Winning

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 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 show more 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

I'm a big fan of Jack Welch's leadership and writings. I'm not sure most people have the charisma to actually pull off what he did. But, this book is full of good advice that you should reference as you move through your career.

Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, tackles a number of issues that plague every business. He presents candid insights that make sense and are practical. It's hard to disagree with anything he says though I feel he thinks his ideas can be implemented far more quickly and easily than they would in practice. I do disagree with his thoughts on work-life balance and gender gaps in senior positions but you can't agree about everything!

Energetic, funny and insightful. Filled with many practical takeaways for hiring, growing people working with you and yourself in your career.

The name says it all - in this book, Welch shares with us his secret to winning. It answers several questions on management and career asked of Welch during his travels around the world. Topics covered include setting corporate vision and mission; strategy; the value of candor; leadership; hiring (and firing); the employee-boss relationship; finding the right career (and keeping it) and more. His style is no-nonsense - he tells you like it is, cutting through hype and getting right to the core of every principle. You will find no magic formula here - in fact, you will realize how hard-earned success is. I liked the practicality and authenticity, as well as the fact that I was listening to lessons that Welch himself had learned - and show more proven - over four decades of his incredibly successful career.
This is one book that you should read - or listen to, as I had done - over and over again, until its teachings become second nature. If you can get that to happen (and that's a big if!) you won't ever need career advice again. show less

Business advise. When he talked about being open with employees about the company situation, I thought of my experience where 2/3 of our work was moved out of state and management told us there would be no cuts - didn't believe it and turned out not to be true.

I listened to the audio book read by the author whose accent can be hard to understand sometimes. Some good insights. Much of it is cliched. Lots of lists in terms of 4 rules top do this, or three things to look out for. As always putting the suggestions in to practice is the challenge especially when most examples relate to big-big business