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Jack Welch Speaks: Wisdom from the World's Greatest Business Leader

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Jack Welch Speaks is a quick glimpse into the mind of an outstanding manager and leader. Don't expect to be drawn in by complex philosophies and diagrams. You wont find "covey-like" principles on time management or introspective looks at goal setting principles. What you will find is short quotes and stories from Welch that gives you a taste of his straight forward, reality-check management style. His basic principles: An energized vision, create the same level of competition within departments and managers as there is in the global market, communicate honestly and frankly with the workforce, find ways to develop new ideas and of course, be the best or be gone!

This is the best single source of comments by Jack Welch, at least that I am aware of, as he approaches the conclusion of his illustriuous career at GE. Lowe deserves great credit for her editorial skills. Her selections are outstanding and well-organized. For me, this book offers a rare opportunity to share Welch's insights re subjects such as setting proper priorities, allocating resources, anticipating and then preparing for an uncertain future, responding to unexpected crises, healing self-inflicted wounds, eliminating deadwood, adjusting or abandoning ineffective strategies, and -- meanwhile -- remaining committed to non-negotiable core values. When Welch "speaks", all of us should listen very carefully. This book probably comes as close as any single source could to maximize the value of such an interaction.

I've read (studied) most of the books written about Jack Welch and felt this particular book was well worth a review too. As an inspirational children's book author I love books that inspire, teach and have messages that I can use to make life better. All of Jack Welch's wisdom, management messages and lessons are all packed into this book. In this book you'll learn about how managers shouldn't muddle but lead by exciting and inspiring their team. The importance of speed, simplicity and self-confidence. It goes into Sigma Six, Workout Sessions and more. My book shelf has just about every book ever written about Jack Welch. I call it my "Jack Pack." If you are like me you will want to read them all! I am looking forward to reading "Straight from the Gut" and would highly recommend you read Jack Welch's new book as well.

Jack Welch is a management legend. What I like about this book is the direct quotes. Readers can learn a lot from them and interpret them on their own. A few of my favorite quote are below:

"In the end, your integrity is all you've got."

"One thing we've discovered with certainty is that anything we do that makes that customer more successful inevitably results in a financial return for us."

"Before you are a leader; success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader; success is about growing others."

"Figures are just the results. We've never made dollars our goal. Profits will flow from the success of this project."

I enjoyed reading this book, as well as Lowe's other books, Google Speaks: Secrets of the World's Greatest Billionaire Entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and Warren Buffett Speaks: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

This is an excellent book that gives readers a quick insight into the highly successful management style of Jack Welch with GE. Well written, and doesn't take a lot of time to read.

Janet Lowe does a great job of distilling the essence of Jack Welch's business wisdom. The quotes, which were often used by Welch for motivation, are very powerful. This makes for a more compelling book than Jack Welch's autobiography, Straight from the Gut.

In "Jack Welch Speaks" you can find a summary of wisdom seldom demonstrated in today's world. Learn from the man who has created more personal wealth for the shareholders of GE than any CEO in the history of NY Stock Exchange. He will change you life!

In this book, Janet Lowe attempts to turn Jack Welch into a collection of quotes and with that to define his leadership. Unfortunately, you can't define leadership just by what someone says. But Janet did not take that extra step, to go underneath the surface and find out what the company is really like.Jack has placed a vision in front of the company of what it could be in the future, as opposed to what it is today or has been in the past. It is exactly the difference between this vision and today's reality that makes him a great leader. If we don't talk about this difference, then all of his slogans, lines and quotes become just, well, rhetoric. And it's hard to turn what Welch says into just rhetoric... END

This 2008 book is a collection of many of Welch's perspectives and approaches in his his 20 year tenure as CEO of the world's most diverse conglomerate. We can learn some lessons how GE tackled a number of global recessions and how we might be able to use some of those approaches in this time of uncertainty. "

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The personal viewpoint of Jack Welch (former CEO of General Electric) on how the industrial world transitioned into a post-industrial network of commercial systems, led by those with passion to succeed at any cost. Here are a few favorite quotes:
--Operating as a political democracy (or nearly so) with a capitalist economy. That, he said, gives a competitive advantage.
--"You know, all of a sudden `manager' isn't the status word it has been for a century.
--"Punishing failure assures that no one dares."
--"Quality means literally providing something that's better than the best, not just better than most."