Keywords
Citation
(2000), "Business the Jack Welch Way: 10 Secrets of the World's Greatest Turnaround King", Work Study, Vol. 49 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2000.07949bae.005
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2000, MCB UP Limited
Business the Jack Welch Way: 10 Secrets of the World's Greatest Turnaround King
Stuart CrainerCapstoneISBN 1841120030£8.99
Keywords Leadership, Management styles, Success
Capstone seem to specialise in cheap (high value?), punchy business books - ideal as travel books and intermittent reading. This one is about Jack Welch, one of the most successful and controversial business leaders the world has ever seen. When he took the helm at GE, then a model of the US corporate way, he was 45 years old, the youngest chief the company had ever appointed. Welch transformed a hitherto cautious company, and put his dynamic mark on corporate USA at the same time. GE's businesses were overhauled. Some were cast out and hundreds of new businesses were acquired. Fortune called Welch "the toughest boss in America". GE became a leaner and fitter organisation: any complacency was eradicated.
Having proved that he could tear GE apart, he had to rebuild a company for the twenty-first century. The hardware has been taken care of. Now came the software. Welch implemented one of the most radical and farsighted restructurings ever. Walls were literally torn down as GE became an open, listening and empowered organisation. This extraordinary change program has become the benchmark for twenty-first century business, with Welch as the management superhero.
This book reveals the factors inherent in Welchs' remarkable success and, in so doing, draws out the universal lessons and identifies strategies that can be applied to any business or career. From killing bureaucracy to talking straight, and from investing in people to dominating your market (or getting out of it) the "secret" of success are available to all!