Winning
by Jack Welch, Suzy Welch
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Book Reviews of Winning
Book Review: This Book's Straight from the Head
Summary: 4 Stars
Jack Welch's CEO memoir, "Jack: Straight from the Gut," came out in 2001. Since then he got and then married a former editor at the Harvard Business Review who's the co-author of this book. He's also spent a lot of time giving speeches and answering questions from audiences.
The book is based his answers to those questions. But we don't get the answers raw, or even straight from the gut.
Jack got to deliver many of the same answers over and over, giving him time to reflect and clarify his own expression. Then, Jack's wife Suzy crafted, shaped, and sharpened the answers still further.
The knowledge you get from this book is like the ingredients in a great soup. Quality ingredients are critical if you want a great soup. But the cooking, the interaction with other ingredients and the ministrations of a good cook make the final product better than the sum of the parts.
There are four key ingredients in Welch's soup. People are the most important thing. Candor is essential. The business race is more like a marathon than a sprint. To win the race you need the minimum amount of planning and the maximum amount of running.
Just like in a soup, the ingredients interact and intertwine. They show up in every section and almost every chapter. They make this a very rich soup indeed. But it is not a perfect soup.
Welch was the CEO of a very big company for more than two decades and spent his entire working life there. Those facts make a difference in how much of this book will be valuable for you.
This book is written with a big company perspective. If you're in a smaller company, especially a micro-business, you will probably find whole sections of this book, such as the one on Mergers and Acquisitions, entirely irrelevant.
This book is written with a CEO's perspective. If your position is closer to the middle or the bottom of the organizational chart, you will probably find whole sections of this book frustrating because they offer ways to change processes that you experience, but don't command. You'll probably find the discussions of changing the performance appraisal and budgeting processes interesting and stimulating, but unable to offer you anything concrete you can achieve.
Pick up a copy of the book and look through it. Or, use the "Look Inside the Book" feature on Amazon. Check out sections that interest you to see if they offer value you can use. Even if you find whole sections that won't help you, though, I think you'll find several things in this book that are worth the cover price all by themselves.
In general, the section on leadership is excellent, with rich advice on hiring and firing. No matter what business or organizational position you're in, you'll find value here.
The section on handling a crisis is written from that big company perspective. But it's also chock-full of wisdom for anyone who's going to face a crisis, which is everyone.
If you're looking for "how-to" advice, you may find it here, but check out the book before buying to be sure. If you're looking for insights and opinions that will stretch your own business thinking, you'll find bucketsful in this book.
Book Review: Jameson Thottam with a Winning Review
Summary: 4 Stars
Jameson Thottam with a Winning Review
Question: Why Should I read yet another tell-all book by some CEO ?
Answer: Because this one is short on stories and long on advice.
Here's the Scoop $Jameson Thottam$
Jack Welch's 2001 bestseller Straight From The Gut was widely read, and then criticized, for being long on stories and short on any kind of actionable and practical advice. Not so for this 2005 soon-to-be bestseller, co-written by Jack and his newly acquired wife, Suzy.
Advice = Jameson Thottam
You want advice? You'll get it - in a grab-bag full of goodies garnered throughout the career of probably the most influential and successful CEO of the 20th century. Unless you are some formulaic, number-crunching newbie MBA working at McKinsey you are unlikely to find anything in this book that is amazingly insightful. I doubt you will have an epiphany or a-ha moment. What the book will do is to make you think about how you can better apply and execute many of the things you are probably already doing.
First Impressions with Jameson Thottam
I found this book to be an easy and enjoyable read, almost as if I was actually having a conversation with Jack over a coffee or a fine whiskey. In fact, you can zip through this book so quickly it would be easy to miss the nuggets embedded within each chapter. So I'd recommend you use a highlighter or take some notes to retain the goodies and make sure they transition from short-term to long-term memory.
Conceptually I didn't have too many problems with any of the major points Jack made - except for one. GE utilizes a process affectionately called "stack-ranking" where across the company you are rated as top 20%, middle 70% or bottom 10%. The bottom 10% get whacked or `managed out' fairly regularly - and replaced by better candidates to improve the corporate gene pool. A great idea in theory until it is turned over to the spreadsheet brigade and people become subject to abuses of the system and human error or deliberate malice. Its one of those things you either love or hate. So yes - you should absolutely manage people up or out, but not subject to artificial barriers.
