Jack: Straight from the Gut

Good Stuff

Jack was great for GE, and has plenty of insights on management but this book left me with more questions than answers. Welch was fortunate to have a huge tableau on which to paint, but put him in a startup and I doubt he'd last two weeks, vision notwithstanding. Perhaps the real business story here is between the lines - that 9/10 of leadership is having a great company and great bench, that 80% of sucess is picking your company properly, etc. etc. In that light, Jack Welch seems a tad more lucky than talented.

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A good enjoyable read

This book is very well written and does a great job of telling the story behind one of the 20th century's greatest executives. While I don't think anyone (except the author) will agree with all of his decisions, he gives his reasoning and thus it is always possible to see his side. And it's impossible to argue with his results. If you're looking from lessons you can apply, I would recommend Edwin Locke's 'The Prime Movers' instead.

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That joker Jack's a hack.

It's certainly what I thought a book by Jack Welch would be...self-impressed, self congratulatory with little to no serious introspection. Where's the substance to this guy? Does he have any ability to self reflect and/or any interest in any of the cultural arts? There's certainly no mention throughout. The guy is clearly one dimentional. The recent publicity surrounding the rapaciousness of his retirement package, confirms what I've long held to be true about the guy...he's about lining his own pockets, and lavishly so, embarrassingly so, at the expense of the average GE employee. Don't waste your hard earned money on a book by this joker Jack. You'll get Jack's deal, not the real deal.

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The Unbalanced Life of Jack Welch

I had to read Mr. Welch's book as part of my required leadership development program at work. Mr. Welch sacrificed his personal life for his business career. He is not my ideal of a successful person. His life is far too unbalanced. I'm looking for the "real deal" - a corporate leader with a balanced life. I'm glad to read about Mr. Welch's escapades with Suzy Wetlaufer (Harvard MBA and former Harvard Business Review editor-in-chief) because it reinforces my beliefs about Jack Welch, the person. Thanks be to God, I have a more balanced life than Mr. Welch. Life is too short for those who sell their souls to Corporate America. The price they pay is just too great, and forget about Heaven!

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time to check the gut

When my teacher showed us the book `JACK¿, I thought I could like it. I like the picture on the cover. He is smiling with confidence and achievement. As his picture, he showed me his amazing strategies and accomplishment at his work. He has gift at work and treat people. He colored GE, indeed. Above all, his confidence and his decisive personality impressed me. This book can give good lesson that wants to be CEO or businessman like me. During read this book I keep comparing jack with me. I asked questions to me how many possibilities I have to be a good Businessman several times. Actually, he gave me motivate in business area. Also he gives good lessons but only to businessman but also to who has employees. He shows us good way like hug and kick. It can be helpful to both of them. On the other hand, Even if his success he has a blind point. At first part of book, he mentioned about his relationship between him and his parents especially his mom. And he said it made his personality in the role of the CEO. I think he could do same things to his children. But, he didn¿t mentioned about his children and his relationship not only once. Was he too busy to do? And he failed in his marriage life. He married two times. He even didn¿t give enough faith to wives. I expected not only his business life but also his beautiful family life. Even though he succeeded at work, he failed at his family and social life. To success at work can¿t be success in life. I respect his achievement at work, but I feel sorry to his life. I think he never felt real happiness in his life. I recommend this book others who are interested in business. But I don¿t think this is the best book for businessman. Almost all of us dream of successful life in family and work but the book `JACK¿ can¿t be help in both ways. If someone wants to get these from JACK, you¿d better chose other book.

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Highly Recommended!

Part of the art of being a CEO is managing to be just interesting enough to hold people¿s attention without offending any listeners or revealing too much. Of course, there is much more to it as well, like exercising authority, setting clear standards and maintaining your integrity. Jack Welch¿s fairly conservative autobiography proves that the irascible Welch mastered all aspects of this difficult discipline, especially the first. Don¿t expect to learn juicy details of Jack¿s divorce or to get an insider¿s political view of the horse race to select his successor. Nevertheless, this memoir might be the closest you ever get to answering the question, ¿What made Jack Welch tick?¿ Despite some bland moments, we from getAbstract contend that anyone who wants to understand the American corporate landscape should read this book ¿ so once again, Welch delivers.

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Superficial, with a capital 'S'

The real synopsis of this book is: 'I'm great. I solved every problem. Everything bad was just a misunderstanding.' Anyone with real business experience will recognize this as a puff-piece. Lots of great things happened at GE because of Jack Welch, no doubt. But the dark side of layoffs, divestures and bad investments are papered-over. The environmental nightmare GE caused by dumping PCBs into the Hudson river (on Jack's watch) was conveniently forgotten, for example. If you want a to read a self-serving valentine, read this book. If you want real management insight, look elsewhere.

