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Jack: Straight From the Gut by Jack Welch with John A. Byrne Recommendation: ••••
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Good Things to Life The long-awaited autobiography of retired General Electric Company CEO Jack Welch has arrived, titled Jack: Straight From the Gut. Many executives will want to read this book in search of lessons to learn that could apply to one’s individual situation. I’ll give it away: “Almost everything should and could have been done faster.” Go ahead and buy the book, despite my giving the meat away, if only because Welch has donated his profits from the book to charity. The twelve-point typeface helps the 450 pages of Jack: Straight From the Gut turn quickly. Perhaps thirty or forty pages represent the “from the gut” expectations from the title. Most of the rest is “from the files”. So much has been written about Welch over the last twenty years, that hearing his current version of some old events became a bit tiresome. His bluntness shines throughout the book, and he gives much credit to his sainted Irish mother for making him into the man he is today. Welch’s divorce from his first wife took all of a page and a half to wrap up; not much gut wrenching there. When it comes to telling business stories, Welch excels at conveying the joy he’s experienced throughout his career. Early shortcomings in his frustration in coping with the GE bureaucracy turned out to be the strengths he needed as CEO to make the company more versatile. Having read the book, it makes me all the more interested in wondering about the legacy that Welch leaves at GE, and how and whether he will be remembered in another twenty or thirty years. Here’s an excerpt from his reflections on remarks he made at his last meeting with GE’s top 500 leaders: “I had taken over a good company in 1981 that a lot of people had made better. I believed my successor would take over a great company and make it much greater. That’s what the chairman’s job is all about. I wanted to make sure that the message got through in my closing remarks. I jotted down my thoughts on a yellow legal pad, just as I always did. It took me two days to develop what I wanted to say. I didn’t want to be maudlin or sentimental. I wanted everyone to know that GE had to change more in the next two decades than it had in the past 20 years. ‘I got this job 20 years ago, and together we changed a lot,’ I said. ‘It has been a fun, wonderful journey filled with great memories and lasting friendships. For much of what we’ve done, forget it. Today’s clippings wrap yesterday’s fish. ‘This will be a whole new ball game: Change, as you have never seen it, at speeds you’ve never seen. What fun for those who relish it. What fear for those who don’t grasp it.’ I ended by telling everyone to turn the organization upside down, shake it up, and go blow the roof off.” In reading Jack, it’s easy to listen to the core value of integrity influencing every action. It’s easy to hear him talk about the benefits to everyone of weeding out the weakest 10% of the workforce, all the time. Welch has every reason to be proud of all his accomplishments, and Jack presents some of those along his perspective on what it meant. His plain humanity shines through often enough on these pages for readers to know and understand Jack Welch as a real person. Like him or hate him, you’re likely to value the time you spend reading Jack. Steve Hopkins, October 10, 2001
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