Jack, Straight from the Gut (Review and Analysis of Byrne's Book)

By BusinessNews Publishing

The must-read summary of  Jack Welch and John Byrne's book: "Jack: Straight from the Gut, The Autobiography".

This complete summary of the ideas from Jack Welch and John Byrne's book "Jack" shows that Jack Welch joined General Electric in 1960. From 1981 to 2001, he served as chairman and CEO of the company . In his book, he takes the reader through his enormously successful career, identifying his successes, his philosophy for leading a company and how to deal with the roadblocks. Welch was always openly ambitious: after only four years in the company he lobbied to take on a $10 million budget. At 32, he was the company’s youngest general manager: in that role, he became known for encouraging debate and not tolerating protocol. When he became CEO, he began to build a philosophy that the company had previously been lacking: every aspect of the business that wasn’t fulfilling its potential must be fixed, sold or closed. Welch sees this time as him "throwing hand grenades", trying to blow up traditions that were holding the company back. He also put into place a radical HR system that put employees into category A, B, or C: "A" showed potential leadership, "B" was people who got the job done, and "C" was for procrastinators. 

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To learn more, read "Jack: Straight From the Gut" and discover an utterly engrossing insight into a man with vision, passion and practical know-how.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Business Book Summaries
• Release date: Feb 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9782806233448

Book preview

Book Presentation

Jack: Straight From The Gut by Jack Welch with John Byrne

Summary of Jack: Straight From The Gut (Jack Welch with John Byrne)

About the author

JACK WELCH joined General Electric in 1960 after graduating from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Illinois at Champaign. From 1981 to 2001, he served as chairman of the company and CEO. He retired in the fall of 2001.

JOHN BYRNE is a senior writer at Business Week magazine.

Important Note About This Ebook

This is a summary and not a critique or a review of the book. It does not offer judgment or opinion on the content of the book. This summary may not be organized chapter-wise but is an overview of the main ideas, viewpoints and arguments from the book as a whole. This means that the organization of this summary is not a representation of the book.

The Early Years

Jack Welch was born on November 19, 1935 in Peabody, Massachusetts. Both his parents were second-generation Americans of Irish descent. His father worked all his life as a railroad conductor on the Boston & Maine commuter line between Boston and Newburyport, leaving his mother to carry the balance of the upbringing of Jack, their only child.

After graduating from the Salem High School, Jack applied to go to the nearest state university, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, because tuition was only fifty bucks a semester. That meant I could get a degree for less than $1,000, including room and board. He began college in the fall of 1953 and by the time he graduated in 1957 with a degree in chemical engineering, Jack was one of the university’s two best engineering students. He decided to enroll in the Ph. D. program at the University of Illinois at Champaign because they offered him a fellowship. By the time he left Illinois in 1960, not only did he have a Ph.D. but he had also met and married his first wife, Carolyn Osburn.

As a 24-year old graduate, Jack Welch had several offers of work, but one that particularly interested him was an offer from Dr. Dan Fox who was setting up a development group to work on new plastics for General Electric in Pittsfield,