The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company Review

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The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company ReviewFirst, a disclaimer: unlike most (all?) of the previous reviewers, I'm not a GE alumnus. So I can't opine as to how intense will be the waves of nostalgia this book may induce in you if you currently work or previously worked for that company.
For outsiders, this book describes some interesting history. But I was disappointed at the relative shallowness of the discussion. The book seems designed to be read during a flight from L.A. to Chicago; the author duly adheres to commandment #1 of contemporary business book writing, namely don't trust your reader to be able to concentrate on one topic without interruption for more than 1.25 pages. (It also doesn't add depth that he relies on websites for most of his references.) Compared to, say, Robert Burgelman's study of Intel, "Strategy is Destiny", this book is very unsatisfying if you're interested in strategy. Considering that the author had been a senior corporate strategist at GE, one could reasonably have hoped for more.
Instead, the lion's share of the discussion is about the personalities and decisions of GE's leadership, and issues of succession. Even strategic issues are refracted through this leadership lens. Not that this was uninteresting -- but unless you're a CEO or a board member of a company, you aren't going to be able to apply these lessons on the job.
The author's decision to structure the book chronologically rather than, say, thematically, constrained him to draw edifying strategic conclusions from each of GE's administrations, even when the performance of some of them had been less than exemplary. As a result, some of the "takeaways" can be a bit banal, such as "Review your strategy from the top to the bottom and make sure it is internally consistent" (@ 69). Sometimes the advice seems inappropriately retro or unsubtle, e.g. using Edison's experience to justify patenting everything and litigating aggressively (@ 17). This ignores other possible ways of getting value from IP portfolios, as well as the fact that managing the costs of filing, litigating and maintaining multinational patent portfolios is a much bigger headache today than in Edison's time. The author tells us to judge business practices by the standards of their day, rather than the present; OK. But whether those historical practices can tell us much useful for the present has to be judged by the standards of today. And those standards include globalization, antitrust regulation in the US and EU, hair-trigger financial markets, and many other factors that have changed radically during GE's 126-year history.
Nonetheless, the most interesting aspect of the book for me was the discussion of GE's management team from 1922 until the early years of the Second World War, especially CEO Gerard Swope (who served about as long as Jack Welch). As amazing as it sounds, Swope was a Socialist. When the Depression hit, he and chairman Owen Young instituted a variety of progressive benefits policies, including offering all employees a 4-day work-week (to avoid having to fire 20% of the workforce) and profit-sharing. They also invited the CIO to unionize the company, which allowed GE to avoid strikes until the late 1940s (under Swope's successor). As an adviser to FDR, Swope became the prime architect of Social Security, among other New Deal programs. At the same time, Swope and Young also instituted a number of very smart, very capitalist moves that enabled the company to grow under the so-called "Benign Cycle" based on GE's consumer products and power generation systems product lines. To think that there were such complex and idealistic business leaders in the past -- now, *that* made me feel nostalgic.The Secret to GE's Success: A Former insider Reveals the Leadership lessons of the World's Most Competitive Company Overview
Learn why GE has always had the bestinventors, the best strategic planners, andthe best results

William Rothschild, who witnessed GE's revolutionfirsthand, explains the five keys that madeGE a global phenomenon—and gives managers a completetoolkit for duplicating its remarkable success. Heexplains the GE Code—the hallmark of all GE leadershipteams—and provides a far-ranging prescriptiveplan for strategizing the GE way.


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Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation and Winning in the 21st Century Review

