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Binding: PaperbackDewey Decimal Number: 920 EAN: 9780747249795 ISBN: 0747249792 Label: Headline Manufacturer: Headline Number Of Pages: 496 Publication Date: December 22, 2003 Publisher: Headline Studio: Headline Related Items:
Editorial Review: Amazon.co.uk Review: It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. In Jack: What I've Learned Leading a Great Company and Great People, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality"--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack." In spite of its 496 pages, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a quick read that any student or manager would do well to consider. --Harry C Edwards Amazon.co.uk Review: It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls "superficial congeniality"--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname "Neutron Jack". In spite of its 496 pages, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a quick read that any student or manager would do well to peruse.--Harry C. Edwards Average Rating:
 Rating:  - Horrible, horrible man...It is quite readable I'll give him that, but this self-congratulatory celebration of American corporate culture just makes me feel queasy. The ludicrous American way of pretending running a business is like being on a sports team is grating (playbook, defence, offence etc.). His justifications for ranking employees and then sacking the bottom 10% is just misanthropy and not necessarily good business sense. He justifies the policy as being cruel to be kind when in reality it's just being cruel, if everybody in an organisation knows the bottom 10% will be sacked how does that promote team work rather than tireless self promotion? His justifications for polluting the Hudson River with PCBs demonstrates the lack of social concern in corporate America. GE stock value and profits rose massively under his tenure which is why he is feted as some sort of corporate god, but is that really down to just one man? He is of course in favour of moving all the work to low wage economies. In the wake of his severance package extravagances maybe he should have thought about outsourcing his own job to a lower wage economy - funny how people at the top don't see the need to do that though isn't it? Read this book second hand only to show yourself what is wrong with the business world. Rating: - People Are Important To BusinessJack Welch was Chairman and CEO of General Electric for twenty years and this is a book about his time from joining to leaving the company that became his life. Apparently Jack was seen as the 'toughest boss in America' and I suspect the book is trying to soften the historical edges a little. What comes across clearly is a commitment to a company and a desire to grow it. Many businesses could do better with a firmer management and a realistic look at the way things are done. Jack Welch doesn't seem to be the kind of CEO to run scared of the change no matter how painful that be. Throughout the book he stresses the importance that good people be allowed to excel and that poor performers are probably better elsewhere. It seems a ruthless approach but it appears to have worked for GE and, I think Jack would argue, it worked better for the people involved. Don't expect a management handbook as 'Straight From The Gut' is too human (and full of golf stories) to be seen as a Director's guide but it is an extremely readable insight into big business. If you don't like his approach I believe there are interesting lessons about the capabilities of people and what they can bring to business for anybody regardless of the size of company or position you hold within it. Rating:  - Jack Has the Last WordReview Summary: This autobiography of Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric from 1981 to 2001, primarily focuses on the key initiatives (such as focusing on businesses with #1 or #2 market shares, selecting the best executive prospects, creating a learning organization, expanding GE Capital, Six Sigma, e-business development, and the attempted acquisition of Honeywell) during his tenure as CEO. The key principles behind his successful management style are spread throughout the book and summarized in part of chapter 24, What This CEO Thing Is All About. In most chapters, he briefly highlights the history and thinking that led to the initiative, shares a few examples of what went right and wrong, explains what his thoughts were while the initiative was occurring, and provides a scorecard for GE's performance. What will be new to most people are a deeper exposure to his communications style, a balancing of what the popular press has said about events during his tenure, and a stronger flavor of his focus on improving the quality of GE's management teams. The roots of his successful approaches will be easily found in the example of his mother, and his early experiences at GE. Those who are looking for a management book will be disappointed in the volume. Readers who want a lot more detail on the specific successes will often be disappointed as well. The book is very candid, but typically operates at a pretty superficial level. Review: The bulk of this book is framed by the experience of being welcomed as CEO and being given a hug by his predecessor, Reg Jones, and doing the same for his successor, Jeff Immelt. Jack Welch feels that in between those events he helped create "the greatest people factory in the world, a learning enterprise with a boundaryless culture." In looking back on his role, he sees it as being 75 percent about people, and 25 percent about everything else. The author's profits from this book are being donated to charity. As someone who made his share of mistakes along the way (including blowing up a small chemical factory with an experiment early in his tenure at GE), Dr. Welch is aware of the need to recognize those who take big swings and miss the ball. Having grown up in the small plastics business in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, he also strove to maintain that kind environment on a bigger scale. His characterizations of himself are brutally frank prior to becoming CEO, and less so thereafter. One story that most will remember is how his mother upbraided him in the locker room for throwing his stick after the team lost its seventh straight hockey game in overtime. He offers a lot of arguments for his views that are not always balanced by the views of others. He is defensive about his reputation for cutting jobs, but argues that he was doing what was needed. His self assessment is that he was slow to act. On contamination of the Hudson by PCBs, he is proud of GE's record and feels victimized by government. He asserts that all evidence to the contrary is just plain wrong. What is my view of the most positive legacy of Jack Welch, after reading this book? He made important contributions in at least these areas: (1) Creating a helpful model for how to locate, encourage, and develop managers with the right values and the ability to deliver good business results. (2) Showing how to develop a financial services business from a manufacturing company base, something that has rarely been done successfully. (3) Establishing a helpful example for how to change the management style of a major company away from centralized bureaucracies. That's quite a lot compared with his contemporaries. Congratulations, Dr. Welch! As a book about how to manage, few will find this more than a two or three star effort . . . but that was not the book's purpose. As an autobiography, few insights are present past chapter six, and all of the anecdotes about the initiatives while he was CEO simply retell the same story of a bright, results-oriented man who was constantly looking for a better way. In terms of being an autobiography, more than half the book could have been edited out. As a result of too much rambling at a superficial level, this is a three star autobiography. Clearly, Dr. Welch himself is a five-star effort. I combined these perspectives to assign the book a three star rating. Those who look at the book carefully in the absence of considering his track record may feel that I am too generous. A lot of his Deep Dives into the organization will impress many readers as little more than meddling micromanagement by someone with a very large ego. After you read this book, I encourage you to think about what you would want to be able to say about yourself in an autobiography when you retire. What will your positive legacy be? How will people who don't know you perceive what you have to say about what you did and thought? Work on improving yourself as the first step towards organizational progress! Rating: - How much time do you want to spend reading?Good book, interesting stories, lots of great information, but terribly long winded! If you are just looking for the nuts and bolts part of the philosophy, I suggest the much smaller 24 lessons book. All the great informaiton, but killing far fewer trees. Rating: - Great book, bad philosophyFast paced and full of energy, JW lets you feel each of his internal promotions and business deals with him . Despite his passion and commitment to his task JW cannot help but reveal his arrogance and ruthlessness. The reader's respect for his dedication and ambition is slightly tarnished by JW's obvious philosophy of "loving things and using people". Welch attempts to paint two pictures of his business philosophy which are nonetheless transparent. (1) He endeavours to create the impression that he values and cares for his staff, however, it is clear throughout that he views people as products and that he is extremely good at manipulating them and getting the best from them. (2) He also emphasises his commitment to breaking down the GE bureacracy but suppresses the truth of his having engineered a monolithic autocracy - it's Jack's way or the highway. This is a fantastic read which I highly recommend. Read it and feel it. It is not, however, a business handbook, so enjoy the book for the enthusiasm JW imparts, but please don't buy into his philosophy.  Try searching the Internet for "Jack: Straight from the Gut" or Ebay for "Jack: Straight from the Gut". 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