Average Rating: 
Rating: - Jack, Over the Top Results
REVIEW: If one word could sum up Jack Welch's career at GE it might be "results". And this is why many people will want to, and should, read this book. It is basically an autobiography of Jack Welch's GE years and does not dwell on deap management theory. However, those expecting to find a "silver bullet" of management or a quick three step program to executive success will be disappointed. Jack probably destroys his own myth-like reputation by revealing that his success was built on fairly basic good management practices. Jack has just embraced them and used focussed passion coupled with an obsession on people to produce great results. Most of the techniques Jack discusses will be known to most MBA graduates. Even the major initiatives that Jack used were derived from others: 1) "No. 1 or 2" Jack admits is derived from Peter Drucker, 2)Six sigma is derived in part from Motorola, 3) "Boundaryless behaviour" can said to be based on Peter Drucker's observation that there are no profit centers inside an organization, and 4) Jack was clearly not an early pioneer on "E-business". Yet he recognized the opportunities and produced results from them. The book probably won't become a classic, but it is still highly recommended reading for today's and tomorrow's managers of all kinds.STRENGTHS: The book is a fairly easy and interesting read full of anecdotes and insites. It does a great job of showing the management task as art and discipline that can be learned, improved, and mastered rather than as personal charisma or other common stereotypes of leadership. WEAKNESSES: The minor weaknesses of the book relate to Jack's strong, competitive personality (and maybe ego) that show through in his writing. Despite that author's initial disclaimer to read "I" as meaning "we" I found Jack's lack of distinction between himself and GE to be minorly annoying. Parts of the book are filled with phrases like "I bought this $100 million company" when clearly "We" is appropriate [I know, I'm nit-picking]. Second (and this is almost excusable in an autobiography) Jack rarely gave the "other side" of the story when discussing major GE crises. For example, he just expects us to take his word that GE managers were meeting with DeBeers (basically a diamond monopoly company) for harmless reasons. Also, he never gives the EU's reasons for blocking the Honeywell merger, we're just supposed to accept his word that they were wrong. WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK: Executives and managers interested in Jack Welch, GE, and how they've produced such great results over the past two decades.
Rating:  - His advice may seem obvious to some, but...
His advice may seem obvious to some, but how often is it actually practiced? I shouted "yeah!" to myself over and over as I read a couple chapters of this book.For example: the chapter about rating and rewarding his employees was excellent. For example, giving Class A employees 3x the salary increases over Class B employees-- Great!! Giving NO increases to Class C employees, and getting rid of them sooner rather than later...what can I say, I LOVE IT!! He's so right about the fact that it's more cruel to let Class C workers attain and maintain an certain income level (that they are not really worthy of), and waiting til they're older, with a large mortgage and kids in college before finallly telling them that they're not making the grade. I've worked with some people in the high-paying tech arena that, because of either blatant incompetence, bad attitude, and/or pure laziness, never should have gotten to where they are today. As far as I'm concerned, some never should have gotten past working in the food service industry. Eventually those people *do* get weeded out (I'm seeing it happen right now in this economy). Sooner is better than later, both for the employer and the employee. I also enjoy not having to work with those types.
Rating: - Quickie on Jack Welch & GE
First half of the book is about childhood-to-retirement. Second half is dedicated to a few popular topics: Globalization, Six Sigma, eBusiness, Honeywell, etc. How can you summarize a guy's life in just a few pages... especially Jack Welch. I did enjoy the overall inspiring story, but it lacked substance. It'fs more a biography rather than a business 'gtool'h book.For instance, Jack'fs first limelight was an obscure unit in the plastics division. It obviously propelled his career and got him out from under 'gthe pile'h. But, all the story says is that the people diligently developed a robust plastic (after many months) and suddenly $100+ million unit was born'c well'c. I'fm sure there'fs a lot more to the business challenge than that. Jack writes about what he remembers and naturally that tends to have holes. Those holes lead one to believe that business was much simpler than it really was. The other criticism is that specific people within and outside of GE are named in stories, which sound unobjective. One must look at these characterizations with somewhat of a challenging eye. As expected, Jack isn'ft going to criticize Henry Kissinger and Larry Bossidy, but one would hope that he would put more beef into Gary Wendt'fs firing. Rather, Jack saves most of his critical commentary for the EU Commission, more specifically Mr. Gonzales-Diaz. A light hearted reader can take this book for what it is: a fun and entertaining biography, but not a serious business book.
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