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Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation and Winning in the 21st Century Review"Not once, Immelt says, did he question whether he was prepared and able to lead GE."
"Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation, and Winning in the 21st Century" by David Magee is the latest GE book on the seven to eight years since Jeff Immelt took over from Jack Welch as the CEO of one of the most admired companies in the world. Days after he was in position, there came 9/11; and his job has never been easy from the beginning. David Magee put the life of Jeff Immelt into this book.
Contents:
[Contents of the book will be very brief because in the 233 pages book (excluding appendices and references); each chapter has, on average, only 14-16 pages.]
Chapter 1: Following a Leader
The first chapter is about Jeff Immelt's life in college and how he began his career life at GE. David Magee also wrote on Jeff Immelt's character since he was a child.
Chapter 2: Confidently Seize Opportunity
This chapter is on his career progress in GE from Plastics to Appliance onto becoming a candidate of CEO and finally took it.
Chapter 3: Strength in Crisis
After Jeff Immelt took the role as a CEO, 9/11 came and he faced tremendous task of leading GE through tough time. Moreover, the Enron case did not help GE in the stock market.
Chapter 4: Appearances can be Deceiving
This chapter focuses on how GE took over an, then, unattractive wind power business and made it thrive.
Chapter 5: Understand Context
GE experienced a bad times in the stock market in the early 2000s and David Magee told us how Immelt dealt with it. Immelt's personal strategy for overcoming tough times includes:
- Commit to learn every day
- Work hard with passion
- Give people a reason to trust
- Have confidence
- Be an optimist
Chapter 6: Cultivate Big Ideas
This chapter is on how Jeff Immelt focuses on innovation. Unlike his predecessor, Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt emphasises more on science and technology for the new businesses.
Chapter 7: Invest in Innovation
Jeff Immelt has created new tools to foster innovation in GE through enhanced laboratories, among other things.
Chapter 8: Use Your Ecomagination
Jeff Immelt has geared GE towards environmentally friendly businesses. Wind and solar energy are obvious examples. There are also new innovation in pipeline such as Organic LEDs and Smart Electric Grid.
Chapter 9: Maintain Core Values
GE's core values have not changed; Integrity, Performance, and Change. David Magee wrote on how Jeff Immelt has zero tolerance towards integrity violation, how he and GE are still committed to performance as ever, and how change is always encouraged.
Chapter 10: Make Growth a Process
Like his predecessors, Jeff Immelt always focuses on growth and develops growth leaders to develop the company around six key elements; technology, commercial excellence, customer focus, globalisation, innovation, and developing growth leaders.
Chapter 11: Create a Learning Environment
"It's all about learning." The key to GE continuous progress is how leaders foster the learning environment in the organisation. The chapter shows how Jeff Immelt develops more learning sessions in GE.
Chapter 12: Find the Future
This chapter is about emerging markets around the world such as China, India, Russia, Brazil. GE's three keys to effective globalisation are; 1 Use size as an advantage. 2. Create customer optimization, and 3. Leverage capabilities.
Chapter 13: Plant Many Seeds
GE is still expanding their businesses in various fields. Moreover, Jeff Immelt reorganised GE into four divisions; Technology Infrastructure, Energy Infrastructure, GE Capital, and NBC Universal.
Chapter 14: Find Opportunity in Adversity
This chapter is about the ongoing economic crisis and the stock market and how Jeff Immelt is coping with them.
Chapter 15: Leadership for the New Century
(This chapter is just a brief conclusion, albeit a grand name)
...
I'll compare this book to an ideal business book; a book that is easy to understand, distinct, practical, credible, insightful, and provides great reading experience.
Ease of Understanding: 7/10: This book is written in plain language. Most of the contents are from articles in the business magazines. It is an easy and fast read without deep analysis. The drawback is the flow of the book which lacks solid structure. Titles of the chapters, sometimes, are not really relevant to contents.
Distinction: 8/10: This is the only book on Jeff Immelt available.
Practicality: 2/10: There is no guideline on how to do anything in this book; it might be the purpose of the author. This book is a great compilation of what Jeff Immelt said. There are some lists of what GE and Jeff Immelt have done (see Chapter 5 above); and that is as far as the content goes.
Credibility: 5/10: The credibility of the sources is excellent because they are in quotations. However, there are some interpretations and journalism by the author that make this book a bit unconvincing. Everything Jeff Immelt did seems to be the right way and is taken for granted. David Magee unavoidably compared Jeff Immelt to Jack Welch and he praised Jeff Immelt for lots of things that he did but Welch did not do such as innovation sessions. There are countless features that the two are similar and the author seems to praise Immelt because he followed it nicely. I am not in the position to judge which CEO is better but the overall tone of the book is 100% pro Jeff Immelt (in everything he did) which is over the top.
Insightful: 3/10: Although this book has the most quotes from Jeff Immelt and other GE executives, it is extremely shallow. Analysis is non-existent in the book. Everything in this book is as deep as what Jeff Immelt and others said without any further and deep investigation. As I mentioned earlier, things, in this book, are taken for granted.
Reading Experience: 5/10: The good point is that this is an easy read and it can be fun if you don't think about it too much. However, the tone of the book makes everything Jeff Immelt did a stroke of genius and it even seems that David Magee was occasionally having a go at Jack Welch which is ridiculous.
Overall: 5.0/10: The title "the New GE Way" is a massively misleading title because it is basically the same GE we have known. Under Jeff Immelt, GE has the same GE way with the new leadership, updated and refined business models, and enhanced management tools. Unlike other "GE" books (especially by Jack Welch), this book provides you with little insight and no guideline. But if you really admire GE (like me), I think that you will buy the book anyway. All in all, the book will make you know Jeff Immelt much more. Instead of "Jeff Immelt: the New GE Way", the title should have read "Jeff Immelt: 7 years as a GE CEO mini biography" and I would have been disappointed slightly less than I am. By the way, I will be patiently waiting for a book by Jeff Immelt himself if he writes one. Skip this one if you can.
(I have done this kind of review for some months; if any of you have a comment or suggestion, please do tell)Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way: Innovation, Transformation and Winning in the 21st Century Overview
When it was announced in late 2000 that Jeff Immelt would be taking the helm of GE, some skeptics were quick to voice their reservations about the future of the company after Jack Welch. Not only were Welch's shoes particularly large ones to fill, but the economy was dallying with recession, China and India were taking their first giant steps into the global economy, and just four days into Immelt's tenure came the biggest game changer of all: 9/11.