Contents ++ Jameson Thottam
Jack focuses in on four main areas:
1. Underneath It All. Looking at mission, dignity, differentiation (aka stack ranking) and candor.
2. Your Company. Leadership, hiring winners, people management, letting go (firing), handling changes and crisis.
3. Competition. Strategy, budgeting, mergers, six sigma
4. Your Career. Finding the right job, getting a promotion, "that damn boss" and work/life balance.
Then as a bonus Jack handles a few odds and ends that had been thrown at him over the years - like "Hows your golf game." , "Will you go to Heaven?"
And what did I get out of it? Jameson Thottam
- A determination to be more candid and use less "sugarcoating".
- Some great ideas to use for hiring.
- A renewed hatred of the budgeting ritual.
- An appreciation for the "Right Job".
So go ahead and win by getting this book,
Jameson Thottam
Book Review: A Tough-Minded Career Guide for Corporate Life
Summary: 5 Stars
How do corporate managers really think? When they make a move, what's really going on? This book has the answers. Like the lyrics of The Apprentice opening song, this book reminds us not to take anything personally. It's just business.
The first part of Winning describes Welch's philosophy of leadership. Reward the top performers, he says. Take care of the middle and then boot the bottom. Cruel? No, he argues. People should know where they stand.
I believe Welch is right -- as long as you appreciate his perspective. He's speaking as a manager and corporations view people as resources. Except for some qualities which he believes can be trained, the company's job is to choose and keep only people who really contribute to the mission.
As a career consultant and coach, I often talk to people whom Welch would categorize as misfits. Some were disrupters at more than one company -- who eventually found a home in a unique position or started their own businesses. Some recognized they were misplaced in a particular company or industry.
Welch doesn't deal with "what happens after ," and that's really not the organization's job. Rather I would encourage everyone to take the feedback as a guide and move to a career that's more rewarding. Hire your own career guide who will be your own resource and advocate.
Surprisingly, the best part of Winning is the second half, dealing with individual career management. Often people who achieve great career success cannot explain what happened. Not Welch.
I like his criteria for choosing a position, especially the importance of "credentialing." Will this job help you move to the next? I've been using a more general term, "marketability."
And I like his discussion of matching your sensibilities -- i.e., personality and culture -- to the job's. These elements often drive people to new careers, more than the work itself. He acknowledges that heading down the wrong path can block off opportunities to reach a satisfying career. Too many self-help authors opt for empty words of cheer, along the lines of, "You can be whatever you want." Welch reminds us that business, like a lot of life, can be tough.
And I applaud his realistic question: Are you taking this job for yourself or to satisfying someone else's agenda? Sometimes you do have to subordinate to family or other needs -- but be upfront and don't complain. Just do what you need.
Other guidance on getting ahead -- how to be a team player and how to manage a bad boss -- avoid the usual platitudes. Decide on your long-term objective, he says, and make an informed decision.
Welch's advice applies, of course, only to well-managed, reasonably sane companies. If you find yourself frustrated with his advice, you probably belong outside the corporate arena. Individual industries have unique customs and informal rules. Some companies have hidden agendas of their own. People can be set up to fail.
But most of the time, you won't go wrong with Welch's advice, even if you've landed in a mess. And if you keep landing in one messy situation after another, it's time to ask what's really going on.
