Get Better or Get Beaten

by Robert Slater

Book Overview

Get Better or Get Beaten, 2nd edition, is a thorough revision of one of the best selling Jack Welch books ever published. First published in hardcover in 1994, that book sold close to 100,000 copies... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786302356
• ISBN13: 9780786302352
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Irwin Professional Publishing
• Length: 155 Pages
• Weight: 0.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Highly Recommended!

The best thing about this book is that it quotes extensively and piquantly from the writings and speeches of Jack Welch. The intriguing list of "29 leadership secrets" (which could have been reduced to ten) is more selective than secret, given that Welch has been preaching them loudly from a very prominent platform for more than 20 years. However, the book will be valuable to Welch neophytes and to fans who want more Jack, or the essence of Jack. Author Robert Slater assumes a certain familiarity with GE's history and initiatives, and sometimes refers to them without explanation. Welch long ago transcended management to become sort of a leadership prophet, and his utterances are sometimes paradoxical, if not contradictory. He says nurture people, but downsize; he says cut bureaucracy, but implement a paperwork intensive Six Sigma program. We promise that somewhere in here, you'll find a managerial principle to fit almost any occasion. What more can you ask of a handbook?

Very good !

I picked up this book in a bookstore and I did not know what to expect. I was amazed at the wisdom that this man posses when I began to read this book. He is very straightforward and very cool. All the principles are appliable to any kind of business I think. One of the best business books I ever seen, and its based on a man who practice what he preaches. BUY IT !!!

Your Choice and Welch Can Help You Make It

Jack Welch would be the first to point out that none of the 29 Leadership Secrets to which the subtitle refers is really a secret. In fact, most of the material in this book has been recycled or updated from previous publications, notably from Slater's excellent Jack Welch and the GE Way and The GE Way Fieldbook, both of which I also highly recommend. Slater is an excellent judge of material and writes very well. After more than 25 years as a successful journalist, he has developed a keen sense of what key business issues are, and, how Welch's comments on those issues can be most effectively shared with the reader. Two factors set this book apart from most other business books which also share "secrets." First and obviously, Welch's well-deserved reputation as a great leader. Also, the business context in which Slater anchors each of the 29 key points. With brevity and precision, Slater addresses questions such as these:* How to "harness the power of change"?* What does "Face Reality!" mean? Also, what does it require?* What is the best process for evaluating your organization with a "fresh eye"?* What are the major perils as well as benefits of Six Sigma initiatives?* What are some of the most effective e-business strategies?* How can e-business "put the final nail in bureaucracy"?Thanks to Slater, as I read the book I felt as if Welch himself were making a series of assertions directly to me. In response to each I am inclined to ask, "Exactly what does he mean by that?" An explanation then follows, based on the wealth of information about Welch which Slater and others have accumulated over the years. Slater also includes a series of lists of "Welch Rules" and then, in an Appendix, a list of "GE Values"...the same list which (reproduced on a laminated card) is carried by each GE employee. Welch himself has been and continues to be an avid student of business. Time and again, he has gratefully acknowledged what he has learned, not only from other great business leaders but also from his associates at GE...especially from younger GE executives who share his contempt for what Jim O'Toole has characterized (in Leading Change) as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." If you share my great admiration of Jack Welch and also wish you could spend some time with him one-on-one, here's probably your best opportunity to do so. For me, the experience was as much a pleasure as it was a privilege.

A must read!

When I first got this book and started reading it in the late evening, I found it so interesting and insightful that I read it completely until the early hours of morning the next day.Jack Welch is no ordinary leader and GE is no ordinary company. To find out how and why they are so successful and far ahead of their competitors, you should read this book.While Jack Welch is not perfect (he is human after all), this book is great, in the sense that it explains the basic principles behind GE's extraordinary success.