Welch is a smart driven dynamic guy. He worked for GE for probably 35 years. He was the CEO from 1980 to 2001 implementing and overseeing major changes and record profits. This book is basically his memoir.

GE was started by Thomas Edison to sell his lightbulbs. By the time Welch retired, GE was making turbines, airplane engines, major appliances, providing financial services, providing major equipment repair services, medical equipment manufacturing, chemical production, owned RCA and NBC, and much more. It had turned into a global company with major diversification.

The first 3rd of the book was autobiographical on his life and his initial changes. He cut the bureaucracy down, marginally profitable divisions and thousands of jobs from the very beginning. They called him Neutron Jack. He then made the company grow again and be more profitable.

The last 2/3rds was almost anecdotal where he would give a drive by account of how he would buy a new company to add to GE or cut a non performing one illustrating his business philosophy. He would talk about his business philosophies like Six Sigma, boundaryless, firing 10% of the workforce every year, the need for a GE business to be #1 or #2 in its market, globalization, the development of a company culture and more. Great stuff for a business discussion group. 500 pages of it gets tedious for a guy who reads mostly fiction.

Still, it is a worthwhile read because he is a very capable guy. It is a really valuable read for someone who wants to work in the corporate culture. I give it a 3.5.

Welch found great people, in many ways, and he felt everyone you meet is an interview. He characterized the traits that made him successful and that he sought in others as "The Four E's": 1. Energy of personality, 2. the Enthusiasm to communicate that energy to others, 3. the Edge to make tough decisions, and 4. the Execution to see those decisions implemented. The Four E's were connected by the "Big P: Passion".

Welch's integrity to this vision of employee excellence is seen repeatedly in the book when he promotes unrecognized and unrewarded employees because he saw the four E's and big P in them, where others did not.

Welch dove into each project with seemingly inexhaustible passion and zeal. He brought the same dedication to implementing each company-wide program he initiated: Globalization, Growing Services, Six Sigma, and E-business.

Buy, sell or merge is what I have learned through this book. Its all about what kind of deals GE made during Jack's 20 years stint at GE. You will get to know about the culture and values of GE. What kind of people they need or hire.
The most interesting chapter was the one with failed Honeywell acquisition.
He also sheds light on on the fact that as a CEO there are some decisions you have to take that are not acceptable to others but are really crucial for the company's future.

It might look awkward to rate 1 star for the book, and you can totally blame my high expectations for from the book for it. Before picking up this book, i had a lot of hype build around the amazing approach GE might have around building great leaders. And kept looking at the book with that lens, and probably got disappointed there in.
This autobiography is about a lot of chest thumping done by the writer, and mostly an index of different names in the organization and there positions, not to forget the chronology of major events in the 40 years of Jack Welch with GE.

Read this book for hosting presentation for Management course of my MBA.
It's so sad that the real life of business world is a wasteland of such passion, grit and morality.
Mr. Jack has been a beacon for leadership. How it's like to take people forward to the light. How it's like to really make tough decisions and sit the consequences. Yes he may start by many rules and data to push and stress people but the aim is not just profitability in short term, the purpose of leadership is to respect the human side and with that, to make something really different, really amazing.

Even though there are a lot of useful insights, I felt the book was way too long. There is a lot of dwelling in business details, such as acquisitions and implemented strategies (e.g. Six Sigma and e-business). Thousands of names, dates and numbers for revenues, growth, etc are thrown in up to the point that I got lost. I did enjoy the chapters of the first sections where he explains where he came from and the way leading to becoming CEO. The final three chapters, a reflection of the years as chairman, golf and the succession process are more personal than factual. I liked that.

