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 got this book as a gift immediately after I got an offer to join General Electric (GE) from one of my friends. Jack Welch was famous for being the Chairman and CEO of GE for 20 years presiding over the conglomerate's dramatic rise to being the most valued company in America in 2000. Naturally, I was intrigued to hear the story from the horse's mouth and this book sums up the leadership style of Jack Welch and his insider view of how the company progressed.

Pros:
1) The best part of this book is that Welch has structured it in a way where every chapter has atleast one leadership lesson to take out of. I have practically noted down 55 key learning points over the entire course of this book (planning to make a separate article on the same). What really helps is that Welch doesn't just blurt out those lessons (that would make it too academic). He provides a story/incident that builds up to the lesson so that you can relate to it a whole lot better. This book is, in a way, a treasure trove of case studies that help you learn to be a better leader. This book also gives you a perspective of the politics that go behind such massive corporates as Welch gives first hand experiences of the struggles he faced when he was in contention to become the CEO. This book also points out how to resolve such internal conflicts/politics when Welch devised a detailed succession strategy to appoint his successor.
2) For those who are really interested in the history of GE and its ups & downs and its evolution as a company, this serves as a good starting point. You get Welch's point of view on how the company was when he joined (the pre-Welch era); its work culture, its businesses, and so on. Later, as Welch progresses in his career, it shows how the company has evolved from a culture and business stand-point (the Welch era) and is a good example of how a leader's vision makes a company. Readers can get a good understanding of Welch's initiatives such as the controversial bell-curve, his principle of being #1 or #2 in each business segment, his fix/sell/close strategy, Six Sigma initiatives, Crotonville, etc. The book finally sets the stage for what GE stood for when Welch handed over the reins to Jeff Immelt (the post-Welch era). This, therefore, helps the readers understand the evolution of this conglomerate over a period of 40 years! For someone like me who just joined the company and who was really curious to know its roots, this book helped me get a sense of how historic this company has been.
3) The writing is simple, straight forward, and this makes it an easy read.

Cons:
1) The structuring of this book is very haphazard. The first half of the book goes in a good chronological fashion which gives the readers a sense of understanding of Welch's upbringing, the start of his GE career as an engineer, his progression as a manager to eventually becoming the CEO. The second half of the book, which is post Welch becoming CEO, keeps going places chronologically. The structuring of the book suddenly changes to chapters that each highlight his vision/strategy/action for the company. Either Welch should have stuck to the chronological format or he should have devoted chapters dedicated to his important learning points. This mash-up of both styles of writing gets the reader confused and frustrated at times.
2) The book seems to be self idolizing Welch a lot (understandable as it is an autobiography and people tend to place more importance to themselves). No single person makes the entire company and it is the collaborative effort that defines a company's success. I would have loved to hear Welch talk more about his direct reports or employees that brought a significant change in the company. The self appreciation and the idolization makes this book a dragger.

To conclude, this book has been a very hard read for me, personally. To see a well-oiled machine that Jack Welch created deteriorate to the state at which the company is in now makes it painful to read as an employee. However, it also makes me hopeful that if Welch could bring up the company to that state over a period of two decades, so can the next generation of employees like us.

Zaposlivši se 1960. u General Electricu kao mladi inženjer s godišnjom plaćom od 10.500 dolara, Jack je potrebu da se “izdvoji iz gomile” spoznao onog trenutka kada mu je uručena povišica koja se nije razlikovala od povišice koju su istoga dana dobili i svi njegovi kolege. Podalje od korporativne birokracije ostao je i dok je, odjeven u traperice i pulover, iz ureda smještenog u hotelu Hilton u Pittsfieldu, rukovodio General Electricovim poslovnim divizijama čija je vrijednost dosizala 2 milijarde dolara.

