Jack Welch (1935–2020)

For context to this book, Jack Welch destroyed General Electric. His long tenure was full of bad decisions about mergers and acquisitions, poor management of GE Capital, tripling down on the fossil fuel industry right as the actual harms of global climate change and associated backlash were really ramping up, and utterly weird and bizarre cost-cutting measures that saved pennies at the expense of the goodwill of his employees. Welch has spent the years since building up his own ego and show more self-image as some kind of management master even as the company he left behind shed its appliance business, its electrical business, its transportation business, and others, all to try desperately to bring itself back above water.

This book contains no useful information. It is hundreds of pages of platitudes and dull and/or cryptic anecdotes. The biggest thing you get from it is a sense of the ego of the sort of person who destroys a company and pats themselves on the back for doing it. As a management guidebook it's awful. As insight into the C-suite mind it is fascinating. show less

Jack Welch: Business man's god, tough-talker, golden-parachutist, steely-eyed capitalist with a PhD. Yes the man has a hypertrophied frontal cortex, but he shoots straight from the gut. (Which phrase, oddly enough, makes me think of projectile vomiting.) Somewhere, because of this review's snarky tone, Jedediah Purdy is weeping. Sorry, Jed.

Although I liked this book, I also found it unsettling.
It is indisputable that Mr. Welch achieved phenomenal success as a businessman.
But throughout the book, I kept wondering "Where is his family?" "What about his faith?"
Mr. Welch and those around him apparently lived and breathed business 24/7 for most of their lives and achieved what they believe to be "success." While that life certainly doesn't appeal to me, I guess I'm glad that there are people who are willing to work that hard to show more create products and services that benefit me and others.
On a side note, I had to snicker when Mr. Welch kept emphatically stating his commitment to "integrity." Anyone familiar with how his second marriage ended knows that he has problems in that area. show less

Enthusiastic narration by [a:Mike Barnicle|3769|Mike Barnicle|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] really adds to this corporate memoir of the famous GE exec. Maybe it is this current economy, but I didn't find the tales of acquisitions and market dominance all that engrossing. I do give Welch credit for admitting to mistakes in some of this diverse, accelerated growth. I don't recall the 'Neutron Jack' moniker for his reputation of show more removing the people and keeping the buildings, but it must have been real as irksome to him. It made it to his obituary. It is interesting to hear how he became a Six Sigma evangelist and gives credit to this methodology driven by data and statistics to reduce defects and improve processes. There is a lot in the final act about his choice of a successor and the jet diplomacy that featured in that like in many of his ambitious deals. show less