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Jack: Straight from the Gut
by: Jack Welch, John A. Byrne

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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 496
Publication Date: August 31, 2001
Sales Rank: 14901

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Product Description:
As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap by more than $450 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a 'boundaryless' sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people (most notably his Irish mother) who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career.

Starting at GE in 1960 as an engineer earning $10,500, Jack learned the need for 'getting out of the pile' when his first raise was the same as everyone else's. He stayed out of the corporate bureaucracy while running a $2 billion collection of GE businesses-in a sweater and blue jeans-out of a Hilton in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After avoiding GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters for years, Jack was eventually summoned by then Chairman Reg Jones, who was planning his succession. There ensued one of the most painful parts of his career-Jack's dark-horse struggle, filled with political tension, to make it to the CEO's chair. A hug from Reg confirmed Jack was the new boss-and started the GE transformation. Welch walks us through the 'Neutron Jack' years, when GE's employment rolls fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to 'fix, sell, or close' each business...and how he used the purchase of RCA to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. There were mistakes, too-and Jack confronts them openly. In 'Too Full of Myself,' he describes one of the biggest blunders: the purchase of Kidder Peabody, which ran counter to GE's culture. The riveting story of his last year-the elaborate process of selecting a successor and the attempt to buy Honeywell-is also told in compelling detail.\ This book is laced with refreshing interludes, such as 'A Short Reflection on Golf,' that capture Jack's competitiveness and the importance of friendship in his life. Destined to become a business classic, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a deeply personal journey filled with passion and a sheer lust for life.

Amazon.com Review:
It's hard to think of a CEO that commands as much respect as Jack Welch. Under his leadership, General Electric reinvented itself several times over by integrating new and innovative practices into its many lines of business. In Jack: Straight from the Gut, Welch, with the help of Business Week journalist John Byrne, recounts his career and the style of management that helped to make GE one of the most successful companies of the last century. Beginning with Welch's childhood in Salem, Massachusetts, the book quickly progresses from his first job in GE's plastics division to his ambitious rise up the GE corporate ladder, which culminated in 1981. What comes across most in this autobiography is Welch's passion for business as well as his remarkable directness and intolerance of what he calls 'superficial congeniality'--a dislike that would help earn him the nickname 'Neutron Jack.' In spite of its 496 pages, Jack: Straight from the Gut is a quick read that any student or manager would do well to consider. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- Corporate growth strategies
What makes an 'A performer'? Jack's years at GE have seen their share of successes, narrow escapes, and missteps along the way - and it is Jack's treatment of the former that makes this an incredibly insightful book to read. You cannot be right all the time, nor should you expect your peers or subordinates to be, but at the same time, it is your role as a leader to identify and cultivate the best performers continuously. Yes, that means letting go of your bottom 10%, every year.

Aside from being an inspiring and educational read, the book also offers a rare glimpse of the corporate growth strategies and acquisitions made by GE - a side of corporate America that is rarely covered and poorly understood outside of the top financial circles.

Highly recommended for any entrepreneur and business owner out there. (Yes, the lessons apply outside of multi-billion dollar corporate context.)

Rating:

- Listen to what Jack Wech wants to say
I've met Jack Welch in Pasadena few weeks after the book came out. Jack Welch just confirmed his keen intellect," tough" guy fame but he discussed with passion about Six Sigma, one of initiatives he championed together with globalization and e-business. This book though is not the textbook on Welch Style of Management but is a good inside in some of his thinking and approaches. This book is for those who want to listen to what he wants to say.

Rating:

- Straight From The Gut And Straight To The Point
It's very interesting, entertaining and fun to read the autobiography of Jack Welch, the CEO icon of the 80's and 90's. He's very direct, honest and detailed on his professional life while touching sometimes on his personal one. He explains how hard work, wit and a mix of luck made him the man he has become. It's full of General Electric episodes - the good and the bad - which makes it a very compelling read. I highly recommend it.

Rating:

- Straight from the guts
Jack Who? People who are in college at this moment might not know the name. Does that really matter? No!

This book is about Jack Welch and his amazing story up the ladder of corporate America. It teaches us about guts, hard work and true dedication. It actually reads like 'Once upon a time in America' featuring Robert de Niro.

As Jack begins his journey with childhood memories, it shows how anyone can achieve great things and have an amazing career. It features hard work and some luck, but most of all the book shows there are no shortcuts. As so many books tell you how you can get that promotion as fast as possible, this story shows no 'dot-com millionaire' or 'america's next top model'. These are all longshots.

If you value a career and are ready to learn from someone who's been there and done that, grab your copy. When you want to succeed in business, it'll take more than ... Read More

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