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Jack: Straight from the Gut | 
 enlarge | Authors: Jack Welch, John A. Byrne
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
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Rating:  258 reviews
Sales Rank: 583565
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 1.6
ASIN: B0002EAU40
Publication Date: August 31, 2001
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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
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 253 more reviews...
 Insightful, but tough read December 31, 2008
For the most part I found this book interesting, particularly the first half that discusses Jack Welch's early life and career at GE. I really enjoyed learning about the values that helped develop one of the greatest businessmen of our time. I especially enjoyed reading about his career at GE prior to becoming CEO. Jack Welch demonstrated a tremendous amount of ambition, but not always in a manner that endeared him to his peers. His failures provide far more insight into the strength of the man than his successes do. However the flaw in this book is that it can't see the forest through the trees. Do I really need an entire chapter on the implementation of Six Sigma or the development of the GE website, I don't think so. The book really starts to drag in the second half, and while I couldn't put it down in the beginning, the last half took me several months to get through. Which brings me to the second problem with the book it doesn't flow well. You can put it down for a month, pick it up and start a new chapter and miss nothing. It starts to feel a bit like a text book where every chapter can stand on its own, and that made it much more difficult to get through.
 A great inspirational read, and a down to earth style December 29, 2008
This is a great down to earth, and inspirational read. Jack's approach and style can be carried into anyone's life. What's most interesting is the scale of the company he lead - balanced with his ability to stay hands on. This book is a pick up and put down read, where you can get back up to speed easily. A MUST READ!!
20-70-10 December 16, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the book for the readers who are interested in the history of GE from 1960 to 20001 from the Jack Welch's perspective. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career. Welch walks the reader 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. 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.
Some people think that this book is valuable as a managerial guide. Although I do not share this point of view, I agree with Jack Welch's main idea: people is the most important component of an organization. First, get the right people on the bus (and the wrong people off the bus) and then figure out where to drive it. If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats, and the wrong people off the bus, then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great. Another idea by Jack Welch, shared with the readers, is to support high-growth high-margin products and to get rid of low growth low margin products.
The Jack Welch's way or treating employees is now taught in business schools as GE's "20-70-10" system. Each year, Welch would fire the bottom 10% of his managers. He earned a reputation for brutal candor in his meetings with executives. He would push his managers to perform, but he would reward those in the top 20% with bonuses and stock options. He also expanded the broadness of the stock options program at GE from just top executives to nearly one third of all employees. Welch is also known for destroying the nine-layer management hierarchy and bringing a sense of informality to the company.
If you need a really good managerial guide, not related to GE, I highly recommend the Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter F. Drucker. I do not recommend an abridged audio version of "Straight from The Gut", because the details of Jack Welch's tenure are not adequately covered, while the managerial advices are better covered by Drucker. Either get the full version of "Straight from The Gut" to better understand the rationale of GE's "20-70-10" system or proceed directly to Drucker.
Corporate growth strategies August 18, 2008
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.)
Listen to what Jack Wech wants to say May 21, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
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.
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