make their employees more enthusiastic. It offers advice on how to change management and gives many examples of specific ways to help a business become a leader in its field. This well-written, well-organized book is easy to read and very entertaining. Chief Executive Officers who want to take their companies to a higher level should study it. Today's business leaders can learn a lot from the lessons of Jack Welch. We [...] recommend this book to all managers.
Rating: 
Summary: How simple messages can make a great CEO
Review: Slater's book can be compared to other books written about famous and successful leaders. Its goal is to take lessons from the behavior of an individual leading a large firm during a successful period. What makes it different from many other books is that Jack Welch was still in power when it was written and the author had the privilege to meet him on a regular basis and to interview most of the senior management of GE. Slater has selected a few management principles frequently mentioned by Welsh and demonstrates how they are applied on an every day basis inside GE worldwide. The outcome is rather convincing. Welch relies on a few basic principles that he is consistently teaching to his employees and applying when he has something to decide on. Welch's leadership philosophy can be summarized by: "Select a few extremely simple and strong messages, repeat them all the time and justify all important decisions by them in order to convince everybody that you are right and consistent." As much as the value and the quality of the principles, in turns out that Welch's success is also built on an heavy communication exercise. The real quality and originality of some messages might be questionable but for sure Welsh's persistence in repeating them is rather unique. Given the diversity of the core businesses of GE worldwide, Welch sometimes appears more to act as a management consultant than a CEO involved in day to day business. All in all, this book is well documented and provides a good presentation of successful leadership principles. On the negative side, one can wonder if the obvious success of GE is only due to the strength and simplicity of Welch's messages. One would also have expected a little more distance from the author and a more critical point of view. Slater obviously admires Welch and the book sometimes sounds like a commercial for GE and his boss. Welch often says "Face reality" and by interviewing more employees at a lower management level, the author might have been able to draw a more objective picture.
Rating:
Summary: Don't be afraid of change
Review: Small lean companies communicate better, move faster, and waste less. Be first or second in every market. Face reality, then act decisevely. Fight bureaucracy. Aim for speed, simplicity and self-confidence. Make the your business boundaryless. Managing less is managing more.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but fluffy and not exactly revolutionary - today
Review: The book is a good read, but don't expect big surprises. Things like "Be close to the customer" may be true and fundamental, but it's not new to today's business - anymore. This book is more of an educational guide to management history. A great read, like I said, but don't expect too much 'hard info'.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story, Bad writing style
Review: The book is written terribly. It is written in a fashion like those cheap supermarket promotion leaflet. Other Jack welch books can get you the same idea about Jack, but more pleasant reading. You will regret if you spend money/time on it.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, Bad writing style
Review: The book is written terribly. It is written in a fashion like those cheap supermarket promotion leaflet. Other Jack welch books can get you the same idea about Jack, but more pleasant reading. You will regret if you spend money/time on it.
Rating:
Summary: Reading what Welch has to say is always worth while.
Review: The content of this book is terrific, provided you zero in on the key things Jack Welch imparts in his own words. The author, unfortunately, was so enamored with Mr. Welch, that he became a cheerleader, defender, and clarifier of Jack's positions. If there is one guy who needs none of those things, it is certainly Jack Welch. As a Jack Welch disciple, I confess I would have preferred the Dragnet and Sargent Joe Friday approach of "The facts. Nothin' but the facts." They were certainly in there, but I didn't need Mr. Slater to explain them to me.
Rating: 
Summary: TOP-NOTCH CEO........POORLY WRITTEN BOOK
Review: There is no doubt about it, Jack Welch is one of the best CEO's ever. I put a low rating on the book. I couldn't stand the style. Half the book is quotes from a Welch speech...which is fine. However, the other half is just paraphrasing everything Jack says to a "T". Very very very very very very very redundant. You can get great take-aways from Jack's style. Unfortunately you have to read through the entire book. It's 10 pages of great leadership skills packed into 300+ pages.
Rating:
Summary: Obsolete
Review: This book has some nuggets but you do have to overcome some meandering. The author jumps from format to format sometimes turning the book into a Jack Welch biography and at other times acting as if the book were a serious business analysis of GE and the changes Welch brought. It fails as a biography and the business analysis is lightweight at best. It's not clear what this book is trying to deliver but what I got out of it were a cursory understanding of the challenges that GE faced and some sense of why Jack Welch succeeded. Now that Jack Welch is retired and has an autobiography "Straight from the Gut" this book is almost obsolete.
Rating:
Summary: It worked for GE, but...
Review: This book is a very entertaining and useful one to be read. Jack Welch' stories are very useful for the business man/woman. However I think Jack exaggerate in justifying himself in firing people and repeats a lot in this topic. I have a translated version here in my country and it is very faithful to the original. The only thing all managers must remember: all this stuff worked well at GE, but always remember what happened with Ford and its former President Jacques Nasser...Not everything can be applied to all companies.
| 
