Winning
by Jack Welch, Suzy Welch
|
List Price: Our Price: $5.97 You Save: $21.98 (79%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Winning
Book Review: Welch Passes on His Success Tips at the Bottom of the 7th
Summary: 4 Stars
Former GE CEO Jack Welch's forty-plus-year track record certainly speaks for itself, and he has already written a sharply insightful treatise on his own impressive accomplishments in 2001's "Jack: Straight from the Gut". Newly married to former Harvard Business Review editor Suzy Wetlaufer and no longer running a huge conglomerate, the 69-year old Welch does not seem to be mellowing with age, but he is understandably more interested in translating what he knows about business strategy into a succession plan. Welch lays out his leadership philosophy, that success is all about growing others, and outlines the characteristics of a leader who can teach. That's the focus of "Winning", and it has nuggets of his wizened perspective, including several rules per chapter which he backs up with examples from his passions, such as the 2004 World Series win of the Boston Red Sox being the result of constant upgrades to the team roster. The can-do attitude gets excessive at times, especially when he addresses topics outside his own personal experience such as the challenges faced by working mothers, but for the most part, he keeps it in check.
Where Welch succeeds most in the book is his everyman approach, i.e., he speaks to people at every level of an organization in companies of any size. His target is anyone who craves success and his mission to help them get it. Consequently there are chapters on his famed system for rating employees as A's, B's and C's; the Six Sigma quality push; motivating people and firing them when they aren't performing; how to survive when your company is acquired; and creating a culture that thrives on change. More personally to the reader, he offers his advice on how to find the right job, along with considerations of how to get promoted. Of course, his guidance is sound but hardly unique. But perhaps due to the influence of his new wife, he also focuses quite a bit on work-life balance, which he convincingly argues is the reward for being a high performer, not an entitlement to everyone. You can also tell that several of the case studies in which Welch describes as something happening to "a friend" are drawn directly from his wife's career. At the same time, I can't help but feel this book is somewhat anticlimactic and some of the material covered seems tangential compared to his other book, especially his loose-ends bonus chapter. Regardless, Welch deserves to be respected for the constant reinvention he forced on GE, his consistency in maintaining a thriving put-up-or-shut-up philosophy and his ability to look back at it all with a new chapter in his life exciting him as much as his corporate career. A man who is more than willing to admit his mistakes, he is truly the anti-victim, and his attitude - more than his own specific learnings - is where the profundity of the book can be found.
Book Review: Jack and Suzy Huckster
Summary: 1 Stars
It's Jack, he's back, repackaged, yet again, but this time he's hired his third wife Suzy to help with his tired old message. What's simply mindboggling here though is that Welch and his newest wife have chosen to tackle the issues of integrity and ethics in the work place in this business how-to book. Were this not so disturbing, it would be just plain laugh out loud laughable. These two have taken it upon themselves to be messengers, to show folks the way how to win in business. Integrity? Ethics? Jack/Suzy? Let's not forget who exactly we're talking about here. Suzy Welch (formerly Suzy Wetlaufer) is the former Harvard Business Review Editor who embarked upon an affair with a married Mr. Welch while working on an article about him for the Review. Talk about an utterly stupefying breach of journalistic ethics. Let's not bother with the moral/immoral issue here. No need to, after all this is business. For argument sake, let's confine ourselves to ethics and integrity. Let's also give credit where credit is due. Ms. Wetlaufer was indeed successful prior to this venture. Over time, she succeeded singlehandedly in creating an atmosphere so riddled with mistrust and unpleasantness in her own office at the HBR, that she ultimately had no option but to willingly step down from her position a few months after her affair became public knowledge. However calculated that final decision to step down may have been, it certainly was not forthcoming until several of her colleagues chose to quit their jobs at the HBR rather than work alongside a colleague so unprincipled and so unethical. But this is all nothing new. The press had a field day with it. Articles in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal abounded. Christopher Byron even chronicles that and more in his hysterical book "Testosterone, Inc." Feel free to meet the real Jack and Suzy Welch there. Better yet check out Tom O'Boyle's "Jack Welch, GE and the Pursuit of Profit.
In truth, real winners will agree that winning in business, winning in life, is about conducting oneself in an ethical, principled, and honorable way among your coworkers. It begins and ends there. Full stop. Anything else along the way, such as recognition, awards, fame, money, is simply gravy. Without those virtues in hand, no one is a winner. This version of "Winning" is, let's not forget, Jack and Suzy's version. Ever the opportunists, ever the recreators of history, ever the self promoters, ever the experts on telling folks "how to" and what it takes to win in the world of business without addressing the truth of their own deeply troubling business practices. What a world, what a joke. It's the make believe world of Jack and Suzy.
Book Review: High on the "Stories from Utopia" bookshelf
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a pleasant to read book that unfortunately has (almost) nothing to do with corporate reality. A better title for it would have been "Winning in Utopia". Admittedly, I don't have 40 years experience but I changed tack a couple of times yet never found a corporation where Jack's word come even close to describing how it works. Reasoning in "game theory" terms makes me think the vast majority of companies are very, very unlike what Jack describes. Jack himself inadvertently gives this away when recounting the story of the Q&A session with about 5000 HR professionals. In Utopia, the Chief HR sits right next the CEO, but when asked about their companies, only a few out of 5000 Real World Chief HR officers rise their hands acknowledging to having such a privileged position. I am most willing to admit that GE is an exception (that's probably part of why it's one of the most valuable companies in the world).