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The perfect book

I loved the book. Jack Welch is a super achiever and there is a lot to be learnt from this book. I am sure it will help most professionals.Students who dream of becoming CEOs (like myself!) should definitely read it.

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The confluence of personality and management

A most enjoyable ride. Thank you, Jack. I learned a great deal about the effect of 'personality' on management, i.e., how one's character can so effectively be involved in the job of motivating and inspiring a large company. Highly recommended.

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Jack Welsh¿s Long-lasting Contribution to Business Leadership

Jack Welch, although the most well known CEO in Corporate America for decades, is going beyond his own myth in his autobiography. He has decided to get a better hold of his destiny by explaining himself to readers. Welsh shares with his audience some very interesting insights about his personality and management style that he has developed over time: self-confidence, self-respect, trust, toughness and aggressiveness as well as warmth and generosity. Welsh, a star performer, realistically played the promotion game to climb to the top of GE. As CEO of GE for two decades, Welsh proved many detractors wrong by turning a stodgy, bureaucratic manufacturing conglomerate into a very profitable, service-oriented constellation of companies sharing the same vision and values. Welsh probably knows better than anybody else that the work of his life is unfinished business. Business is indeed a process of constant renewal.

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A Blueprint for Good Management!

I am not a manager, but a veteran of the R&D world and I enjoyed this book very much since it portrayed a management style that is straightforward and well-intentioned, approachable and fair with a respect for the intelligence of its employees. Life in many companies is far from being as rosy. Now that we have had an insight into a postive management style that is guaranteed to bring out the best in people, I would like to recommend a contrasting book, which shows what bad management does to the innovative spirit. MANAGEMENT BY VICE is also written 'straight from the gut' of the author with obvious personal experience, who with hilarious humor and no holds barred satire, honestly portrays life in company R&D departments chock full of barriers, bungling and counterproductive management tactics --- typical situations in most companies! However, we can learn much from reading both Jack's marvelous book, from a great manager's perspective, and from 'behind-the-bench', the innovators' view-point of management. I highly recommend both books and only wish there were more managers like Jack out there...perhaps after reading Jack's book there will be!

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A Home Run!

This book is a MUST READ for all! It is a page turner and non-stop enjoyable journey!

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NO KATHARINE GRAHAM

I am glad that I read Mr. Welch's book and appreciated that he was generous in sharing the success of GE with so many individuals, and I thought that he was honest calling himself to account about GE failures. I wanted to read about his business skills, and I learned from the book. I would have enjoyed his diving deep with more color (not gossip) regarding his personal life in the book. It took more than a few sentences for his wives and children to be his support team. Maybe there is a book in the works titled JANE.

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Telling It Like It Is

Jack Welch tells it like it is and reads it like a pro in this resume of his business life. For some 20 years the CEO of General Electric, Welch has become not only one of the most successful but also one of the most admired corporate heads in America. His philosophy is unique and his operating system is his own. He has been a proponent of Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business, while in the meantime raising GE's market cap by over $450 billion. His path to the executive suite wasn't without pitfalls, and he relates this rise with good natured candor. No dry business primer, Welch fills his story with humor and rich anecdotal material. Listeners will find the assessment of his last year and the stab at buying Honeywell especially fascinating.

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This book is great!!!

The book is very inspiring -- not only for corporate guys but also for those people aspiring for quality, perfection and great leadership. I hope my six-year-old kid could do better than Jack Welch did!

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Good to the Last Drop for moms too

Thank goodness Jack gave his mom credit where credit was due. Wished there was a little more on specific transactions of business plans but still great. Hopefully, women will buy and read the book as well. All females contributed in part to the success of GE - don't forget that.

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Jack Has the Last Word

Review 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 with ¿Congratulations, Mr. Chairman!¿ and 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. He notes in his opening remarks to ¿please remember that every time you see the word I in these pages, it refers to all those colleagues and friends [as well] . . . .¿ 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 create ¿a small company spirit in a big-company body.¿ 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. ¿You punk, if you don¿t know how to lose, you¿ll never know how to win.¿ As a young man at GE he says, ¿I was brutally honest and outspoken. I was impatient and, to many, abrasive . . . [which included being] earthy, loud, and excitable.¿ Throughout the experience at GE, he feels that ¿I never changed who I was.¿ 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 ¿I took too long 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 manufacturin

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