A book written by an insider who knew the culture and had great access to many of the executives including Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt among many others. At first I was worried it would be a puff piece for GE but as I read he shares a lot of dirt -- leadership battles that read like a Shakespearean Tragedy. The behind-the-scenes politics and blaming including famously by Jack Welch about his hand-picked successor, Jeffrey Immelt, who he claims ruined the company. But alas, this once revered company started to show it was a house of cards, heavily leveraged in their capital business. It covered up the fact they were losing money in the industrial businesses and had some questionable acquisitions, extreme cost-cutting etc. While Immelt definitely had his flaws as a leader according to the author (namely thinking he was the smartest man in the room, not reading what staff gave him and not listening to the experts on his team), he also inherited a mess. This book is meticulously researched (and very long!) and a worthwhile read.
I recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Group Portfolio for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

A very thoroughly researched history of General Electric, ranging from the beginning of the age of electricity all the way up to the present. This book covers all the major players responsible for building up GE to its zenith over the decades, as well as those whose decisions brought serious harm upon the company. For those who know little about GE, this book thoroughly explains the various divisions of the company, the many inventions they've had a hand in perfecting, and the businesses they've spun off or divested from for one reason or another. Basically, there's a ton of great information in this book.

That said, I do think the book relied a little too much on quotes; there were often several quotes from more than one person per page, and I always find that a little difficult to parse, because there are too many names to keep straight. The timeline of the book is also a little odd in places: it spends a lot of time on the early years of GE, but then skips over much of the twentieth century, beyond brief summaries about GE's contributions to America during the world wars. I would have liked to learn more about the ins and outs of GE during that period, particularly what happened during the Depression.

Overall though, this is a really solid work of business history. If you like to read about the titans of industry, you can't really go wrong picking up this book, since GE has such a long and storied history.