Jack: Straight From the Gut [SIGNED FIRST EDITION, FIRST PRINTING]

Welch, Jack

Published by Warner Business Books, New York, 2001

About this Item

As new condition grey boards with a black cloth spine and gold spine lettering, contained in a fine condition non price-clipped color photographic dust jacket. Includes Dedication; Author's Note; Prologue; Epilogue; Acknowledgments; Appendixes and Index. Illustrated with black-and-white diagrams and a section of black-and-white photographs. Signed by the General Electric CEO Jack Welch on a PeopleSoft bookplate affixed to the blank first free front endpaper that states: "PeopleSoft With Our Compliments", with Jack's autograph in bold black Sharpie on the bookplate. "This book is vintage Jack Welch: down to earth, powerful, and filled with common sense. As CEO of General Electric for the past twenty years, he has built its market cap by more than $450 billion and established himself as the most admired business leader in the world. His championing of initiatives like Six Sigma quality, globalization, and e-business have helped define the modern corporation. At the same time, he's a gutsy boss who has forged a unique philosophy and an operating system that relies on a "boundaryless" sharing of ideas, an intense focus on people, and an informal, give-and-take style that makes bureaucracy the enemy. In anecdotal detail and with self-effacing humor, Jack Welch gives us the people (most notably his Irish mother) who shaped his life and the big hits and the big misses that characterized his career. Starting at GE in 1960 as an engineer earning $10,500, Jack learned the need for "getting out of the pile" when his first raise was the same as everyone else's. He stayed out of the corporate bureaucracy while running a $2 billion collection of GE businesses - in a sweater and blue jeans - out of a Hilton in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. After avoiding GE's Fairfield, Connecticut, headquarters for years, Jack was eventually summoned by then Chairman Reg Jones, who was planning his succession. There ensued one of the most painful parts of his career - Jack's dark-horse struggle, filled with political tension, to make it to the CEO's chair. A hug from Reg confirmed Jack was the new boss - and started the GE transformation. Welch walks us through the "Neutron Jack" years, when GE's employment rolls fell by more than 100,000 as part of a strategy to "fix, sell, or close" each business . an how he used the purchase of RCA to provide a foundation for the company's future earnings. There were mistakes, too - and Jack confronts them openly. In "Too Full of Myself," he describes one of the biggest blunders: the purchase of Kidder Peabody, which ran counter to GE's culture. The riveting story of his last year - the elaborate process of selecting a successor and the attempt to buy Honeywell - is also told in compelling detail. This book is laced with refreshing interludes, such as "A Short Reflection on Golf," that capture Jack's competitiveness and the importance of friendship in his life. Destined to become a business classic, [the book] is a deeply personal journey filled with passion and a sheer lust for life." - from the inner front and rear jacket flaps. Seller Inventory # 000300

Bibliographic Details

Title: Jack: Straight From the Gut [SIGNED FIRST ...

Publisher: Warner Business Books, New York

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: As New

Dust Jacket Condition: Fine

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: 1st Edition