''Jack: Straight from the Gut'', Jack Welch

I’m not sure whether Jack Welch is a very nice man. In fact, I suspect he’s not. He earned his nickname ‘Neutron Jack’ for his strategy of radically downsizing & streamlining General Electric in the late ‘80s. But ok, that’s business. This is another thing altogether:

‘ Carolyn [his wife] & I simply found ourselves on different paths… it was difficult and painful, but we divorced amicably after 28 years of marriage in April 1987…. When Jane [his new girlfriend, 17 years his junior] and I started to get serious, we had the ‘’why it won’t work’’ talk. I told her it bothered me that she didn’t ski or play golf, and she that I didn’t like the opera. I really wanted a full-time partner, someone who would be willing to put up with my schedule and travel with me on business trips. Jane would have to give up her career. We got married.. for the next few years, I went to the opera, calling it ‘’husband duty’’ until Jane later relieved me of the obligation. While my appreciation for opera didn’t grow, teaching her golf took me to a whole new level’’.

Nice.

This is a book with a ‘Lord of the Rings’ approach. Jack enters a new part of the business, a part he’s never been in before, with mysterious and inefficient ways and strange corporate creatures who seem to dislike him. Then he introduces his strategy and hurrah, the righteous are victors and the battle is won! Then Jack is off to another new part of the business, a part he’s never been in before, with mysterious and inefficient ways…. Alright, Jack, we get it.

And how to achieve this magical journey for oneself? (for there’s no point in reading these books unless you come away thinking, aha, becoming a CEO, it’s all matter of the following 7 steps/habits/tips!). Apparently, efficiency is a big one. Fair enough. As is recognising your core, profitable businesses vs. your peripheral, non-strategic and low margin ones. Makes sense. Whether knowing this will take me from a humble Brand Manager to a CEO remains to be seen, although ‘’Atomic Jen’’ has a nice ring to it (although I suppose I might get confused for a Kitten. Worse things have happened).

I only got to page 149 out of 465. I’m obviously not cut out for the big Corporate Life.

On a final note, I’m slightly concerned that the books I’ve read in the past 2 weeks might give an odd impression: NLP, the philosophy of Language, MOR American humour and now a history of GE. Tell us Lloyd, who lives in a brain like this? I’m guessing over time it will even out but who knows? Maybe, like Schroedinger’s Cat, it’ll all change now I’m being observed…