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Power Failure

The Rise and Fall of General Electric

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Brought to you by Penguin.

A magisterial history of the astounding rise - and unimaginable fall - of America's most iconic corporation

Perhaps no company reflects American ingenuity, innovation, and industrial fortunes as well as the iconic General Electric Company. Producing storied leaders and almost every product imaginable, GE built a cult of leadership success that hid cracks in its foundation. In this masterful history, William D. Cohan, one of America's most eminent financial journalists, argues that GE's legacy is both a paragon and a cautionary tale through which to understand American business.

Power Failure limns the eventful 130-year history of GE, bringing fresh analysis drawn from rare interviews with key figures of the company's golden era, including Jack Welch himself.
As Cohan recounts, Welch traded on a sterling legacy to make GE the most valuable company in the world, while cloaking its vulnerabilities. What he handed to his successor Jeffrey Immelt was, Cohan argues, both an impossible standard and a more troubled reality.

Tracing the company's leaps and stumbles through the personalities that defined it, Power Failure offers a surprising retelling of the GE story, puncturing the myth we know for a fresh look at its legacy - and what it tells us about the state of business in America.

© William D. Cohan 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Economic History Economics Business Inspiring Banking Taxation Capitalism

Critic reviews

This hubris-to-nemesis story... must count as one of the greatest dramas in business history... William D Cohan captures that drama exceptionally well... a gripping read.... a tour de force (John Plender)
The rise and fall of GE is explained as the product of individual men and their mercurial decisions, yet its fate has a wider significance. It ought to be a warning: cost-cutting, outsourcing and financial speculation produce a warped model of value that is liable to collapse (Hettie O'Brien)
A heavyweight cautionary tale about how the reputation of one-time corporate titans such as Jack Welch can be floored by over-reach and ambition (Andrew Hill)
General Electric was once the most important, powerful and influential company on earth - and this is the definitive story of how it got that way, and what happened next. William Cohan takes us inside the company's boardrooms and factories with a rollicking and fascinating tale of corporate brilliance, bitter infighting, business daring and monied folly that illuminates not just General Electric, but the world and economy it helped create (Charles Duhigg)
With the sweep and authority of an accomplished historian, the digging of a fearsome investigative reporter, and the storytelling skills of a novelist, Bill Cohan takes us from the 19th Century birth of GE, to its rise as America's most valued company in the 20th, and to its near death in the 21st. With incredible access to Jack Welch and the major actors in this drama, he paints a panoramic view of America and of capitalism, how it has changed and still must (Ken Auletta)
Cohan rides this wild tale like a racehorse to the bitter end. It's all here: the birth of this most American of inventive American companies and the triumphs, flaws and missteps to come. If at 130 years old, GE has indeed fallen, this masterful work remains (Mark Seal)
For most of our lives GE was one of the familiar, trusted U.S. companies, and in the early 2000s still the biggest company on earth. In one generation this icon of the American corporate imperium has turned into an icon of American corporate failure. We're fortunate that the great business chronicler William Cohan has now applied his extraordinary reporting skills and lucid, knowing prose to tell this story in breathtaking detail from beginning to bitter end. Power Failure is fascinating and definitive (Kurt Anderson)
This epic tale of arguably the most dominant corporation in American history has it all: money, power, sex and larger-than-life characters, from Thomas Edison to "Teflon Jack" Welch and beyond. Cohan's fine pacing and narrative flair make for a page-turner that becomes a compelling story of American capitalism itself (Jonathan Alter)
All stars
Most relevant
First things first, the narration is a bit wooden. Not bad enough that you can’t get over it. But it has that slightly unconvincing feel of an audiobook that isn’t narrated by its author.

This is a monster. A 28-hour long monster. Worth your time? If you’re interested in the highs and lows of corporate America through the history of one of its historic companies, yes.

The GE story with its many twists and turns is certainly worth telling. A huge amount of research has gone into this book and it shows. Despite the length, I devoured it in no time.

My only criticism is the author’s tendency to lionise Jack Welch without fully making the connections between his actions and many of GE’s subsequent problems.

Extremely well-researched account of GE’s history

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An excellently researched and narrated book.
The rise and fall of GEC covered in great detail.
A long book that I wished was longer,

Enlightenment

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worth reading. narration was great and gripping. The story was new to me, and the amount of research is incredible. It tells the story from the invention of electricity to how it became commercialised. Just didn't like 1 or 2 comments from the author, where he shared personal opinions, but these are few in the nearly 30h duration.

incredible amount of research

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A superb and riveting analysis of what happened to GE. It’s very candid and supremely well researched

Brilliant analysis of the demise of GE

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