The hand-wringing, it turned out, was all for nought. During Immelt's first seven years on the job, GE's revenues increased by more than 60%, its profits doubled, and the company solidified its status as the world leader in technological innovation.

Written with the full cooperation of Immelt and GE senior executives, Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way tells the amazing story of how Immelt defied the skeptics and successfully reengineered one of the world's oldest and largest global conglomerates to meet the challenges of the 21st century. It offers an unparalleled opportunity to learn how it's done from a master, detailing the trendsetting innovations Immelt pioneered that have made his vision a reality, including:
Mandating non-stop, company-wide innovation
Making customers partners in growth through Customer Dreaming Sessions
Developing region-specific products and services
Partnering with the most promising new-technology upstarts
Going green with a hugely successful Ecomagination initiative
Fostering a non-stop learning environment

The critics were right: Jeff Immelt is no Jack Welch. Just as Welch embodied corporate leadership for the closing decades of the 20th century, Immelt has come to personify the 21st century CEO. As Esquire magazine said when it named him one of The 75 Most Important People of the 21st Century: "The day will come, when GE chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, will be viewed as the prototypical leader for the new century."


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Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences Review

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Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences ReviewI was very disappointed with this book. I had thought we would get some insight into the failure and reasons for the failure of Andersen. This would have included why was David Duncan left in charge of the Enron audit after the restatement occurred, how could the shredding incident have occurred [did not Andersen know how to address potential litigation], where was the head of Andersen's risk practice, what did the practice do, how was the Houston office run if in fact Andersen's offices had considerable latitude to run engagements. None of this was covered.
What we get is chapter upon chapter of history with references to the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal and the First 60 Years of Arthur Andersen. Oh yeah, we also get comments from some manager in Asia about how he was surprised about the downfall of his firm.
No interviews with key members of the Enron engagement team or the Houston office. No insight on why the firm failed. The book tries to lead us to think that the creation of Andersen Consulting [Accenture] led to the firm's demise. Hardly, did not the other Big 5 all have consulting practices, and none of these firms has failed. What made Andersen different then the other Big 5? David Duncan did not bring in Enron as a client. Who did? Who were the members of the engagement team? How did Duncan, a relatively junior partner, get to be the lead partner on the engagement? Who was really running the show? [The book makes it sound like Duncan reported to a practice director, which was hardly the case. In fact, this practice director was not even part of the Houston office.]
Still considerable room for someone to step in and do some investigative journalism, and some real work to find out what caused the demise of Andersen stemming from the Houston Enron incident.Inside Arthur Andersen: Shifting Values, Unexpected Consequences OverviewWhy did Arthur Andersen really collapse? What crucial lessons can be learned from Andersen's experience? Inside Arthur Andersen uncovers the roots of Andersen's implosion, tracing its spectacular two-decade transformation from staid auditor to aggressive consulting firm-and the profound change in corporate culture that led to its self-destruction. The authors bring 26+ years' experience studying Andersen culture from the inside-and their story offers profound lessons for every organization.

