This biography of Jack Welch provides some great insights into the thinking and world view of a very strong leader. While he gives a lot of credit to the people he worked with and developed, it's clear that this is the story of Jack Welch with a supporting actor role of General Electric. Some of his most famous management values (raising the talent pool by removing the lowest performing 10% of the workforce annually, commitment to eliminate portions of the business that weren't or couldn't be #1 or #2 in their markets, expansion of global markets, etc.), his intensity and focus, and his absolute confidence in his own knowledge/ability/judgment shine throughout the book.

Main Takeaways
1. Passion is the most important quality to have as a leader. You obviously need so many other things but passion can make up for weaknesses.
2. If you spend your life always focused on work then you will lose your family.
3. Integrity is a necessity.
4. The role of a CEO is to set the cultural direction and drill your message into everyone's head. Everyone needs to be on the same page, even in a 300,000 people company.
5. Once you are no 1 or no 2 in your industry, change the parameters to make you only possess 10% of the market. Always provide more runway. This can be done by changing perspectives.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Jack Welch is an animal and I have a lot of respect for the passion he brought everyday with him at GE. His dedication to self improvement, disgust for bureaucracy and gutsy moves made him one of America's greatest CEOs. Only critique I would have from Jack's life that I do not plan to imitate is his disregard for his family. It was clear where his priorities were and I have less respect for a man who cannot maintain his marriage.

A fairly light read, and considerably better than I thought it would be. Having lived through the 80s-90s when Jack Welch was Public Enemy #1 in the popular press, it was refreshing to read Jack's side of the story, and get some real insight into stack ranking. Let me rephrase that _I_ got insight into stack ranking. I have no idea if anyone has. I should also add that my father worked for GE for a number of years in motors, which was eventually sold to Regal Beloit. He did well enough at both companies.

I would not then nor now want to work for Jack Welch. Neither would I have then or now join GE or a similar company (eh... Netflix). Not how I want to my life, but I appreciate the aggression and passion with which these businesses operate.

On balance, I thought this book was mildly entertaining and reasonably interesting; however, I put it down several times when it became rather repetitive and dull. Hearing about Jack Welch’s leadership philosophy, especially as it relates to human capital and leader development, was the highlight of the book for me. On the flip side, I was horrified to read Welch continually and falsely claim that PCBs being dumped into the Hudson River by GE posed no health risks. Likewise, under Welch, GE was far from a market leader in building a diverse leadership cohort, which is apparent from the book.