This is definitely a good book to read. it gives you an insight of the corporate world from a CEO’s point of view. It is ddefinitely worth a read.You will get to know about lot of stuff from "How to do things" to "How to get things done". This will really show how to play the game subtly. Especially the Chapter "When to fight and When to Fold" is too good. And Deep Dives is one of the Chapters a CEO or a manager should never ever miss. It tells you how GE managed problems in the Tube manufacturing process of its Scanning machine facility.
apart from that what I liked is the way Jack tackled the problem of selecting a CEO for the company. This is definitely a tough task for a company like GE. Deep Dives was another thing which should be read. This is something all the bosses of all the companies big or small should do. It might be tough for big company CEOs but they had to study this Chapter called "Deep Dives" and follow the same path which jack wrote in the book.
It is very astonishing and surprising that a Scientist was much interested in Money Management at those times in 1980’s bcos those were the times were people used to stick to their profile and not deviate from them. Eg., If a person is a scientist he would definitely yhink of growing up the ladder as a scientist and not as a management guy. This shows the broad-minded attitude of Jack otherwise he wouldn’t have shown interest in Money Management. This made the whole difference to GE early in 1980s and 1990s. I would say that GE Money was one among the pioneers in India to start giving loans easily. They started to do this in India before ICICI ventured into such activities. And this weas possible jus bcos of Jack otherwise GE Money wouldn’t have grown such big an organization as it is now.
I would like to give credit to JAck for what is India now. Bcos he was the one who started something called a BPO in India wayback in 2001. I should tell you GE is the pioneer in BPO Industry. this was bcos of Jack’s pioneering attitude to right-size the company and lower the costs. After GE only other Indian companies like Satyam, Infy, Wipro and all other Indian Giant’s started their BPO Operations. Infact to say that after a dull 2001 for software giants, BPO gave a fresh lease of life to a drowning IT industry.
GE Money is the Second thing I would credit JAck for bcos I know how difficult it was toget a Business loan from a bank in 1980s. They used to have interviews, lot of verifications and the banks do all other stuff to give a loan, that too a business loan where u repay the bank. Now when GE Money started to give loans in India everyone was surprised. They were giving loans for all the stuff possible. Af ter seeing GE’s good run, ICICI started the loans stuff in a bigger and better playground. they succeeded with better marketing stuff.
Jack also was immensely responsible in choosing good young lads for their outsourced manufacturing units in other countries. One such find was Azim Premji. The richest person in India now. This itself shows the capability of Jack.
He also showered praises on India. He praised about the way he was welcomed in India. He told that his trip to India was the best.
Apart from all these things I feel that he has weighed his successes and failured very well. He also tells about some of his bad habits. Catch the book as soon as possible. This is definitely the book all the future CEOs should read and its definitely worth the time you spend on this book.