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In September 2001, Jeff Immelt replaced the most famous CEO in history, Jack Welch, at the helm of General Electric. Less than a week into his tenure, the 9/11 terrorist attacks shook the nation, and the company, to its core. GE was connected to nearly every part of the tragedy—GE-financed planes powered by GE-manufactured engines had just destroyed real estate that was insured by GE-issued policies. Facing an unprecedented situation, Immelt knew his response would set the tone for businesses everywhere that looked to GE—one of America's biggest and most-heralded corporations—for direction. No pressure.
Over the next sixteen years, Immelt would lead GE through many more dire moments, from the 2008–09 Global Financial Crisis to the 2011 meltdown of Fukushima's nuclear reactors, which were designed by GE. But Immelt's biggest challenge was inherited: Welch had handed over a company that had great people, but was short on innovation. Immelt set out to change GE's focus by making it more global, more rooted in technology, and more diverse. But the stock market rarely rewarded his efforts, and GE struggled.
In Hot Seat, Immelt offers a rigorous and raw interrogation of himself and his tenure, detailing for the first time his proudest moments and his biggest mistakes. The most crucial component of leadership, he writes, is the willingness to make decisions. But knowing what to do is a thousand times easier than knowing when to do it. Perseverance, combined with clear communication, can ensure progress, if not perfection, he says. That won't protect any CEO from second-guessing, but Immelt explains how he's pushed through even the most withering criticism: by staying focused on his team and the goals they tried to achieve. As the business world continues to be rocked by stunning economic upheaval, Hot Seat "takes you into the office, head, and heart of the man who became CEO of GE on the eve of 9/11, and then led the iconic behemoth for sixteen fascinating, and often turbulent, years. A handbook on leadership—and life" (Stanley A. McChrystal, General, US Army [Retired], CEO and Founder, McChrystal Group).
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
February 23, 2021 -
Formats
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Kindle Book
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OverDrive Read
- ISBN: 9781508278290
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EPUB ebook
- ISBN: 9781508278290
- File size: 2911 KB
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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January 15, 2021
The former CEO of GE writes candidly about the successes and failures of his tenure. The son of a GE worker, Immelt assumed the top position in 2001 after rising through the ranks as the company was being reshaped by former CEO Jack Welch. He opens his memoir by recounting a discomfiting couple of hours at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where one student asked point-blank, "How could you let this happen?" The "this" in question was a long decline as Immelt tried to shift the culture and direction of a company "where perception didn't equal reality." As the author writes ruefully, ideas were scarce and inertia reigned. His leadership lessons are both hortatory ("Leaders show up") and critical. He writes, for instance, that Welch had surrounded himself with yes men and gotten bogged down in faddish management tools such as Six Sigma even as the company was overrun by finance types at the expense of engineers. By the time he took over, the largest share of GE's business came from its insurance sector rather than from anything it made. "Transforming a big legacy company requires persistence," writes the author. It also requires the right aides and key staff, and in this, Immelt was ill-served by ambitious managers--one in particular he thinks he should have fired despite that person's being protected by the board of directors. He also opines that his successor as CEO, whose tenure was brief, was the wrong person for the job: "It seemed to me," he writes, "that [John] Flannery couldn't make decisions." In the end, Immelt writes in an unforgivingly self-critical spirit, he took on too many projects. "I did not develop a deep enough bench of rising leaders" to help with these initiatives, he writes, adding, "I wish I had said 'I don't know' more frequently." A valuable book full of lessons for business students and would-be leaders.COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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