Služeći se anegdotalnim pristupom i nerijetko šalama na vlastiti račun, u ovoj nas knjizi Jack upoznaje s velikom ulogom svoje majke Irkinje, s mnogim ljudima koji su oblikovali njegov život te s uspjesima i promašajima koji su obilježili njegovu karijeru. Vodi nas kroz razdoblje borbe za mjesto generalnog direktora GE-a, kroz godine tzv. Neutronskog Jacka, kada je u sklopu inicijative “Popravi, prodaj ili zatvori” otpustio više od 100.000 ljudi, kroz brojne poslovne krize, kroz proces izbora svojeg nasljednika te brojne druge poslovne i osobne uspjehe i padove.

Iz sadržaja:

Rane godine (izdvajanje iz gomile, približavanje društvu velikih) / Stvaranje vlastite filozofije (vizija, kupnja RCA-a, duboko uranjanje) / Usponi i padovi (prepun sebe, GE Capital, TV NBC i žarulje, kada se upustiti u borbu a kada uzmaknuti) / Promjena pravila igre (globalizacija, širenje uslužnih djelatnosti, inicijativa šest sigma i još bolje, elektroničko poslovanje) / Gledajući unatrag i unaprijed (što zapravo znači biti generalni direktor i u čemu je draž tog posla)

This was a well written and engaging book that covered the career of one of America's most studied CEO's. Mr. Welch has been the topic of many business editorials, reports, and MBA programs. His management style and GE's adaptation of Six Sigma really propelled Six Sigma into notoriety. It is very telling to see the amount of time, energy, and life that being the CEO of a company as large as GE consumes. It is no small wonder that marriages do not work out.

I did find the compensation piece interesting, even though Mr. Welch acknowledges many times over that it is/was the little man in the company that did the bulk of the work and ultimately made the company what it is that he was still perfectly comfortable with the CEO making 100x + what the average worker is making. Indeed, while one can see that a CEO deserves large compensation for the amount of time and energy that goes into it there comes a point where it is extravagant.

This book has a lot of information that can be gleaned about business from a broad context. Especially in terms of globalization and its effects on a large organization. The need to continue to grow and move into markets with significant growth opportunities.

Not an uninteresting book, but way too long. In my mind, taking up a reader's time by saying more than needs to be said will cost you at least 1 star. Almost every chapter can be characterized by the formula:
[magical vision + Jack Welch hammers that vision into the ground + acquire some large competitor = screaming success]
Yes, there were some good tidbits about how to dismantle bureaucracy and unlock creativity and potential. But I think Creativity Inc does a better job explaining how to achieve those aims in practice. And the fact that GE has struggled mightily since Welch stepped down is a serious demerit against the scalability of his philosophy...especially considering the CEO succession process was reserved for the final chapter the book and had begun 7 years before Welch handed over the reigns. You can get most of the wisdom from this book just by reading the chapter, "What This CEO Thing is All About," which takes up 20 of the 480 pages. Also, this is nitpicky and might have just been the copy I read, but Welch's photocopied handwritten notes are impossible to read. I understand a desire to prove that he wasn't fabricating material just for the book, but seriously would it have been so hard to re-write those things in legible script?

This book is almost 20 years old now but many of the lessons feel relevant for today.
Jack Welch was well of his time and his story is a really interesting one.
Highly recommended!

you can see yourself growing in the pages.....

Very inspiring and full of insights on taking tough calls

There are many good things about this book and I'll try to put them in pointers:

1. The aura of Jack made him the leader of everyone. He was like super engaging in every business area GE had.
2. He believed that bureaucracy is of no use in an organization. Rather, he use to give more power the best people in business.
3. Jack was unstoppable. The hunger of growing business was never stopped and that made GE to expand globally in such a vast scale.
4. Jack endorsed and made Six sigma, technology and internet to sit at the core of GE. He kept Integrity at the top in GE's culture.
5. During his entire tenure as CEO and despite of facing some of the world's toughest situation like fighting cases with people in power and government, his attitude made him to quit no where.
6. His believed that most of his critical decisions were came out straight from the gut and that made him always get whatever he wanted for the business to rise.

Great business leader good book

Jack definetly Will be unforgetable in modern business and management. The book is worth Reading to understand part ir his mind and business in a huge Corporation.

This read more like a resume and timeline than anything.

Great lessons on leadership, ethics, decision making and golf..