29 Leadership Secrets From Jack Welch [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Here's a quick read on the leadership principles of the former GE CEO who's often considered one of the 20th century's greatest business leaders. Though his reputation has been somewhat tarnished by his opulent retirement package as well as a messy divorce, his "GE Way" of management is still highly regarded. Slater, a long-time Welch watcher, offers an abridged version of his 2001 Welch tome, Get Better or Get Beaten. This version is perfect for airport reading, though it delivers little of the struggles and setbacks that must have helped form the backbone of Welch's wisdom. Instead we get the platitudes, presented in 29 highly formatted and easy-to-grab chapters. All the instruction is self-evident, told in tiny anecdotes, and followed by a set of "Welch Rules" ("Get the most out of your employees"; "Promote the three 'S's': speed, simplicity, and self-confidence"). There's food for thought here, but not very much of it. This volume's selling point-its brevity-is also its downfall: it feels too much like leadership lite.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

The first concise book of essential Welch-isms, abridged from the bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten

Jack Welch built a career out of fighting waste. 29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch follows in Welch's footsteps, boiling the legendary CEO's leadership successes down to 29 strategies that made GE the world's most competitive company­­and Welch the world's most successful and admired CEO.

This all-in-one Welch reference updates material from Robert Slater's bestselling Get Better or Get Beaten, and is today's ultimate fast-paced, no-nonsense handbook on the ways of Jack Welch. It taps into the heart of Welch's courage, innovation, and leadership success by examining simple leadership secrets that include:

• Managing less is managing better
• Make quality the job of every employee
• Have global brains and vision

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Product Details

• Paperback: 108 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (September 28, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071409378
• ISBN-13: 978-0071409377
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 4.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #324,243 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Bit Short, December 14, 2005

By	J. E. Robinson - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This book reminds me of the best seller "Who Moved My Cheese". They are both written in oversized font and are about 100 pages long and both cover simple messages.

If the books were in a regular font they would be 30 pages??

Please do not get me wrong. But it is just a feeling one gets that they have been had, sold a bill of goods which is just a summary with comments for $10.

Somebody has written down a list of XX number of principle ideas or management techniques, and then expanded each idea to fill the 100 (30 real) pages.

It would be almost as effective to just make a list of them on one or two pages.

The upshot of all this is do not buy this book, but by Jack's book "Straight from the Gut", or buy Slater's book: "Jack Welch & The G.E. Way".

I prefer Jack's own book, and to me it beats many more sophisticated business books hands down. Business is not black and white.

Almost every day there is one crisis or problem or another, and Jack's story puts it all together plus conveys the energy and excitement that he brought to the job. Something is lost in the list approach.

51 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I wonder . . ., February 7, 2003

By A Customer

There are many books about Jack Welch and all of them show and teach the corporate strategies and tactics this legendary manager implemented while at GE. Most of those titles portrait Welch as the successful business person everybody would like to be. However, I would like to warn the reader that the professional success of famous CEOs cost them their families. It's hard to believe how Welch was able to manage thousands of relations with millions of people at GE, while on the other side he failed on a relation with only one person: his wife. By the way, how many wives has he had??? Is that success??? In which planet???

Now about the book . . . it's a good title but only read it if you have never before read a title about Jack Welch or GE; if you had, it's more about the same old stuff, and I would recommend your spending your money in a smarter way.

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 29 secrets is better than nothing, April 25, 2005

By	B. Jan Hofman (San Diego, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Jack Welch is a fabulously successful manager, but most small entrepreneurs are not. They are just getting by on a day to day basis with little planning and are subject to bankrupcy with every crisis. They don't have an MBA, and they don't have time to study the principles that would give them more time. This book is a quick, easy read, it re-aligns their thinking, and gets them on track to success. You can't give your struggling business acquaintances a better gift.