Book Review: Winning by Jack and Suzy Welch

Winning by Jack Welch and Suzy Welch was a book I wouldn't have selected myself. I got this book to my bookshelf while ago and decided to take it with me to a business trip. Book is about Jack Welch thoughts and for that reason book review is also mainly about Jack Welch.

Book itself is written in okay way and it's quite easy to read. Jack Welch is not that controversial person, but his position in business world has been so unique that I think his experience and thoughts are really suitable only for handful of people in the world. Years heading GE there where always 300 000 - 400 000 people working for him. That's quite unusual.

It's pretty hard to criticize a man who raised company value 4000% in 20 years. Still it's hard to say how much of the success is really coming from him. As an example, he mentioned in the book that he has experience in over 1000 acquisitions. If you count that those are from 20 years, when he was the CEO, it would mean 4 acquisitions in a month. With that kind of frequency his contribution to those must have been quite small.

I did enjoy some parts of the book. I love the way he tries to raise the importance of HR and hiring. He gives good tips about hiring and detecting the talent.

For me the best thing about this book was, that there is and will be people who are all about money and power. This book helps understanding them. I don't really want to work with them or become one of them, but once in a while I might need to. It's always good to understand different people, no matter how differently you value things.

If you don't read a lot, I recommend to skip this book. I only finished it due to being in airplane without having anything better to do. It's not an important book so pick something else to read.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book Review: Small Is The New Big

I've read couple of Seth Godin books before and always enjoyed those. This Small Is The New Big got to my bookshelf almost by accident, but knowing the author I couldn't leave it unread. I'm so happy I did read it. Even though the book is bit old already the ideas in it are mainly fresh and valuable.

This book is not a real book actually. It's a collection of best blog posts from Seth. For the weirdest reasons it's in alphabetic order, but it still flows quite nicely forward.

It's hard to say anything actual about the book. The only thing I can say is that I felt really energetic reading this book. I was full of ideas and even made some decisions about my future goals reading this book.

I think I'll make it mandatory for myself to read one Seth Godin a year. Even I knew exactly what to expect from the book, still I amazed myself to feel so good reading it. Seth has a brilliant mind and good writing skills which makes the reading experience wonderful.

I recommend to read some of Seth Godin books. If you can't really concentrate on reading properly, this is the book for you. Stories are short but full with good insights. If you enjoy reading more take some other of Seth Godin books.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen

Book Review: Reach For The Sky

Reach for the Sky is a real life story about Douglas Bader, man who lost both of his legs in flying accident and still became one of the greatest pilots in the world. His story is inspiring in so many different ways. His journey through all the difficulties and his time in German prisons would be worth to read even without him losing both of his legs, but that makes it even more important.

Douglas Bader gives important lesson to everyone about the willpower. He knew what he wanted and kept trying long enough to get his answers. Some might say he was stubborn, but I would say he was consistent. He did realize that some of the things became impossible to him, but he had to learn it himself and didn't let anyone to tell him that. That's the lesson we all should learn, we shouldn't let anyone else tell us what we can and what we can't do.

The Author, Paul Brickhill, is a pilot himself. That has given him a skill to describe flying quite comprehensively. Also Brickhill was a prisoner himself in German prisons, so the stories about escapes are really authentic and detailed.

Story is good dive in to the World War II and to the incredible life of Douglas Bader. I haven't read many biographies, but I'm happy I read this one. I really enjoyed the book and I'm happy to recommend this book to everyone. It teaches about history, but also it teaches us about how important willpower and believing to your own skills is.

Written by +Henri Hämäläinen