Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will: Lessons in Mastering Change-From the Principles Jack Welch Is Using to Revolutionize Ge [Paperback]

Noel M. Tichy (Author), Stratford Sherman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1994

When Jack Welch became Chief Executive Officer of General Electric in 1981, the company was quickly approaching the grim fate that has overtaken GM, IBM, Sears and so many other blue-chip American corporations. Decades of bureaucracy had produced piles of red tape, unnecessary paperwork, muffled chains of command, and a culture that rewarded loyalty regardless of performance. Welch sold superfluous businesses, cut out layers of management, and pushed decisionmaking as far down the corporate ladder as possible, giving GE the quickness of a small business while retaining the advantages inherent in one of the ten largest companies in the world. Finally, he began reshaping the culture from one of complacency to one of bold innovation. In the process he revolutionized the art of management and led the most sucessful corporate transformation of all time. The books draws on the authors' years of work in and around General Electric and their unprecedented access to the CEO, Jack Welch, and many other GE employees. It is a dramatic narration of watershed events in the history of the business it offers many practical insights that apply to enterprises of any size, and defines a new paradigm for American business in the 1990s and beyond.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Jack Welch is undoubtedly one of the most talked about chief executives in America. Three months apart, two books have appeared about Welch and his mandate to restructure GE in the 1980s. Unlike Robert Slater's The New GE: How Jack Welch Revived an American Institution ( LJ 10/1/92), authors Tichy, a professor and GE consultant, and Sherman, a Fortune reporter, offer a deeper analysis of Welch's leadership practices and philosophies. The authors use the first person singular to signify an insider's (Tichy's) view, which is confusing at first. Furthermore, the addition of the "Handbook for Revolutionaries" (material developed at GE's executive education center in Crotonville, New York) makes Tichy appear to be a Welch convert, and the bias is sometimes too obvious. The repetition of ideas makes reading laborious. However, the authors do a substantial job in presenting the research, which included over 100 hours of interviews with Welch. Recommended for all business libraries.
- Rebecca A. Smith, Harvard Business Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Fascinating reading. There is at least as much to be learned here as from reading Peter Drucker, John Kenneth Galbraith, or Michael Porter." -- -- Boston Globe

"IBM. GM. Blow after blow is absorbed by America's recent bellwether firms. At times, only GE seems to be counterpunching--and attacking. Control Your Destiny is an exciting rendition of the Welch revolution. Read it carefully." -- -- Tom Peters, author of Liberation Management

"The first scholarly attempt to pin down the secrets of GE's success. A helpful, clear account...with interesting case studies." -- -- Financial Times

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 459 pages
• Publisher: Harperbusiness; 1 edition (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887306705
• ISBN-13: 978-0887306709
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,065 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lessons from GE's Revolution, June 8, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will: Lessons in Mastering Change-From the Principles Jack Welch Is Using to Revolutionize Ge (Paperback)

'Control Destiny or Someone Else Will' is deeply insightful and comprehensive examination of GE's transformation. It contains detailed, valuable lessons for all those interested in Jack Welch and his GE, as revolutionaries.

Noel M.Tichy and Stratford Sherman write, "The old way, exemplified by Henry Ford's production line, calls for top managers to analyze the work that needs to be done, then devise rules even an idiot can follow. Managers, divorced from the actual work, become bureaucrats, while their frustrated subordinates tighten the bolts...The new way-GE's way-breaks the intellectual framework that defines the limits of traditional management...Instead of seeking better ways to control workers, Welch says he aims to liberate them. As he explains, that goal is based on self-interest: The old organization was built on control, but the world has changed. The world is moving at such a pace that control has become a limitation. It slows you down. You've got to balance freedom with some control, but you've got to have more freedom than you ever dreamed of" (pp.19-20).

At this point, after outlining basic characteristics of old and new ways, Noel M.Tichy describes the difference between them in terms of sports:

1. Old Way-Machine Age: Hierarchical, control-focused, and bureaucratic. He notes, "The old GE resembled a football team: Each player had carefully prescribed roles, yielding a carefully orchestrated pattern. The coach called all the plays. Even the strategic-planning guidebook that governed GE policy were like the playbooks in football."

2. New Way-Information Age: Networks, flexibility, knowledge, and creation. He notes, "The New Way GE is like hockey; roles are blurred, play flows uncontrollably from one side of the rink to the other, there are no timeouts, players adjust to new situations almost every moment and think for themselves while looking out for the team as a whole."

In this context, throughout the book, Tichy and Sherman show GE's process of corporate transformation as three-act drama.

I highly recommend this business classic to all revolutionaries of the new century.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars to be as good as the best in the world, January 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Control Your Own Destiny or Someone Else Will (Hardcover)

If it ain't broke,don't fix it.....that seems to be the culture in many organisations. Left to themselves, people will ignore warnings of danger and scorn opportunities to change early and with minimum of pain. This book relates how the cultural phenomenon was changed in General Electric (GE), one of America's largest and highly successful blue-chip corporation. This transformation or change revolution was brought about by the never-ending energy of its CEO, Jack Welch. The book successfully highlights some of Welch's thoughts and key considerations as he went about revolutionising GE. The book contains some valuable lessons for all managers who are attempting to drive change in their respective organisations.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Changing the modus operandi of a modern US corporation, July 18, 2000

By 

K. Scott Proctor (Wilmington, DE USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will: Lessons in Mastering Change-From the Principles Jack Welch Is Using to Revolutionize Ge (Paperback)

This book encapsulates how Jack Welch has changed the modus operandi of a modern U.S. corporation. His principles of number-one-or-number-two, integrated diversity, boundarylessness, and speed, simplicity, and self-confidence have become a part of everyday life at General Electric. The basis of these principles -- what drives these principles -- is Welch's view of a strong business, which "...must consistently grow both revenues and profits: increasing revenues through a constant stream of new ideas and product innovations and increasing profits through unceasing improvements in productivity."

Although Welch's view of a successful business may not be new, the techniques and operating procedures employed to attain these characteristics are vastly different than previous practices at GE. This is another way of saying that the modus operandi, or method of operating, at GE has been changed by Jack Welch. This change is summed up nicely by a statement in the book: "This is the story of how General Electric got through the wall, from one man exhorting his subordinates to a team of hundreds of thousands of people working together."