Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric – Thomas Gryta / Ted Mann –

Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric – Thomas Gryta / Ted Mann – 熄灯：傲慢、妄想和通用电气的没落 –

Lights Out – Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric

简介 Intro

《Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric》—— Thomas Gryta / Ted Mann

“A gripping and deeply reported account of the devastating disintegration of one of the most iconic firms ever to exist. To all of us shocked by GE’s seemingly abrupt fall from grace, this book lays out in painful detail how such a thing could have happened.”—Rita McGrath, Columbia Business School, author of Seeing Around Corners: How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen

“Gryta and Mann tell a bracing tale of corporate venality, incompetence, and shortsighted deal-making. It\’s a parable with no heroes, but many lessons for anyone who wants to know how 21st Century corporate management, which venerates stock price above all other measures of value, has gone so disastrously awry.” —Andrew Rice, New York Magazine

\”Lights Out is the definitive story of an American business powerhouse losing its way. Gryta and Mann\’s meticulous reporting puts us in the rooms—and on the private jets—where GE\’s leaders struggled over the company\’s fate, with billions of dollars in the balance. More than just an intimate profile of one company, this book is a captivating tale of human complexity, greed, and hubris.\” —Evan Ratliff, author of The Mastermind: Drugs. Murder. Empire. Betrayal

\”This vital history of an American institution warns us of what happens when a company pursues growth for growth’s sake, and its leaders struggle to understand what they can and cannot control.\” —David Gura, Anchor and Correspondent, MSNBC

\”Possessing all the suspense of a true-crime account, Gryta and Mann’s riveting look at GE’s previous two decades underlines the harsh facts of survival in 21st-century business.\” —Publishers Weekly

\”Gryta and Mann expand on their Wall Street Journal reporting to create a compelling narrative of a giant’s spectacular fall in this powerful and fascinating read.\” —Booklist

\”This revealing and accessible postmortem of GE’s downward spiral will be important reading for a wide audience, including customers, employees, former employees, and investors, as well as anyone interested in 21st-century corporate management.\” —Library Journal

通用电气——或许是美国zui具代表性的公司——怎么会如此迅速而突然地没落呢?

《华尔街日报》两位记者讲述了通用电气史诗般衰落的故事。

自1892年成立以来，通用电气不仅仅是一家公司。对几代美国人来说，它是工作保障、安全可靠的投资，以及对高层管理人员的商业精英教育。

通用电气使美国电气化，为从灯泡到涡轮机的一切东西提供动力，并完全融入了美国社会的思维，这是很少有公司能做到的。在传奇CEO杰克·韦尔奇的20年领导后，通用电气作为美国最有价值的公司进入了21世纪。然而，不到20年后，“老通用”就消失了。

本书审视了韦尔奇亲手挑选的继任者杰夫·伊梅尔特如何试图修正韦尔奇盈利机器的错误，同时却莽撞地犯下自己的错误。最后，通用电气传统的不惜一切代价争取胜利的企业文化似乎迷失了方向，这zui终导致了公司在个人和组织层面的衰落。本书详细讲述了美国历史上最伟大的公司之一如何成为我们这个时代的警世故事。

通过对通用电气过去20年的一些失败决策的回顾，本书给人们带来了深刻警醒：复杂性需要代价，并购是把双刃剑，容易钱是有风险的，以及CEO并不是救世主。同时，它还描绘了复杂的人性。

关键词：熄灯：傲慢、妄想和通用电气的没落;[美] 托马斯·格里塔 / [美] 泰德·曼恩;

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Preview – Lights Out Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric

读者评论 Readers\’ Comments

读过的感觉生词最多的一本

GE的失败在于激进的会计处理、押注了错误的行业（油气、电力、航空）、过于依赖金融、缺乏行业专注、颟顸自大的领导以及追求完成指标的文化。作者似乎把责任都推给了伊梅尔特。但我认为韦尔奇埋下了失败的种子，只是失败的后果由后人来承担。比较可惜的是John Flannery，他似乎太过实诚，虽然他的战略都是对的，但可惜失去了董事会的信任，成为了前任制造的灾难的牺牲品。

写的比较详细（拖沓）的一本书，在一开始做笔记，后来已经看累了……其实Jeff Welch鼎盛之时就埋下了衰败的种子，其兴也勃焉，其亡也忽焉。

对我这种不怎么关注GE的人来说，信息量还是很大，把GE的衰落写得比较具体，有些地方简直让我震惊（比如其任期内几乎一直有备用机跟着伊梅尔特飞行，这浪费且愚蠢）。书中也写了，韦尔奇时代就在用会计手段来做盈余管理，只是大趋势上公司一直在增长，伊梅尔特当然也用盈余管理（还有借贷支付股息和回购），但空间变小，更重要的是大趋势上不行了，他也没有韦尔奇那种投资组合管理的能力。另外，这又一次提醒我远离业务复杂的公司，单一业务复杂（如金融）和业务多元化且复杂的公司不要试图去分析，隐藏的坑太多了，而且你看会计报表都看不出来，直到问题已经无法掩盖，即使在韦尔奇时代GE就已经很复杂且看不懂了，不是说伊梅尔特时代远离，韦尔奇时代也要远离，不管媒体多么追捧它，它的股价涨多少倍，复杂就是复杂，搞不懂就是搞不懂。

多少人是看了Bezos的推荐，找来看的….

传统工业巨头陨落。一个传奇的公司，从无所不在变成蝼蚁。从一个传奇CEO带领金融造假收入，变成二任Ceo继续造假而不专注自家业务，到最后千穿百孔。但这也是40年的累积。看来这类大型公司很禁得起遭。

作者 Author

Thomas Gryta / Ted Mann

THOMAS GRYTA writes about General Electric for the Wall Street Journal. Previously he covered the telecommunications insrcstry for the Journal and was a Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University. In prior work around the newsroom he covered the biotechnology insrcstry and did general assignment reporting and copyediting. Gryta studied history at the University of Massachusetts, including a year in Germany. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three children.

TED MANN is a reporter in the Wall Street Journal\’s Washington Bureau, where he is part of a team covering business and government. He was the beat reporter covering General Electric and other insrcstrial conglomerates for the Journal\’s corporate bureau in New York from 2014 to 2017, and previously covered transportation for the Greater New York section, where he broke the George Washington Bridge scandal that ensnared former governor Chris Christie and his aides. He is a grasrcate of New York University.