This is truly a sad saga, narrating the decline of an iconic American company, General Electric, brought down by financial engineering and mismanagement. GE’s fall from grace, due to abysmal leadership, was tragically inevitable. For me, a GE retiree in the same year as Jack Welch, this is a devastating read. This book got enough wrong in the places I have first hand knowledge to not be worth reading. I do believe that as was mentioned that most employees not at the very top were working very hard for a company we really believe in. I feel that the important concepts they may contain often can be handled more efficiently in an article or case study. 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. He would point at some of the management hypocrisies even back then. As such I lived within some of the story laid out here and for me it is fascinating to see what was going on behind the scenes at board level, since most of that was hidden as mere employees. I spent 25 years with GE (17 as an executive band employee), and worked at 6 different businesses within the company. But, like many other Goodreads reviewers for Lights Out, I felt compelled to read this book because I spent a large part of my career working at GE. Fascinating and slightly horrifying that a company with such a reputation as Ge could be so dysfunctional. Even though I spent my career in business, I rarely read business books. This was a good inside scoop on the rise and fall of GE from the time of Jack Welch to the new leadership under Larry Culp. Did you set an extremely ambitious Reading Challenge goal back in January? It's the same trick your car's headlights use to produce as much light output as possible out in front of you as ... reading books, playing board games ... a bowl of M&Ms lit by a standard GE LED. But it’s hard for me to love a book that is about arrogant people making poor decisions and still ending up absurdly wealthy. He sensed the insular culture and incompetence of senior management as GE capital became the dominant source of "paper productivity" in the company. There were several smaller things in the book that I never knew or had heard of, so I don't regret spending all day reading the Kindle book. This was an account of the fall of General Electric. 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. Something went wrong. The failures of leadership in later management and the board are hard to comprehend. Failure was not at the hands of Welch, Immelt, or Flannery. And has this, uh, unprecedented year gotten completely in the way of... To see what your friends thought of this book, Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric, First let me put in context my interest in this book. Find GE christmas lights at Lowe's today. As such I lived within some of the story laid out here and for me it is fascinating to see what was going on behind the scenes at board level, since most of that was hidden as mere employees. Enjoy a great reading experience when you borrow the Kindle edition of this book with your Kindle Unlimited membership. As an ex GE-Capital employee, it's my view that senior managers and top leadership were only concerned with 1) protecting their bonus & compensation and 2) their ability to move-up. Best dimmable LED light bulbs Amazon Great Eagle LED A19. The narration was rote, dull and monotone. I got into this at first. There are other factors that were in play in bringing down General Electric. This has been perfect for what I needed. Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork, No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention, Lessons from the Titans: What Companies in the New Economy Can Learn from the Great Industrial Giants to Drive Sustainable Success, Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, Winning Now, Winning Later: How Companies Can Succeed in the Short Term While Investing for the Long Term, THOMAS GRYTA writes about General Electric for the. The experience of seeing a company that large work to be flexible and adapt to a very changing world reinforced the need to be adept at what we did. There were a few "scandals" but nothing that severely impacted the future. I remember being cautioned by two long time senior GE execs never to question Jeff’s opinions. Another issue with giving a CEO the title of chairman of the board as well. As an employee of GE Capital, I lived through part of the events described. As an 8 year executive of a business bought by GE, I found this incredibly accurate. .orange-text-color {color: #FE971E;} Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration. It took care of them despite some questionable business and accounting practices. Lights Out examines how Welch’s handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, tried to fix flaws in Welch’s profit machine, while stumbling headlong into mistakes of his own. First let me put in context my interest in this book. It is so interesting to me to read stories of companies, especially the mega brands. There are some great lessons for leaders and especially leaders in the fintech space from this book. The book provides an informative explanation and character examination of Jeff Immelt as the CEO of GE. .orange-text-color {font-weight:bold; color: #FE971E;}Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more. The authors have achived their primary goal, to summarize the history of this great Amrican company, its rise to proeminence under the leadership of Jack Welsch, and its decline in the last 20 years, to its current status, a pale shadow : too much financial risk, too much leverage, too much diversification, too opportunitic in its management, etc. A leitura do livro permite acompanhar a paulatina perda de foco no benefício aos clientes; gradativamente os dirigentes se desconectam do mundo real e passam a viver em uma espécie de redoma. The wee people can c. A sad story of management hubris and blindness to reality. The authors did get it right that the ethos of GE continues to be attractive to people that work there. Me first! Meet the C by GE app—rebuilt for the speed of life. Shop christmas lights and a variety of holiday decorations products online at Lowes.com. I read it any way. This was a fantastic exploration into the inner workings of GE. A sad story of management hubris and blindness to reality. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. The only thing I didn’t like was that it seemed too technical for people that are ignorant of business terms. Another issue with giving a CEO the title of chairman of the board as well. As they told us "GE makes things that change the world". Having spent 5 years on a GE leadership team, much of what I read in this well-written book rings true. I have a guilty pleasure of reading books about spectacular business failures. 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