Jul 31, 2003 04:36 PM
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(Updated Aug 02, 2003 05:04 PM)
The other day, I was at a friend's place helping him shift his apartment, when I stumbled upon an old 2001 fortune magazine with an interview of Jack Welch. I always know Jack Welch was one of the Alpha Male Lions roaming the Corporate Jungles, but that interview got me so hooked, that I went to a Book store and decided to read ''Jack- Straight from the Gut'' immediately.
A Word of caution before you read : This is one of my first Book reviews at Mouthshut, so please forgive me if I have goofed up somewhere or made glaring omissions here and there. Thank you
An Introduction to the man :
Jack Welch - At 44, He was the youngest Chairman & CEO of one of America's greatest companies , taking the company from good to great in 20 years flat, and retired in 2001.Phew! (What a man!)The most amazing part about this man was not only the success & spotlight he shared as Chairman & CEO of General Electric Worldwide, but also his climb to one of the most powerful positions in the corporate world. This book delves and details invaluable experiences from his journey to stardom than the destination(which most CEOs like to cry hoarse about).
The Wonder Years of Jack:
The book starts off by his ''wonder years'' in school and college and Jack candidly admits the mistakes he did in his initial days due to immaturity of thought ( Something unique about this book). He speaks of his wonder years too, very candidly, like the time, he bunked classes and went to the city to watch a football game and how he got caught red handed. The fears of a small town guy going into the big city to study in college, The pressure to excel in studies, because of his mother's dreams...
From humble beginnings, of being the son of a railroad engineer and coming from small town, farm country USA (Salem), the success story began.
The tiger learns to roar:
Though known worldwide by his first or second name, he is also a Ph.d in Plastics Engineering and has actually worked his way from the Chemical Labs to the high voltage boardrooms, unlike many others who walked into Boardrooms from the snooty world of Harvard or LBS. He is not a management graduate, but goes on to prove that Management lessons need not be text book theories but can also evolve from structured commonsense and a good tounge brain coordination unlike many freshly minted MBAs of today who have got the idea of management all wrong.
He goes on to mention in detail his arduous climb to the top of GE , the politics involved in the race for that celestial position and hanging on there and taking a company in 20 years from a valuation of 15 billion USD to 450 billion!!!
The Bhagavad Gita of modern corporate warfare:
The book is truly a modern mahabharatha (An Indian epic Novel)in some ways. Jack details on how you need to have the goal in front of you , and sometimes bend and compromise on certain things that you feel are wrong to actually reach the end goal. He speaks about how being loud mouthed and non-conformist, he still waded through the 27 corporate tiers in GE to reach the top dog position. ( Reminds me about certain parts of the Gita, where Arjuna asks Krishna how he can kill his own brothers, and Krishna advises back on Arjuna's Karma, the focus needed on the end goal and conviction in self...A truly mesmerizing Chapter)
An Indian love affair :
An interesting point that I realized and am proud of is where Jack mentions and acknowledges the intellectual prowess of GE's Indian scientists working here.(Remember we are talking about 1980s and early 90s when globalization was only starting to happen and the Indian IT story was still in its infancy) Jack's stamp of approval that India produces and exports some of the best brains in the world made me feel on top of the world(If only these brains could seep into our bureaucracy and government too...sigh!.. then we would be going somewhere)
The Jack way of doing things:
If Roberto Guizeto and Steve Jobs are stately oaks in the corporate garden, Jack Welch stands out like a massive California Red Wood tree. His principles of creating a boundary less organization, in his words ''The biggest change we made at GE, without question, was the move to a boundary less company. We got rid of the corner offices, the bureaucracy, ... ''
Some of his concepts of developing talent in an organization , in the book would act as a bible for HR people. The best part of the book being that it is written in a style where he is almost talking to you, and not spouting theories and abstracts.
Imagine...this was a man who motivated thousands of GE employees worldwide, This was at a time when almost 100,000 employees were being laid off one one hand . It takes a lot of Guts in a man to stand up to concepts which were alien to those times GE was using the word lay-off and pink slips when Silicon valley was playing around in its famous networking parties and dot com babies. His concept of weeding out the scum in an organization and grooming the flowers was revolutionary at the time it was conceived. (Salutes to you, Jack!)
All in all, the money spent on this book is money well spent.
It was almost by sheer chance that I got interested in Jack Welch, almost like something out of a movie, but what I learnt from Jack-straight from the gut might as well be the inflection points of my career...
Read it...the 800 bucks spent on the book would be the best investment made in your lifetime. I wish all readers luck...
God Bless..
Moonraker
P.S : I'm right now reading ''The Jack Welch Lexicon of Leadership'' which is also an equally exiting read.Will review it soon..but get hold of this book first if you need to know the man behind the make-up.
