McGraw-Hill Education Jacked Up: The Inside Story of How Jack Welch Talked GE into Becoming the World’s Greatest Company

I worked for GE for five years after Jack Welch was CEO so I heard a lot about him and read and wrote about him in my MBA Program. When I purchased the book I was not really interested in reading about GE, but I saw a quick review where Jack Welch thought the book would be interesting as Bill Lane in entertaining.While reading I did not really learn anything about GE, but found the advice on making presentations valuable. Giving a presentation at GE and to Jack Welch may be different (or simply more intimidating) than some smaller or even larger companies, but the sound advice is the same.Besides some good, funny stories about GE and executive training some good advice throughout:Root cause of presentation disasters: The belief that what you think is so important is also considered to be so by the audience. All first draft presentations are too long and should be cut, along with second, third, and fourth drafts.Never ad-lib a presentation. Never walk into a room without knowing everything about the audience.Most failed pitches had flaws in the preparation (or lack of preparation). Be serious and exclude any parts that may get you accused of being "flippant".Never get up and do the same pitch over and over. Never do it twice in front of the CEO or people who can influence your career. Show intellectual growth, new data, new anecdotes or new thoughts.Get help from someone who has presented in front of this individual before. Ask someone who is opinionated to review.I certainly found some good advice on how to present data and give formal presentations. One can make an argument the story and maybe some of the ideas are dated since this goes back a full generation. With that being said the premise is the same as today and the ideas still stick and will service anyone looking to advance or in a high level job well.

G.E. is one of the finest corporations in the world. I enjoyed reading the author's stories about the inner workings of G.E. Communication, presentations, learning, sharing knowledge and honest, fierce debate drove this company during the Welch years.A close friend of mine is a long term, senior executive for G.E. He dealt directly with Mr. Welch and confirmed many of the events depicted in the book.The real take-a-ways in the book are the excellent pointers on presentations. All of us have experienced "death by PPT", so it is very enlightening to understand the importance a company, such as G.E., places on getting a presentation right. Here's what I have to tell you, here is the evidence to support what I'm telling you, here is what I learned, and here is what you should learn. All in 20 minutes. Great stuff.The book motivated me to develope my own presentation skills. I recommend Garr Reynolds and Guy Kawasaki. Mr. Reynolds wrote a wonderful book entitled, "Presentation Zen". It caused me to completely change my approach to presenting. Guy Kawaski writes books, publishes a blog and has an excellent audio on how to present to investor groups.I found a number of presenters at TED excellent. Creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson made a terrific presentation at TED. He walked onto stage, stood in one place for one half hour and gave an incredible speech. Check it out. You won't be disappointed.Reading, viewing and listening to all of these expert presenters, has motivated me to work hard to improve. When I look back at my first PPT containing enough bullets to resemble the gun fight at the O.K. corral,I realize how far I have come. It was worth the journey.

I read Losing It before Jacked up by Bill Lane, it would have been better to read jacked up first. Both books are like the wizard of oz. The green curtain is pulled back revealing the amusing exposure of the rarefied Life in one of the largest company's in the US. While Bill's style of writing is entertaining and has a certain amount of humor there is something to be taken away by those in management that are required to make presentations in their company's management meetings. Jack Welch changed GE's management meetings from a auditorium of attendees texting on their Blackberries or waiting to fill their Bull Shit BINGO cards with the current buzzwords such as "home run", "proactive" , "push back", "no-brainier" "synergy". If your presentation did not Identify a problem, present a solution and data indicating how the attempted solution played out your career in GE was on a fast track to a generous separation package and out the door.

In addition to being racist and sexist the book makes it clear that GE was a horrible place to work. The book makes some excellent points concerning corporate presentations. But it paints a horrible picture of the GE environment. I doubt this guy will be getting Christmas cards from Jack Welch. After 20-years at the company the author obviously didn't really absorb much beyond how to put together an interesting PowerPoint presentation. The author seems to find no irony in the fact that he was shown the door as soon as Welch left town.

Lane writes a honest story about one of the legends of corporate leadership. It's engaging - and interesting to see the man close up, including his great strengths and some flaws.