Jack Welch’s innovative leadership strategies revived a lagging GE, transforming it into a powerhouse with a staggering $300 billion-plus market capitalization. In writing Jack Welch and the GE Way, author Robert Slater was given unprecedented access to Welch and other prominent GE insiders. What emerged is a brilliant portrait that tells you what makes Jack Welch tick. Learn how to work the Welch magic on your own company as you find out how he dismantled the boundaries between management layers, between engineers and marketers, between GE and its customers to streamline the process of getting products and services to market.
Get details on Welch’s far-reaching Six Sigma quality initiative, and discover how its principles and standards can save billions of dollars...how and why he has made GE a truly global company (and why you must think global as well)...and all the other Welch "midas touch" strategies you can put to work in your organization, at every level!
A recent Fortune poll cited General Electric Company as America's most admired company. Much of the credit went to Jack Welch, GE's chief executive for the past 17 years. During his tenure, GE's revenues and profits have grown enormously. Its share price has soared, making GE the world's most valuable company. And the key to GE's success, according to Jack Welch and the GE Way, is Welch's fanatical devotion to a personal philosophy of leadership. Author Robert Slater has made a growth industry of his own out of Welch, penning two previous books on him, The New GE in 1992 and Get Better or Get Beaten! two years later. The same territory was plowed in 1993 by Noel M. Tichy and Stratford Sherman in Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will.
In this book, Slater draws extensively on Welch's own words to deliver his now familiar message: keep it simple; face reality; embrace change; fight bureaucracy. Bromides these may be, but Slater's account of Welch's fierce efforts to lead a global, multifarious organization of 270,000 people does inspire admiration, even if it does not enable emulation. The book provides fresh insights into GE's shift toward service businesses, as with its takeover and transformation of NBC. Most timely are Welch's closing thoughts on trends in the global economy. Jack Welch and the GE Way is a must for the legions of "Welch-heads" out there and for anyone else interested in this brilliant leader's perspective on the future of business. --Barry Mitzman
From Publishers Weekly
Slater has written two previous books on General Electric chairman and CEO Jack Welch (The New GE, 1992; Get Better or Get Beaten!, 1994), so readers might wonder whether hard-driving Welch, stoic pioneer of downsizing, has anything new to add. Slater does not disappoint in this conversationally written, solid manual that, despite its promotional hype and adulatory tone, distills Welch's business philosophy?an amalgam of Zen-like axioms, bromides and tough-minded pragmatism?in a way that will reward managers at all levels who seek to create a learning environment and transform learning into action. Companies would do well to heed Welch's advice on how to foster an open-ended, informal work atmosphere that will encourage employees to speak out, breaking down the walls of hostility between managers and subordinates. Interweaving snippets of interviews with Welch, Slater (biographer of investor George Soros) competently traces GE's transition from manufacturing to a service-oriented enterprise, its takeover and turnaround of NBC, its expansion into financial services and overseas markets. Editor, Jeffrey Krames; agent, Chris Calhoun at Sterling Lord Literistic. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Robert Slater was born in New York City on October 1, 1943, and grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. He graduated from Columbia High School in 1962 and graduated with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1966, where he majored in political science. He received a masters of science degree in international relations from the London School of Economics in 1967. He worked for UPI and Time Magazine for many years, in both the United States and the Middle East. Slater has written 16 books about major business personalities before his new book on Donald Trump: ' The Titans of Takeover (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1987). ' Portraits in Silicon (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1987). ' This ... .Is CBS: A Chronicle of 60 Years (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1988). ' The New GE: How Jack Welch Revived an American Institution (Homewood, IL: Business One Irwin, 1993). ' Get Better or Get Beaten! 31 Leadership Secrets from GE's Jack Welch (Burr Ridge, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1994). This book made the business best-seller list in Japan. ' SOROS: The Life, Times, and Trading Secrets of the World's Greatest Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles superinvestor George Soros, and it appeared on the Business Week best-seller list. ' Invest First, Investigate Later: And 23 Other Trading Secrets of George Soros, the Legendary Investor (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). ' John Bogle and the Vanguard Experiment: One Man's Quest to Transform the Mutual Fund Industry (Chicago, IL: Irwin Professional Publishing, 1996). This book profiles the most important business figure in the mutual fund field. ' Ovitz: The Inside Story of Hollywood's Most Controversial Power Broker (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1997). This book made the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times business best-seller lists. ' Jack Welch and the GE Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1998). This is an updated look at the business secrets of General Electric's chairman and chief executive officer. It made the Business Week and The Wall Street Journal best-seller lists. ' Saving Big Blue: Leadership Lessons & Turnaround Tactics of IBM's Lou Gerstner (New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1999). ' The GE Way Fieldbook: Jack Welch's Battle Plan for Corporate Revolution (New York, NY: McGraw Hill, 1999). ' The Eye of the Storm: How John Chambers Steered Cisco Systems Through the Technology Collapse (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003). ' Magic Cancer Bullet: How a Tiny Orange Capsule May Rewrite Medical History (New York, NY: HarperBusiness, 2003), co-authored with Novartis CEO, Dan Vasella. ' The Wal-Mart Decade: How a New Generation of Leaders Turned Sam Walton's Legacy into the World's #1 Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2003). A paperback version was published in June 2004. ' Microsoft Rebooted: How Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer Re-Invented Their Company (New York, NY: Portfolio, 2004 ' No Such Thing as Over-Exposure: Inside the Life and Celebrity of Donald Trump (New Jersey, Pearson, Prentice Hall, February 2005)
This review is from: Jack Welch & The G.E. Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (Hardcover)
This is Robert Slater's third book about Jack Welch, who has achieved almost mythic status in his 17 years as CEO of GE, making the company the wolds most valuable. This new book focuses on the lessons all businesses can learn from how Welch transformed GE from a manufacturing to a service centered business by embracing change, creating a boundaryless organization focussing on globalization and emphasizing communication. Slater is a Welch fan. I would also recommend reading Thomas F. O'Boyles muckraking work AT ANY COST, JACK WELCH, GENERAL ELECTRIC and THE PURSUIT OF PROFIT as an antidote to boosterism and an insight to the darker side and human cost of radical change in a giant corporation. After you have finished with Welch and GE read the refreshing 2000 PERCENT SOLUTION by Mitchell, Coles, and Metz for a wealth of information and freeing your organization from common practices that stall growth. Welch examples may inform us but Mitchell, Coles and Metz give us a blueprint for achieving success in our businesses and organizations and involving our employees in the process of exponential growth
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 starsTOP-NOTCH CEO........POORLY WRITTEN BOOK, September 26, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Jack Welch & The G.E. Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (Hardcover)
There is no doubt about it, Jack Welch is one of the best CEO's ever. I put a low rating on the book. I couldn't stand the style. Half the book is quotes from a Welch speech...which is fine. However, the other half is just paraphrasing everything Jack says to a "T". Very very very very very very very redundant. You can get great take-aways from Jack's style. Unfortunately you have to read through the entire book. It's 10 pages of great leadership skills packed into 300+ pages.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
5.0 out of 5 starsFascinating summary of management philosophy, June 8, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Jack Welch & The G.E. Way: Management Insights and Leadership Secrets of the Legendary CEO (Hardcover)
Jack Welch got right to the point on key management ideas used to propel GE to the top. It's easy to read and digest, without unnecessary long descriptions. The key points of each topic is clearly summarized by a quote on the front of each chapter. If you have never taken a management course, read this book and you're half way there. The ideas are so simple yet so often ignored as managers are faced with a sea of complicated management theories.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