Book Review: Neutron Jack can't handle the tough questions
Summary: 1 Stars
What's interesting about this book is the extent to which Welch counts on his fawning friends in the media to throw softball questions in all the interviews he agrees to in order to promote this latest attempt at salvaging his blackened reputation. Case in point: Dan Rather seeking redemption in the eyes of his superiors and colleagues for his own disturbing fall from grace. Dan claimed he "worked hard" to get the interview with Jack and Suzy for "60 Minutes Weds." Really? It certainly didn't hurt that Dan's boss, CBS chairman Les Moonves is good buddies with Jack. Published reports had both men vacationing together with their young paramours at the same hotel over the Christmas holidays last year. Les and his newest wife, CBS's morning anchor Julie Chen, can easily be found on the internet, beaming at the book party for both Welch's in New York. Nor did it hurt that Dan's colleague at "60 Minutes Wednesday," is Charlie Rose - also a good friend of Jack and Suzy's who not only went to their book party, but attended their wedding as well. Yet CBS and Dan would like the viewing public to believe that Dan had to "work hard" to get the go ahead from Jack and Suzy for the segment. Uh huh - Having viewed the obsequious interview, one can only imagine at what price Dan had to sell his soul for the exclusive on that interview. What lightweight questions for a man who signed off with the motto, "courage." How tragic. Then there's Newsweek and Dan McGinn's glossy PR for "Winning." Where's the real "news" in the article a critical reader might ask. It rivals People magazine and The Star for it's "news" coverage. For a sample of what happens when Jack is confronted with legimate, hard hitting questions about his style of management, check out the following quotes in The Harbus Online by members of the audience at Harvard Business School's Leadership and Values Forum event April 12th, 2005. Jack found Professor Khurana's line of questioning a little too tough. Make that, a little to courageous and direct for Jack's liking.
"Usually HBS guest speaking events are moderated in minimalist fashion and are not intended to question the speaker as much as to give him or her forum to evangelize a point of view. I think this is what Mr. Welch had in mind and was caught off guard by the style of the questioning."
From Jonathon Fitzhugh's (OB) assessment, "I am definitely a Jack Welch admirer, but he was much less diplomatic and even-tempered in person than I would have imagined from reading his earlier books."
Elli Kaplan (OC) was less generous, remarking, "I was stunned by what I saw - Jack Welch was clearly not interested in answering the questions and was condescending, disrespectful and appallingly rude to Professor Khurana."
Now there's a candid assessment of Jack Welch when he's confronted with truly probing, legitimate, tough questioning and not the lightweight, eager to please, eager to impress, carefully scripted fare he is used to answering from the gentle questioning of his fawning buddies in the media.
Book Review: Bill Walsh, Joe Montana...and Jack Welch
Summary: 4 Stars
Jack Welch's latest effort, "Winning," is an important addition to a business leader's library (as well as those who want to lead). I would not, however, agree with Warren Buffet's jacket quote, "No other management book will ever be needed."
"Winning" is organized into five areas:
Underneath It All
Your Company
Your Competition
Your Career
Tying Up Loose Ends
The first two areas address mission, values, culture leadership, personal leadership, and human asset leadership. Much of this has been addressed by any number of books and with greater depth. What is remarkable is Welch's belief in institutionalization of these crucial elements. Many leaders of big companies talk a good game but few, if any, take convert the words to organizational behavior. Welch has.
One section of the book that was most interesting was the one on competition. I was particularly appreciative of Welch's comments on strategy, and budgeting:
"Forget the arduous, intellectualized number crunching and data grinding that gurus say that you have to go through to get strategy right. Forget the scenario planning, yearlong studies, and hundred-plus page reports. They're time consuming and expensive. You just don't need them."
"It (strategy) is an iterative process and not nearly as theoretical of life-and-death as some would have you believe."
"...the budgeting process at most companies has to be the most ineffective practice in management...it sucks energy, time, and big dreams out of an organization. It hinders opportunity and stunts growth. It brings out the most unproductive behaviors in an organization, form sand bagging to settling for mediocrity."
This is a CEO after my own heart. He articulates why I left the corporate world for Silicon Valley. My world of fragile start-up companies and entrepreneurs, while not immune from some ineffectual strategizing and planning, is better at using time productively to create value. Why? Because all early stage companies exist at the edge of the abyss and it is always fighting for survival. Sand bagging and mediocrity are immediately obvious and are not tolerated.
The other section that was of interest to me was that on career. I have spent many hours, through my church, over the past four years with bright and well paid professionals who have suddenly lost their jobs due to the dot.com bust and/or the winds of economic change. Welch's words on career are a good read for all - whether in-transition or not.
The only question left for Welch, which only time can answer, is whether or not his plan for winning will stand the test of time without Welch in the Quarterback role. Can his playbook continue to sustain a global behemoth like GE? We saw what happened here in San Francisco when Bill Walsh and Joe Montana left. The fall of the 49ers did not come overnight but it did come. Oh, for the days of Walsh, Montana, and....Welch!