At Any Cost
Jack Welch, General Electric, and the Pursuit of Profit
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"O'Boyle has researched and written a monumental book that should be mandatory reading for all CEOs and anyone concerned with business 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 passion and meticulous research, Thomas F. O'Boyle explores the forces behind General Electric's rise to the top of Wall Street, questioning if GE, with chief executive officer Jack Welch at the helm, is still "bringing good things to life." Welch--explosive, profit-hungry, and pragmatic--catapulted GE's stocks to the top, up 1,155 percent from 1982 to 1997. O'Boyle argues that these astounding results have come only with the heavy price 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 reign, hard-nosed success tactics--unblinking downsizing, ruthless acquisition negotiations, and the virtual abandonment of manufacturing in favor of the more glamorous entertainment and financial services industries--coexist with scandals like price-fixing, pollution, and defense contract fraud. Sure to spark controversy, this gripping, comprehensive account begs the greater question: 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 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 things to life. In abundance." --Washington Monthly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Welch, who became CEO of GE in 1981, has been upheld by many as the quintessential corporate chieftain, a reputation he gained by steadily increasing GE's sales, earnings and stock price. But O'Boyle argues in this scathing examination of Welch's tenure to date that GE's growth has come with a heavy price--especially to the company's employees. According to O'Boyle, an 11-year veteran of the Wall Street Journal and currently assistant managing editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Welch compares business with war: any tactic is permissible as long as it leads to higher profits. This philosophy, O'Boyle explains, was used to justify Welch's rounds of downsizing as well as his demands that all GE division managers meet quarterly financial targets or risk being fired. In such an atmosphere, the author contends, it isn't surprising that Welch's GE has been implicated in scandal and questionable business practices, such as the company's role in the price-fixing of industrial diamonds with DeBeers, the falsification of profits at one-time GE subsidiary Kidder Peabody and GE executives' involvement in defense contract fraud (known as the Dotan affair). O'Boyle describes the ruthless way GE fought whistle-blowers who exposed, among other things, GE's repeated violations of Nuclear Regulatory Commission rules in its nuclear plants. Ultimately, O'Boyle believes that GE and Welch will be footnotes compared to visionary companies such as Motorola, Intel and Microsoft. Pictures not seen by PW. 75,000 first printing.
