My immediate thoughts on reading this book were that Jack Welch must have been a bit of a b*****d to work for if you weren’t completely in tune with his idea and didn’t display the required amount of commitment. On reflection, however, I would soften my view to one of seeing him as “hard but seemingly fair”. A man who was prepared to put a tremendous amount of personal effort and the massive resources available to GE behind anybody who showed the right attributes and wanted to succeed.
The book details Jack Welch’s rise to the top of one of the world’s biggest companies. Mr Welch portrays himself as something of a maverick, someone who’s style was at odds with the politicised game playing of many of his contemporaries. When he did get to the top his maverick nature appears to have been the stimulus that was needed to turn GE from a bloated bureaucracy into a lean, mean success machine.
And it is in the description of this turnaround that this book turns from being an interesting personal history into a revealing case study of successful strategy implementation. Why was Jack Welch successful? Well firstly he recognised that the strategy needed to simple: It had to be understood by 300,000 employees. So GE set out to be either number one or number two in its chosen markets! Admittedly there was a bit more detail under the surface (like which markets to be a leader in) and eventually they changed it. But in the early stages it was sufficiently strong to get the supertanker moving.
The second reason for Jack Welch’s success was, I think, his recognition of the value of people and an ability to put in place actions which demonstrated it. This may sound odd because GE under Jack Welch were well known for getting rid of “underperforming” staff but he did establish better pay structures, better facilities and, most importantly, an environment of empowerment.
What else can this book offer you? Well a final key point is the need to
play golf. In GE the place for deal making, communication and networking was
the golf course. I think I’d better go and take lessons.
This is a really interesting read. It’s both informative and instructive.
It will help those of you following a corporate path what it takes to get
to the top and those of you outside of corporate life to remember why you
are outside of it!
Return to the main Arrowsmith Marketing Business Book Competition page
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