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So as I was listening to this, I believe I listened to this "book on cassette" in the early 2000's when Jack Walch had just left GE and was in the process of writing his next book. At that time, roughly 7 years out of college, I hadn't understood the impact that Welch had on business.
I remember the company I was working for, was a small division of a large international tooling manufacturer. The two plants that had supply chain responsibilities were both union and combined, representing a small fraction of the income of the total company.
The biggest thing I remember was the company I was working for pushed "shareholder value" over pretty much everything else, including customer value. Our small union plants that employed less than 100 union people were both cash cows in old dilapidated buildings. The plants were not aware of customer satisfaction levels but had stock prices updated in each facility. To my knowledge, none of us were given stock options; however, the number one metric we were being measured against (and were supposed to care about) was the stock value. This was so much fuel for a union no one cared about.
Now, as someone who's more mature and who's been in manufacturing for 30 years, I'm disheartened with Neutron Jack's methodology. There's no doubt in my mind his strategy of letting the bottom 10% of people go helped his bottom line, but I have a slightly different view.
As a plant manager, I would have probably found myself on the shortlist. I gave the plant manager a try but found out that it was not the best utilization of my talents and passions. By the same token, I may have found myself in the top 10% for improvement and change agents. I just wonder how many good people got let go because they were in the wrong seat on the bus.
The other thing I find interesting in this book is Jack's impression of himself when he talks about his faith and using ethical judgment. A few years after this book was released, those values "changed" when he found himself in a well-documented affair with his publisher Suzy.
I have heard (reheard) Jack's side of things it will be interesting to hear opposing views.
I remember the company I was working for, was a small division of a large international tooling manufacturer. The two plants that had supply chain responsibilities were both union and combined, representing a small fraction of the income of the total company.
The biggest thing I remember was the company I was working for pushed "shareholder value" over pretty much everything else, including customer value. Our small union plants that employed less than 100 union people were both cash cows in old dilapidated buildings. The plants were not aware of customer satisfaction levels but had stock prices updated in each facility. To my knowledge, none of us were given stock options; however, the number one metric we were being measured against (and were supposed to care about) was the stock value. This was so much fuel for a union no one cared about.
Now, as someone who's more mature and who's been in manufacturing for 30 years, I'm disheartened with Neutron Jack's methodology. There's no doubt in my mind his strategy of letting the bottom 10% of people go helped his bottom line, but I have a slightly different view.
As a plant manager, I would have probably found myself on the shortlist. I gave the plant manager a try but found out that it was not the best utilization of my talents and passions. By the same token, I may have found myself in the top 10% for improvement and change agents. I just wonder how many good people got let go because they were in the wrong seat on the bus.
The other thing I find interesting in this book is Jack's impression of himself when he talks about his faith and using ethical judgment. A few years after this book was released, those values "changed" when he found himself in a well-documented affair with his publisher Suzy.
I have heard (reheard) Jack's side of things it will be interesting to hear opposing views.
