Lights Out

A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
"If you’re in any kind of leadership role—whether at a company, a non-profit, or somewhere else—there’s a lot you can learn here."—Bill Gates, Gates Notes

How could General Electric—perhaps America’s most iconic corporation—suffer such a swift and sudden fall from grace?

This is the definitive corporate history of General Electric’s epic decline, as told by the two Wall Street Journal reporters who covered its fall.

Since its founding in 1892, GE has been more than just a corporation. For generations, it was job security, a solidly safe investment, and an elite business education for top managers.

GE electrified America, powering everything from lightbulbs to turbines, and became fully integrated into the American societal mindset as few companies ever had. And after two decades of leadership under legendary CEO Jack Welch, GE entered the twenty-first century as America’s most valuable corporation. Yet, fewer than two decades later, the GE of old was gone.

​Lights Out examines the complexities of CEO succession as Welch’s handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, tried to fix flaws in Welch’s profit machine, while stumbling headlong into mistakes of his own. In the end, GE’s traditional win-at-all-costs driven culture seemed to lose its direction, which ultimately caused the company’s decline on both a personal and organizational scale. Lights Out details how one of America’s all-time great companies has been reduced to a business cautionary tale for our times.
 
This gripping work of investigative journalism details the pivotal moments and fatal decisions behind the fall:
Leadership Failure: Go behind the scenes as Jack Welch’s handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, confronts a flawed profit machine and makes a series of his own costly mistakes.A Corrosive Corporate Culture: Uncover how GE’s celebrated win-at-all-costs mentality ultimately eroded its direction and led to an organizational crisis.Financial Engineering Unmasked: Follow the Wall Street Journal reporters who first uncovered the accounting tricks that masked deep-seated problems for years.Decline of an American Icon: Witness the stunningly swift fall from grace of a company that once electrified America and was considered a bastion of job security and safe investment.