Jacked Up: The Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE Into Becoming the World's Greatest Company

by Bill Lane

Book Overview

Jack Welch's speechwriter of 20 years reveals how the CEO's manic attention to communications was the cornerstone to great leadership and GE's meteoric rise. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071544100
• ISBN13: 9780071544108
• Release Date: December 2007
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill
• Length: 324 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Jacked Up or Jacked Off? Tales from Close to the Flame ...

This is a testosterone-drenched memoir of Jack Welch's speech writer at GE. The message can be summed up as: * Jack Welch and I teamed up to declare war on corporate B.S. * We raised the bar on business presentations * Over-prepare for any presentation and sweat the details * If you don't have passion, don't bother * Avoid "Death by PowerPoint;" in fact, ditch the PowerPoints! Not bad advice, but then again just saying that would not have consumed 300+ pages. Underlying all of this is the theme that the author believes that he and Welch were hot s---, which may be true, though Welch's legacy has been tarnished some by his emperor-like severance package disclosures and a messy affair that led to divorce #2 and wife #3. Still, from reading the memoir you get an entertaining feel for what it was like being close to "Neutron Jack" during the height of the GE years. It was a hard working, hard driving, hard living and hard drinking (and hard golfing!) crew. Forget about any rubbish regarding "work-life balance." All is sacrificed to the gods of GE stock price. The peppery memoir snaps and crackles with a locker room type atmosphere of Alpha Male dogdom, with everything except the towel-snapping. Even in the C-level suite, boys will be boys. Withal, and whether you envy or pity those at GE, agree or disagree with Welch and his iconization as The Ultimate CEO, this is an entertaining read!

Invaluable!

"Jacked Up" emphasizes from page one the importance of Clear, short, and useful presentations to business success. The book is organized into short, interesting chapters, and contains a number of suggestions on delivering effective presentations. These include eliminating all meaningless b.s. (eg. bragging, unless short, and followed with specifics on how to replicate; sugar-coating a failure as a new opportunity instead of explaining why it happened; broad, unsubstantiated generalities), acronyms, PowerPoint slides/graphs, media showpieces (eg. multiple projectors, movies of new products in use), and meaningless statistics (eg. number of new patents, vs. contribution to new products). Other suggestions include creating a "Yes"able presentation, telling people what they ought to do (vs. reports), lots of work in thinking through, shortening and simplifying the material, and rehearsing and asking for frank feedback. A suggested 5-chart structure for planning meeting presentations is: 1)Describe the world market, 2)Summarize moves by competitors in the past three years, 3)Summarize your moves the last three years, 4)Relate competitors' likely actions over the next 2 years, and 5)State you intentions to counter of leapfrog those competitors in 2 years. Other valuable "tidbits" included in "Jacked Up" include various Welch techniques for quickly changing an organization's culture. These include reviewing top-level presentations in advance (redirecting as necessary to make more effective and model desired behaviors), quickly removing those not performing (often after bombing a presentation), providing tutorials on the desired behaviors at corporate seminars, see "strategy" as the evolution of a central idea through continually changing circumstances - rather than detailed in advance through complex, elongated scenarios (Welch eliminated strategic planning because the future was not foreseeable), be #1 or #2 in market share (ensures don't get behind on economies of scale), and moving from low-growth (eg. fans, vacuums, ACs) to faster-growth areas (creates higher stock multiples). Finally, there was an expectation of giving 110% (no going home regularly at 5 P.M. - sorry, soccer moms), and total integrity. The result was a G.E. that Welch called a "learning organization;" others call it an extraordinary monument to Welch's leadership.

Hat's off to Bill Lane!!

This is probably the best book I've every read on the importance of a business presentation! It's honest, factual and provides a true inside look at one of the great U.S. Corporations. Humerous and informative - a GREAT read! Bill Lane has created a handbook for young (and old) business professionals on the absolute necessity of preparing your pitch. Whether an informal toast to friends or to the board of IBM, Bill's passion for communications is evident in his knowledge of the subject and how giving a great pitch can really change your life.

Juiced up for Jacked Up

As an alum of GE from the late 90's and a communications professional, this was a breath of fresh air that got me excited about my job again. Not only does Lane take you behind the scenes of the Welch era to see the rough edges and cold realities -- and his stories ring true for this GE alum -- but he also gives you a real and pragmatic idea of what the top brass are really thinking when they're listening to your pitch. And better yet, he gives you some proven advice about how to prepare yourself for the big day. Lane pulls no punches -- clearly this book is a prime example of the type of communication he's preaching. And I can confirm that the movement documented here that Welch started (and Lane was part of) really did happen -- this is a rare look behind the scenes. I just ordered another copy to give my CEO.

Book is the best primer on how to succeed in today's corporations

Great book. Lane should go out on the speaking circuit and SHOW what he talks about in print.