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Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way Review

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Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way ReviewToyota Culture is the 5th book in "the Liker Toyota series". After Toyota Way, Toyota Way Fieldbook, Toyota Product Development and Toyota Talent, you would expect that there is less news to write about Toyota. Well, not true. Toyota Talent is the thickest book in the series with it's almost 600 pages of Toyota info.
Toyota Culture mainly covers HR practices and related policies. It describes this as "the people value stream". How does Toyota hire and train people (the detailed training processes are described in Toyota Talent). How do they grow inside the company. How does Toyota work with the local communities.
The book is separated in five parts:
- What is Toyota Culture?
- The Quality People Value Stream
- People Supporting Process
- Organizational Supporting Processes
- Learning from Toyota
The first part is some-of an introduction. It explores what "company culture" means by referring to the work of Ed Schein. Then it introduces "the people value-stream" which the rest of the book is organized around. Part 2 is about the value stream itself while part 3 and 4 are the supporting processes of the people value stream.
Part 2 talks about how Toyota does hiring and how they grow the people within the company. It starts with the hiring and from there onto the training part (which had some duplication with Toyota Talent) and then moved into problem solving, one of the essential parts of the Toyota culture. It ends with how Toyota builds its image and works with the local communities to improve the life of its employees.
The third part starts by looking at the Toyota organizational structure, work teams and the team leader role. From there it moves to safe workplaces and how the standard problem solving is also applied to workplace safety problems. The last 2 chapters are about visual management and servant leadership. How management acts as servants and teachers to the workers, enabling the value-added work.
The fourth part looks at organizational supporting processes and especially HR processes. Toyota still want people to have a job for life, even though this is not common outside Japan. It talks about how Toyota deals with ups and downs in resourcing and moves to HR policies and rewarding policies (an very interesting chapter!). Chapter 15 is a short introduction to Hoshin Kanri.
The last part is about learning from Toyota, the "what can you do" part which many books end with. The first two chapters describes a couple of Toyota Way implementations within Toyota itself, to try to learn from that. The last chapter (probably the best) looks at lean implementations and wonders why they fail. It tries to find general change recommendations to try to learn from Toyota while creating your own company culture.
Parts of the book were extremely good and, at other times, parts of the book were somewhat long and boring. I'd give it 4.5 stars if I had that possibility and decided to go to 5 stars since I felt the last chapter was really very good.
A couple of things that I didn't like. Most of the book talks about Toyota in the US and seldom talks about the Toyota culture in Japan. It's obvious the authors are most familiar with the Toyota US situation. Also, most of the book still has a manufacturing focus. There is very little about other functions (e.g. product development) within the book itself. The culture in the different functions is probably similar, but will also have differences. Things like organizational structures and teamwork will be different in the different functions and thats not covered.
All in all, another great Toyota book. Highly recommended for people who are interested in how Toyota works and why. I wouldn't recommend it as your first Toyota book, I'd probably then start with the Toyota Way book and move to this one after that.Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way Overview
Winner of the Shingo Prize for Research and Professional Publication, 2009
The international bestseller The Toyota Way explained the company's success by introducing a revolutionary 4P model for organizational excellence-Philosophy, People, Process, and Problem Solving. Now, in Toyota Culture, preeminent Toyota authorities Jeffrey Liker and Michael Hoseus reveal how Toyota selects, develops, and motivates its people to become committed to building high-quality products-and how you can do the same for your company.

Toyota Culture examines the "human systems" that Toyota has put in place to instill its founding principles of trust, mutual prosperity, and excellence in its plants, dealerships, and offices around the world. Beginning with a look at the evolution of the Toyota culture and why its people are the heart and soul of the Toyota Way, the authors explain the company's four-stage process for building and keeping quality people: Attract, Develop, Engage, and Inspire.

Drawing upon numerous examples from Liker's decades of research as well as Hoseus' insider access as a Toyota manager, Toyota Culture gives you the tools you need to:

Find competent, able, and willing employees
Start training and socializing your people as you hire them
Establish and communicate key business performance indicators at every level of your organization
Train your people to solve problems and continuously improve processes in their daily work
Develop leaders who live and teach your company's philosophy
Reward top performance-and offer help to those who are struggling

Fascinating vignettes of Toyota's innovative culture highlight the nuances of translating and recreating a people-centric culture in factories and offices across the globe. These exclusive, behind-the-scenes details are just what your company needs to successfully learn from The Toyota Culture.


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