Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50180 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

Jack Welch's approach and principles to business
Jack Welch was General Electric Chairman & CEO from 1981 to 2001 and is seen as one of the greatest business leaders of the 20st Century. Since his retirement in 2001 he has been travelling the world and spreaking to thousands of people during and following the promotional tour of his autobiography "Jack: Straight from the Gut" (2001). In this book he attempts to answer the questions which were asked during that tour. The book is split up in four parts, plus an introduction and a concluding chapter.

In the first part - Underneath It All - Welch lays out the substructure of principles to his approach to business. "... the four principles are about the importance of a strong mission and concrete values; the absolute necessity of candor in every aspect of management; the power of differentiation, meaning a system based on meritocracy; and the value of each individual receiving voice and dignity." Each principle is discussed in a separate chapter. In particular his discussions on the subject of candor is enlightening and should be an important lesson to all organizations and industries.

Part II - Your Company - discusses the mechanics of organizations. In the six chapters of this part Welch discusses leadership, hiring, people management, parting ways, change, crisis management.

In Part III - Your Competition - which describes the world outside your organization. The five chapters discuss the creation of strategic advantages, meaningful budget and target setting, growth through mergers and acquisitions, and a discussion on Six Sigma.

Part IV - Your Career - discusses managing the arc and the quality of your professional life. Welch discusses finding the right job (from first job through to the right job at any point in your career), getting promoted, and working for a bad boss. In the final chapter he discusses work-life balance whereby he explains what bosses think about the matter.

The last chapter discusses issues that he was unable to fit into the four parts. He answers 9 questions that he was asked during his tour. They range from questions about his golf game (Welch has stopped playing after 60 years in the game), AIDS through to whether Welch thinks he will go to heaven ("Now, that was a question that stopped me!")

Yes, I do like this book. It is a lot different to his autobiography although he uses some of the same examples. It is straight to the point and the advice is implementable and realistic. It follows a good layout and has some good checklists. There are fantastic one-liners in each and every chapter, but there is not enough room to put them all down in this review. It is not a traditional management book as such since the writing style is a lot different (which is not necessarily a bad thing) and very practical. Highly recommended.

How to Win in Big Business
I found this quite an interesting book to read because of its honesty. Jacks methodology is really survival of the fittest. Whether morally it is a good thing or not is questionable but its necessary in business in order to survive.
The book is very readable compared to other business books.
Its written in very conversationable style.
He is often very blaise about people who got fired or moved on.
It always seems to be the best thing that happened to them. They always found their niche somewhere else.
In reality I think that is not often the case. Getting fired is not always easy to recover from and the financial strain it brings can destroy relationships and homes. But this is not the concern of the CEO . His focus is the shareholder and maintaining the stock value.
Here the book is very clear. There is no room for sentimentality. No room for loyalty, nostalgia or tradition. If its not working shut it down or sell it. If someone is not performing and is in the bottom 10% don't waste your time in trying them to work better or harder, just get rid of them.
I don't think I would be cut out to be a CEO but its good to get an insight of a successful one. He is far more honest that most writers about similar business issues.
If you really want to be a successful CEO this book provides guidance in the type of character you need to be.
It may not get you to heaven but it will keep you in the Fortune 500.

Straight to the point and very approachable
If you're looking for a book on leadership that tells things as they are, without tons of fancy formulas or advice that is hard to apply in the real world, then this book is for you.

Leadership is an art more than a science, but there are some universal simple rules that anybody can follow in order to be a better leader, and this book covers them all in a very comprehensive, yet succint and specific way.

You might not agree with all of Jack's ideas (I certainly don't), but that is what leadership books are for: generate discussion rather than claim to be "the truth". Use what you think is valuable, and discard the rest. Whatever you do, this book gives practical advice, and I see a lot of value in that.

Particularly good are the chapters on Career Management, which are not always covered (or not covered well) in leadership books and yet are an esential element in the success of any leader. Books like "What color is your parachute" are more comprehensive, of course, but "Winning" has some down-to-earth advice in this area that I found very useful.

Highly recommended.