This is not a book about “Neutron” Jack Welch. Readers might be mistaken to assume that since there is a photo of Welch on the cover, it may be one more of the many books that have been written on the mercurial executive who drove an unprecedented 20-year campaign on transforming General Electric. Having read the other books on Welch and GE, I took up reading this book with a misgiving on how it will turn out, What a speechwriter who worked at GE going to write about Jack Welch, the GE transformation and life in the company?

I was glad I was proven wrong. The book is more than Welch and life at GE; it’s a viewpoint from the man himself who has been at the core of the one thing that has made GE into the company that it is today: Communication.

Bill Lane puts across the whole idea of why managers need to communicate effectively in each chapter. And he uses Welch beautifully to get his message across.
It’s nice to read that managers, who gave bad presentations at Crotonville, N.Y. were pelted with paper balls. Managers, who would one day lead conglomerates, would behave like schoolboys and lob firecrackers at each other, all with the approval of Welch. Crotonville with all the awe surrounding it, was just another place where highly stressed out executives could be themselves and at the same time emerge as business leaders.

It’s interesting to know that the top two attributes that Welch looked for in a leader was IQ and fanaticism. He was ok with his top management being a bit crazy. Surprisingly, even after having seen the results at a company such as GE, these attributes have yet to be fully appreciated by most leading companies and their management.

One of the most important messages that I took away from the book is: “There is one simple message that you need to understand from this: No matter how important or unimportant your audience is-whether they are aspiring ninth-grade writers, big shots, or customers-never, ever, convey the impression that speaking to them is a duty, a pain in the ass, or something other than what you would rather be doing at the moment. Appearing nervous is fine. It conveys to the audience that you care about how well you perform in front of them; that they matter.”

The book is invaluable due to Lane’s insights, which came with being one of the few people around him for over 20 years. Insights into how Welch and he would argue in the hallways of the company on what message should the annual report contain, how Welch would browbeat analysts into pumping the GE stock to new highs with well worded and designed presentations, and how they loved him for doing it are quite interesting. Lane has molded the behavior patters and thoughts of Welch into identifying with the reader the essence of good communication and how it was done at GE.

Unlike most books Lane has at the end a “Boring Acknowledgements Section,” where he lists down the people that he would like to thank. In it he gives a reference to his mother who had shown her distaste for the rough language that was used in the book. To which Lane answers “Sorry Mom, That’s the way everyone talked. GE is a combative, competitive company, an emotional company, and we spoke like combatants.”
Highly recommended reading for anyone who is in awe of GE and Welch.