Rating: 
Summary: An inspiration for today's business leaders
Review: Gordon Bethune, a very confident man - you may find him cocky, gives us insights on how he made it possible to turn a major organization around through the management of people, not the management of the company. Definite reading material for anyone who manages people; sales, division, corporate, etc. managers. Note: You may find a few chapters a bit of fluff (bragging about himself).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent coaching tool for managers improving their teams
Review: Gordon has written management book for the 21st century in a style that's all his own. Although he's clear to point out the ideas aren't new, Gordon's storytelling style offers a fresh, unique perspective for today's managers. Using clear, simple language that anyone can understand and relate to, Gordon explains how his real-life experiences led him to the management theories that made Continental an overwhelming success. You don't have to be an executive to benefit from executive insight. This book shares the ideas and leadership abilities that make Gordon worth his executive salary -- ideas that work just as well for managing 4 people as 40,000. Because he's my uncle, I know these stories are authentically told. It was especially fun for me as a relative to see how much of his personality is communicated in the book. Nothing can substitute for meeting Gordon, but the book is a good start! From Worst to First is best viewed as a coaching or teaching tool. When teaching, repetition is often the rule, and you'll find that here. It can be a slight interruption if you're not actively involved in coaching a team, but if you are, read a little of this book each day and see how many of the anecdotes and ideas you can apply to your own team. You'll be surprised at how much a crop duster's son has learned over the years!
Rating:
Summary: A story about a true leader. A 'turn-around' king.
Review: Highly recommended for the company officer who is looking for ways to turn his/her division or organization around. It's truly about the management of people, not neccessarily about managing a company. It's all about making people do what you want them to do in a politically correct way. In addition, Gordon Bethune is a very confident person, maybe even a little cocky.
Rating: 
Summary: repetitive repetitive repetitive repetitive
Review: how many times can you say the same thing??
just ask Gordon before you waste your money on this.
Rating: 
Summary: From worst to First to Very Boring!!
Review: I am sure that what Gordon Bethune has done for Continental is truly worth a great deal of appreciation. However, the account given in this book fails to describe the turnaround process at Continental in an exciting and informational way. It is too repetitive. I think that I understand when a person says that "the employees hated Continental" after I read that five times, but to mention that in every second paragraph is unnecessary. What Bethune fails to give us is interesting incidents where he actually used the strategies that he employed. Although the "Go Forward Plan" has been broken into four parts, each part somehow connects to something else in the middle of the section and talks about something not concerning that section at all. But above all, if the Continental employees contributed to buy Bethune a Harley Davidson, it shows that he did an incredible job at Continental. So, maybe he should stick to fixing airlines and leave the writing to someone else.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent fast-paced book with great information
Review: I am very imporessed with Gordon's style and approach as well as all of the people at Continenental. What a great American corporate turn-around story. I hope they continue to do well. Every company could learn from Gordon and from all Continental employees.
Rating:
Summary: too repetitive
Review: I enjoyed the style of writing and the anecdotes. But for someone who was searching for a way on HOW they changed Continental, I was a little disappointed.
Some of the explanations are enlightening and many others are standard textbook material. A crucial message is imparted on the reader, however the great disappointment is that this message is repeated over and over and over. You understand the point after 20 pages or so.
A book for a junior in the airline business or just someone with a particular passion for the airline world. I don't recommend it to anyone who hopes to find complex explanations or examples in this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good beach reading
Review: I found the book entertaining and easy to read. However, the content is not very consistent and sometimes very repetitive. All in all, good beach reading.
Rating:
Summary: Good information but written at 4th-grade level
Review: I got tired of being told to remember what I'd already been told. This book would be much more effective if it treated the readers like adults and cut all the repetition. I'm a fan of leadership stories, and would have liked some factual illustrations of his actions, instead of so much about how good he thinks he is. It was necessary to wade through the excess to get the highlights. I also wanted to hear more about his military leadership experiences.
Rating:
Summary: OK, with little solid information on the turnaround.
Review: I had hoped that the book would conver in more detail what was done to bring the airline back from the brink. Yes, we get a lot of soft shoe "we did it as a team", and "we just got honest" stories, but little in the way of how a company with the terrible internal problems Continental had was able to turn employee morale around enough to salvage the wreck. At the time I witnessed what was going on at the airline, violence between mamangement & labor wasn't only threatened, but was expected. Painting planes & paying everyone $65 a month for on-time doesn't change that. I agree with an earlier reviwer- read Jan Carlzons book for a better overview of saving an airline.
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