He makes a good case about how boards of directors not only sought out GE executives to run their companies, but other firms emulated the GE business model. Gelles’ story is more personal about Welch, going to his childhood and giving us a close look at just what formed his personality. This might be expected when you realize the authors are business reporters for the Wall Street Journal, while Gelles’ employer is for a generalist audience. But the GE story is much more detailed in Lights Out than in Gelles’ book. Lights Out, on the other hand, barely mentions Boeing, and McNerney only is mentioned in passing. Ironically, Gelles, for all his criticisms of McNerney, points out that when it came to shareholder value, McNerney increased it at Boeing in contrast to other Welchies. Gelles paints a damning picture of how those executives who left GE to become CEOs at other companies by and large wrecked shareholder value (the GE mantra) at their new posts. This is, after all, a book focused on Welch. But don’t expect Gelles’ book to take a deep dive into how Welch’s tutelage of McNerney and Calhoun affected Boeing. Gelles, a reporter for the New York Times, goes into some discussion about Boeing and the Welch-influenced people who came to lead Boeing, notably Jim McNerney and David Calhoun. This book goes into much more detail than Gelles’, which is more of a biography of Welch than a corporate history-although obviously, there is pollination of both. One, Lights Out, is a detailed chronicle of the Welch era and those who followed.
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