Lights Out
This book continues the story of General Electric in the period after that covered by The Man Who Broke Capitalism, thus presenting an opportunity to validate if Jack Welch really was the bad guy while also learning more about where Welchism took General Electric in the longer term. This book is very readable, with nice short chapters -- for example it introduces Welch as a character, but does not dwell on his time at General Electric more than is necessary. Immelt's time as CEO got off to a rocky start, with the 911 attacks occurring on just his second day in the job. GE was financially exposed to these events, both as an insurer of some of the destroyed buildings, but also as a major manufacturer of aerospace equipment whose grounding reduced demand. My second day as chairman, a plane I lease, flying with engines I built, crashed into a building I insure, and it was covered with a network I own" Then of course came Enron. While the book asserts that GE's behaviour lacked Enron's criminality, GE was certainly creative and opaque with its accounting and would have to clean up its act under the new stricter post-Enron accounting…