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Overview
A rare perspective on the personal philosophy, business savvy, and future of the chairman of the most admired company in the world Jack Welch, chairman of General Electric, is due to retire this spring. Welch has transported GE into the new economy with his management style, his forward-thinking approach to new technology, and by encouraging creativity among his employees. This book provides a look at what the innovative powerhouse executive has brought to American business and what will ultimately be his legacy. Thorough, authoritative, and absorbing, Welch: An American Icon includes interviews with CEOs at other leading companies who have worked under Welch and been trained by him, as well as interviews with other GE executives.Janet Lowe (Del Mar, CA) is an investment writer and author who has written sixteen business and biographical works, including the recent Damn Right!: Behind the Scenes with Berkshire-Hathaway Billionaire Charlie Munger (0-471-24473-2). Ms. Lowe is past editor of the San Diego Daily Transcript and Financial Editor of the San Diego Tribune. More than 200 of her business articles have appeared in such publications as Newsweek, the Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Welch: An American Icon delivers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how this man has become a global symbol of brilliant management, shedding new light on the tactics, style, and personality of the man who made GE a dominating force in world business.
Synopsis
"As the most widely admired, studied, and imitated CEO of his time, Welch has enriched not only GE's shareholders but the shareholders of companies around the globe."--Fortune magazine
Of all the outstanding business leaders of our time, none can boast the almost universal respect awe, even that Jack Welch receives from colleagues and competitors alike. As the Chairman of General Electric, he has transformed the company into a Goliath of the new economy with his unique management style, forward-thinking approach, and inspiring leadership. Welch: An American Icon delivers a rare, behind-the-scenes look at how this man has become a global symbol of brilliant management, shedding new light on the tactics, style, and personality of the man who made GE a dominating force in world business.
Frank yet balanced and fair, financial writer Janet Lowe explores the shining successes as well as the darker aspects of Jack Welch's life and work how he shaped and influenced GE, how he pushed the company into the global marketplace, and how his vision is impacting the lives of everyone everywhere.
Welch: An American Icon reveals the steps Welch took to make GE the world's most valuable company with a market capitalization that exceeded $520 billion in 2000. You'll learn how he restructured the company by reducing the work force to only the absolute minimum necessary. Then find out how he mobilized his personal drive and energy to improve the different businesses within GE, committing to globalization and integrating the Internet into every aspect of the company.
However, Welch's leadership came with a price tag. From disgruntled employees to numerous scandals to egregious salaries and a running battle with environmentalists, many cite Welch as a particularly dangerous role model for American business.
Whatever your opinion of Jack Welch, Welch: An American Icon offers an engaging look at his rise to the top and details a philosophy that every leader should know.
Publishers Weekly
When business writer Lowe (Damn Right!, etc.) approached GE Chairman Jack Welch about a book (Jack Welch Speaks, her first book on him), "[h]e said he did not see any purpose in. . . yet another book." Lowe's respectable, ultimately redundant book portrays Welch as a captain of industry who commands the kind of attention that top executives crave and almost never get. The near-mythical story of GE's wrenching turnaround earns Welch abundant positive and negative buzz. Unlike many of Welch's contemporaries, he has stayed with the same company for the long run (since 1960), becoming chairman in 1981 and immediately restructuring the massive conglomerate, earning the moniker "Neutron Jack" because of his huge layoffs along the way. Through a combination of radical structural changes, a near-fanatical devotion to the Six Sigma management system and an acquisition blitzkrieg, GE leapt into the 21st century, taking no prisoners. Critics noted that under his stewardship, deep workforce reductions accompanied Welch's own ballooning salary and a tendency to treat workers and their hometowns as dispensable (Welch has said, "Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge, to move with currencies and changes in the economy"). Lowe promises a balanced look at Welch that pulls no punches; for the most part, she delivers. But the book's distracting, episodic style (a lot of the material was left over from the first book) makes it seem little more than an attempt to capitalize on curiousity about Welch prior to the publication of his much-touted upcoming book. Several abundant appendices are informative but do little to explain Welch's icon status. (May 4) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
According to author Janet Lowe, Jack Welch "epitomizes the American ideal: big, bold, egalitarian, democratic, energetic, creative, driven by the work ethic." In order to elucidate Welch's transformation of GE into a "meta-corporation" that many analysts consider a proxy for the entire American economy, Lowe traces Welch's career from boyhood, analyzes his many notable accomplishments, and candidly discusses the "dark side" of his legacy.From the Publisher
Welch: An American Icon by Janet Lowe. If Jack Welch isn't a household name, he should be, Lowe says. "Welch is a guy who makes a lot of things happen, all kinds of things that affect the lives of all of us, even when we're not aware of it." (USA Today September 10, 2001)"When business writer Lowe (Damn Right, etc.) approached GE Chairman Jack Welch about a book (Jack Welch Speaks, her first book on him), "[h]e said he did not see any purpose in -yet another book." Lowe's respectable, ultimately redundant book portrays Welch as a captain of industry who commands the kind of attention that top executives crave and almost never get. The near-mythical story of GE's wrenching turnaround earns Welch abundant positive and negative buzz. Unlike many of Welch's contemporaries, he has stayed with the same company for the long run (since 1960), becoming chairman in 1981 and immediately restructuring the massive conglomerate, earning the moniker "Neutron Jack" because of his huge layoffs along the way. Through a combination of radical structural changes, a near-fanatical devotion to the Six Stigma management system and an acquisition blitzkrieg, GE leapt into the 21st century, taking no prisoners. Critics noted that under his stewardship, deep workforce reductions accompanied Welch's own ballooning salary and a tendency to treat workers and their hometowns as dispensable (Welch has said, "Ideally, you'd have every plant you own on a barge, to move with currencies and changes in the economy"). Lowe promises a balanced look Welch that pulls no punches; for the most part, she delivers. But the book's distracting, episodic style (a lot of the material was left over from the first book) makes it seem little more than an attempt to capitalize on curiosity about Welch prior to the publication of his much touted upcoming book. Several abundant appendices are informative but do little to explain Welch's icon status." (Publishers Weekly, April 2001)
"...this book is a good read..." (Ambassador, September 2001)