ISBN = 0446528382 Jack Welch
Jack is a fascinating Man, who is brutally honest. I felt he was refreshing. He also admits his shortcomings. He gives the reader lots of little hints on how to manage. He believes on being honest with employees when they succeed or not. Jack feels that a company that overlooks shortcomings does not help a poorly performing employee. The employee is better served moving on to greener pastures.
Jack is for total quality, a company must produce results. The corporation must be #1 or #2 or it must be sold. Basically, if you do not have a competitive advantage, cede the business to the competition. Apply resources where they can reap the greatest return and do not worry about pride or vanity.
What I found particularly interesting was the 70, 20, 10 method of performance appraisal for employees. The bottom 10% must go and this is the method that Welch said that GE used to continuously improve and become a world class talented corporation. He discusses a simple bell curve and he refers to the 10% of employees that are “let go” as being better off. It sounds harsh but he makes the case that these people know who they are and are better off getting a new start. Welch says many of them do very well elsewhere with a new start.
Jack also talks of “boundarylessness” which he states as the belief that there are no limits.
The book is long and detailed with lots of examples from his long life in business. If you are a Welch fan you will like it. If you are not a Jack fan, you will like parts of it. I saw a long interview with Jack in my Strategic Management class in my MBA program and it closely matched the reading.
Good read for the price. I picked up a new copy at Barnes and Noble in Manassas for $5.00.
Mark D.

On occasion you see people list out titles of books that if you see them on someone else’s shelf are clear indicators that you ought to turn heel and run, run away. Anything Ayn Rand often makes the list, almost certainly The Turner Diaries. These days Donald Trump’s books frequently appear but, I humbly recommend this book. I had a history teacher in high school who had this book on her shelf. No surprise, she was a shitty teacher.
When you think about it though keeping Jack: Straight From the Gut is like those minor apparatchiks who kept their well thumbed copy of Mein Kampf in a prominent place. This is bad propaganda too. I know it’s a low blow to compare someone to Hitler. Welch didn’t commit genocide or invade Poland. He writes terribly although I don’t know how it would have looked when it first came out. Right now with every petty tyrant in middle management passing out the same stupid corporate bullshit you get a feeling of Deja vu even though technically, you’re living in Deja vu. Jack Welch was the original schmuck. Behold the original nightmare!

The book indicates true adventure of maverick Jack Welch, from being unknown to one of the most notorious business man in America. It describes doubts initially in his decision and methodologies to cope with. Although all his solutions does not always gain support from public media, aggregated corporate value matters as the advancement in productivity and efficiency strives unprecedented. Additionally, the process of anti-bureaucracy is viable throughout the book as he explicitly opposed such existence within company's culture (Reduction of reporting layers, less table assignments but more field trips for high-ranking officers, etc.). Overall, in my opinion, this is the should-read book of economists, financiers or businessman because we can enter directly to the marvelous brain of Jack and his method to draw out pivotal decisions.

I try to learn from business leaders when they do write books. And in the big picture one of the greatest has to be Jack Welch who ran General Electric for almost 20 years as the CEO...that's unheard of. He wrote this book right as he was retiring from General Electric and he is very open about where he screwed up, what has worked and the struggles he has had with the company.
But his real passion has always been teaching and you can learn a lot from this book. Welch in essence created the foundations for six sigma to be brought into the business world and he brought forward a very workable set of strategies for a company that had divisions...everywhere. When he took over GE they were doing retail, diamond mining, health scanners and machines, light bulbs, leasing, airplane engines, refrigerators...the list went on and on.
And Welch with his strategy of being number one or number 2 in markets was smart for a conglomeration he was at the helm for. It let him see how the company was against the competition at all times and where the company needed to go...which is why they have thrived so much. He also got into how he would negotiate which makes for an even more interesting book. Anyone interested in corporate strategy this is well worth a read...

An interesting biography of one of the greatest CEOs of all time. He grew General Electric into the biggest company on earth. I really enjoyed listening to this book, narrated by Welch. His management style was aggressive, go-getting, and all about what was best for the business.
One thing that disturbed me was the way he treated “subpar” employees. The top 20% received all kinds of (financial) incentives and rewards. The majority (mid 70%) of workers received commendation and continued employment. The bottom 10% were let go. Fired. While this may be an efficient way to run a company, it certainly isn’t exactly a humane one.
All in all, I enjoyed learning—straight from the chief himself—how he ran the world’s largest company.

I am beginning to suspect that the whole Jack Welch series was marketing to sell a preplanned Jack Welch consulting and speaking enterprise, there is no end to this man's ego. There should be a two book limit per egomaniac author. Very little of the content of this particular book can be translated into managing for additional profit in modern society. So read it if you happen to be a Jack Welch groupie; otherwise I think this management philosphy is no longer relevant for most industries and invest the reading time on innovation and eCommerce economics.