Finally here, ’’Straight from the Gut’’ is an auto-biography by Jack Welch, ex-CEO of General Electric. When you first look at the cover, you wonder why one must buy or even borrow this book ? After all, it may yeat another autobiography by yet another businessman. But you must read this book if: 1. You’re intelligent, or 2. You listen to good advice once you hear (in this case read) it.
The book can be divided roughly into 3 parts : (a) About Jack Welch before GE - his upbringing ang college. This section is nothing very interesting and can be skipped if you want to. Its the normal thank my parents, thank my teachers sort of a section. (b) Jack Welch and his rise to the position of CEO in GE and his term of 17 years (yes!!) as CEO - This is the largest section in the book and is just amazing. When you read about the GE culture when Jack become CEO and how slowly but steadily he changed the organisation, you just wonder with amazement at the intelligence of one man - on tapping jhis talent pool. This section is also interesting read for wannabe management grads as some very good management techniques such as Six Sigma etc are mentioned here. (c) The last section deals with the search for Jack’s successor and his delayed exit on account of the proposed Honeywell acquisition (which unfortunately failed) - Again this is a good read. Overall a very interesting reading -- so go ahead and try it.