In the Real World, "candor" gets you stabbed and killed. Because most aspiring leaders know that, nobody takes the risk. Perfoming solidly might earn you "chits" but you can easily squander a year of solid performance by candidly speaking out one truth that proves inconvenient to your boss. On the other hand, sucking up to your boss consistently earns you large amounts of chits with less risk. Bosses are human too, they can't help but be pleased when flattered. In big organizations from the real world, middle managers feel like small cogs, the interests of their immediate boss are much closer to them than those of the distant and fuzzy concept of "Acme, Corp.", the company they are working for and which pays their salaries. Moreover, bosses have bosses too, so promoting "energetic, energizing, edge, execute, passionate" people would involve needless risks. Much better to promote their chums, guys that "get it", made in their image, loyal as they themselves are loyal to their own bosses. When you think of it, this is a proven system, it was called "feudalism" and thrived for several centuries. In our modern world it's the system that makes the various mobs (Cosa Nostra, Camorra, N'drangheta, etc.) compete so successfully. Admittedly, it doesn't work so well when there's fierce competition, but then you can still call on the politicians to protect your industry, which is what happens most of the time ...
So, read this book but for your own sake, make sure you are working for an Utopian company before trying to apply any of Jack's recommendations, or else you're a dead man and you won't be able to sue Jack for it ...
Book Review: Difficult Man with Important Lessons to Teach
Summary: 5 Stars
Being one of the true leadership gurus of our time, Welch has probably forgotten more about leadership than most "Great Leaders" out there today ever knew. The material in this book has extremely broad applicability. Whether you're earning an MBA, running a military unit, coaching a little league team or buying a house, there's something here for you.
While no single volume captures the whole breadth of leadership principles--it's a lifetime study--this one is well worth your time and money.
Jack emphasizes value-centered leadership and fostering a spirit of entreprenurialism. Certain of these ideas are more applicable to corporate business than to sales, sports or war. Nonetheless, inasmuch as sales geniuses, super coaches and the most insightful military leaders have managed to apply these principles, they have propelled them from "mere excellence" to True Greatness. If all you do is to glean some of Jack's success formula, you can't go wrong. That's not to say Jack hasn't made his share of business mistakes--the internet could have been his and a lot of GE's people still blame Jack that it wasn't. But any leader knows that we miss 90% of the groundbreaking ideas due to a lack of imagination, while we perpetuate 90% of the truly terrible ideas out of some combination of habit and momentum.
An added bonus is Jack's incredible candor with his audience. He deeply and honestly examines his business and especially his personal mistakes. In this sense he demonstrates another truly great leadership attribute: self-criticism/analysis/evaluation. It is vital that leaders regularly assess themselves and work to do better. Jack is living evidence of this.
This book is also his best-written published work. That's not to say it's well written, but it is certainly more readable than "Jack: Straight from the Gut." It's also more valuable as it's better oriented toward his audience and is much less a stereotypical leader's memoir.
That said, Jack's personal life is again a problem. We certainly shouldn't want to become the next Jack Welch! The trick, as mom saidm was "straining the noodles" when we have to extract the good from the bad. If we can throw out the scalding water of Jack's life-mistakes and benefit from the wisdom of his lessons, we will profit!
My choices for the greatest works on leadership are viewable on my Listmania list "Leadership Classics." You might also want to see "So you'd like to... get an M.B.A." an Amazon guide by David L. Kirk.
Book Review: A slightly more insightful Jack Welch shares wisdom
Summary: 5 Stars
There are two ways to look at this book and at Jack's management philosophies. One can focus on Jack Welch the person, or Jack Welch the business leader. For those who choose to focus on Jack Welch as a person and how he lived his personal life, then I suggest he is not the man to follow. However, if you want some simple, powerful and proven management practices, then he is arguably one of the best ever.
I continue to be amazed at the simple clarity of his message: empower others, ask questions, tap into the potential of all of your associates, choose integrity and candor over charts, graphs, and politics, and spend more time in action instead of planning and posturing budgets. I cannot read his words, or hear him speak without feeling again as I did as a member of his team at GE. Without fail, I was inspired and honored to be at a company which really believed that bureaucracy was to be avoided, and those who could look at reality without the politics and act accordingly were highly regarded. The one aspect I did not count on was that after leaving GE due to geographical and travel demands, those simple truths which engage and inspire people to reach stretch goals would be so rare. In fact the most basic aspects of candor and open honest dialog about the business are punished in some organizations.
The book itself is written in a conversational tone. It is easy to read, and feels as though you are in a dialog with him over a cup of coffee. Several key themes emerge which may be surprising to others who know him by reputation only.
One, Jack holds no malice and actually celebrates those whose careers involved leaving GE for roles elsewhere. This is a rather unique view, as many organizations have a misguided loyalty requirement that actually stifles the very performance potential they seek. Second, Jack seems to be more reflective of how he missed the boat on the whole work/life balance concept. Third, his willingness to openly admit mistakes is refreshing and contrary to his criticisms by others of his ego.
I found the sections on developing people, and setting business strategy to be most helpful. He understands, where few others do, that huge PowerPoint decks and consultants will not meet the need of your clients, nor will the usual political tactics help your business move forward.
I recommend this book highly, it is much more real than anything he has written before, and his passion and energy jump off every page.