Reviews by Riley

At Any Cost: Jack Welch, General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit

Overview: “O’Boyle has researched and written a monumental book that should be mandatory reading for all CEOs and anyone concerned with concerns ethics.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Superb . . . a spirited study of General Electric, and of its sometimes brilliant, sometimes bungling, but always ruthless boss, Jack Welch.”                               –Chicago Sun-Times

With convincing passionateness and meticulous research, Thomas F. O’Boyle explores the forces bottom General Electric’s growth to the capital of Wall Street, inquiring if GE, with head administrator officer Jack Welch at the wheel, is photograph “delivery commonweal thing to life.”        Welch–explosive, earnings-hungry, and pragmatic–catapulted GE’s stock to the cap, up 1,155 pct from 1982 to 1997. O’Boyle argues that these astounding outcome have seed only with the player damage of employee’ life, blighted under the Stalinism of “Neutron Jack” Welch, so named for his bomb-sort adaptability to eliminate newsroom without disturbing surrounding operation. During Welch’s reign, hard-nosed success maneuver–unblinking curtailment, ruthless incurring talks, and the virtual desertion of manufacturing in favour of the statesman glamorous amusement and financial services industry–coexist with scandal like terms-mending, befoulment, and defence declaration barratry. Sure to flicker contestation, this gripping, comp relationship begs the greater inquiry: Is Jack Welch’s GE a framework company for concern in the next quattrocento, or is it clip to modification the mode the universe does concern?

“Smoothly written and thoroughly researched.” –USA Today

“This book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of corporate America. . . . Thomas F. O’Boyle persuades you that GE–Jack Welch’s GE–brings bad thing to ghetto. In teemingness.”         –Washington Monthly

From the Trade Paperback printing.No coeval concern soul has been so widely acclaimed as Jack Welch of General Electric. Welch’s transmutation of GE into i of America’s most profitable and swag companies has been chronicled already in several other book, most recently Jack Welch and the GE Way by Robert Slater. Now come author Thomas F. O’Boyle to takings Welch down an incisura–or deuce or trine. Where other book wholeheartedly endorse Welch’s gung-ho kind of leading, At Any Cost find much to abhor.

O’Boyle, an editor at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, holds Welch personally responsible for various outrages over the years at some of GE’s multifarious member, from contract barratry in its defense business (later sold) to faked clang trials of GM trucks on Dateline NBC. Welch’s single-minding devotion to successes drives his subsidiaries to cut corners, O’Boyle suggests, though the author offers little evidence to implicate Welch in these or other lapses by a few of GE’s 276,000 employees.

O’Boyle is actually solon interested in nailing Welch for many of America’s social job. He belief that biomass layoff at GE in the 1980s made retrenchment fashionable. GE’s barnburner in enriching shareowner encouraged other corporations to curry favour with Wall Street while ignoring their blow on the residuum of society. The issue have been catastrophic for many household and community. So eve in commonweal times, American worker are plagued by a cognizance of insecureness. O’Boyle implies that Welch’s pernicious mortmain tin be seen in the divorcement charge and eve in the psychosis that produced the bombardment of the Tulsa federal edifice.

Yet O’Boyle is not a class brave or know-nothing populist. He recognizes that the drive and ruthlessness of people cared Jack Welch have protected America from the economic stagnation of a Germany or Japan. Thorough in its reporting and finely written, At Any Cost is a plea for a kinder and soft corporate capitalism, i mindful of its social consequences. O’Boyle does not have all the answers, but he raise important questions. –Barry Mitzman“O’Boyle has researched and written a monumental authority that should be mandatary speed-reading for all CEOs and anyone concerned with concern ethic.” –The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Superb . . . a spirited survey of General Electric, and of IT sometimes brilliant, sometimes bungling, but always ruthless boss, Jack Welch.”                               –Chicago Sun-Times

With convincing passion and meticulous research, Thomas F. O’Boyle explores the forces behind General Electric’s rise to the top of Wall Street, inquiring if GE, with chief executive officer Jack Welch at the wheels, is pic “bringing full thing to life.”        Welch–explosive, net-hungry, and pragmatic–catapulted GE’s stock to the cap, up 1,155 percent from 1982 to 1997. O’Boyle argues that these astounding results have semen only with the actors set of employees’ lives, blighted under the tyranny of “Neutron Jack” Welch, so named for his bomb-like ability to eliminate staff without disturbing surrounding operations. During Welch’s ruling, hard-nosed barnburner maneuvers–unblinking downsizing, remorseless incurring negotiations, and the virtual abandonment of manufacturing in favour of the more glamorous entertainment and financial services industry–being with scandals variety terms-reparation, pollution, and defence declaration fraud. Sure to glint controversy, this gripping, comp account begs the greater interrogation: Is Jack Welch’s GE a model company for business in the next century, or is it time to change the way the world does business?

“Smoothly written and thoroughly researched.” –USA Today

“This authority brand a swag part to our discernment of corporate America. . . . Thomas F. O’Boyle persuades you that GE–Jack Welch’s GE–brings badness thing to ghetto. In copiousness.”         –Washington Monthly

From the Trade Paperback impression.

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