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Title: Jack: Straight from the Gut
ISBN: 0446690686
Author:
Jack Welch
John A. Byrne
Publicate Date: 2003-10
Publish: 2003-10
List Price: $17.99
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $6.99
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.01
Amazon Merchant Price: $12.23
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Insightful, but tough read
For the most part I found this book interesting, particularly the first half that discusses Jack Welch's early life and career at GE. I really enjoyed learning about the values that helped develop one of the greatest businessmen of our time. I especially enjoyed reading about his career at GE prior to becoming CEO. Jack Welch demonstrated a tremendous amount of ambition, but not always in a manner that endeared him to his peers. His failures provide far more insight into the strength of the man than his successes do. However the flaw in this book is that it can't see the forest through the trees. Do I really need an entire chapter on the implementation of Six Sigma or the development of the GE website, I don't think so. The book really starts to drag in the second half, and while I couldn't put it down in the beginning, the last half took me several months to get through. Which brings me to the second problem with the book it doesn't flow well. You can put it down for a month, pick it up and start a new chapter and miss nothing. It starts to feel a bit like a text book where every chapter can stand on its own, and that made it much more difficult to get through.
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2: A great inspirational read, and a down to earth style
This is a great down to earth, and inspirational read. Jack's approach and style can be carried into anyone's life. What's most interesting is the scale of the company he lead - balanced with his ability to stay hands on. This book is a pick up and put down read, where you can get back up to speed easily. A MUST READ!!
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3: 20-70-10
This is the book for the readers who are interested in the history of GE from 1960 to 20001 from the Jack Welch's perspective. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career. Welch walks the reader through the "Neutron Jack" years, when GE's employment rolls fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to "fix, sell, or close" each business-and how he used the purchase of RCA to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. The riveting story of his last year-the elaborate process of selecting a successor and the attempt to buy Honeywell-is also told in compelling detail.
Some people think that this book is valuable as a managerial guide. Although I do not share this point of view, I agree with Jack Welch's main idea: people is the most important component of an organization. First, get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it. If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great. Another idea by Jack Welch, shared with the readers, is to support high-growth high-margin products and to get rid of low growth low margin products.
The Jack Welch's way or treating employees is now taught in business schools as GE's "20-70-10" system. Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
If you need a really good managerial guide, not related to GE, I highly recommend the Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker. I do not recommend an abridged audio version of "Straight from The Gut", because the details of Jack Welch's tenure are not adequately covered, while the managerial advices are better covered by Drucker. Either get the full version of "Straight from The Gut" to better understand the rationale of GE's "20-70-10" system or proceed directly to Drucker.
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4: Corporate growth strategies
What makes an 'A performer'? Jack's years at GE have seen their share of successes, narrow escapes, and missteps along the way - and it is Jack's treatment of the former that makes this an incredibly insightful book to read. You cannot be right all the time, nor should you expect your peers or subordinates to be, but at the same time, it is your role as a leader to identify and cultivate the best performers continuously. Yes, that means letting go of your bottom 10%, every year.
Aside from being an inspiring and educational read, the book also offers a rare glimpse of the corporate growth strategies and acquisitions made by GE - a side of corporate America that is rarely covered and poorly understood outside of the top financial circles.
Highly recommended for any entrepreneur and business owner out there. (Yes, the lessons apply outside of multi-billion dollar corporate context.)
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5: Listen to what Jack Wech wants to say
I've met Jack Welch in Pasadena few weeks after the book came out. Jack Welch just confirmed his keen intellect," tough" guy fame but he discussed with passion about Six Sigma, one of initiatives he championed together with globalization and e-business. This book though is not the textbook on Welch Style of Management but is a good inside in some of his thinking and approaches. This book is for those who want to listen to what he wants to say.
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