Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon

This book is a masterclass in corporate forensics, digging deep into the DNA of what once was America’s most respected company. Cohan’s research is nothing short of exhaustive. He captures the transition from the Reg Jones era to the cult of personality surrounding Jack Welch with the precision of a surgeon. You really feel the weight of every decision made in the Fairfield boardroom. To be fair, it is a massive commitment at nearly 800 pages, but the storytelling is so propulsive that it often feels like a thriller rather than a dry business history. The way he details the rise of GE Capital as a shadow bank is particularly illuminating and terrifying. It’s the definitive account of how obsession with 'making the numbers' eventually hollowed out an industrial giant.

Picked this up after seeing the buzz on business Twitter and it absolutely lives up to the hype as a corporate 'Icarus' story. The narrative surrounding the succession battle between Immelt, McNerney, and Nardelli is worth the price of admission alone; it’s high-stakes drama at its finest. Cohan doesn't just give you the 'what,' he gives you the 'why' by exposing the psychological machinery of the C-suite. Frankly, it’s rare to find a business book that balances complex financial engineering with such human, ego-driven storytelling. The breakdown of how GE Capital's 'black box' worked was a highlight for me. Even though the book is a literal brick, the pacing is excellent. A must-read for anyone interested in the pitfalls of modern management.

The chapter on the 2008 financial crisis is a masterpiece of reporting that reveals just how close GE came to a total meltdown. Cohan utilizes his wealth of sources to show how the 'triple-A' rating became a cage for the company. It’s a gripping account of how the board of directors failed in their fiduciary duties, prioritizing the stock price over sustainable growth. I was particularly struck by the anecdotes regarding the private jet usage and the sheer extravagance of the executive lifestyle while the company was rotting from within. It’s a massive book, but it moves quickly because the characters are so well-drawn. If you want to understand the death of the American conglomerate, this is the book for you.

Wow, Cohan does an incredible job weaving together hundreds of interviews into a cohesive, if tragic, narrative about the fall of an icon. This isn't just a dry list of facts; it’s a living, breathing story filled with direct quotes that make you feel like a fly on the wall in those high-stakes meetings. The focus on the 'power failure' of leadership is spot on. I appreciated how he didn't hold back on criticizing the board's role in enriching CEOs while shareholders lost everything. The prose is lively and energetic, making the complex world of industrial conglomerates accessible to anyone. It’s easily one of the best business biographies I’ve read in years, despite its daunting length.

Ever wonder how a titan like General Electric simply evaporates into the background of the S&P 500? Cohan attempts to answer this by painting a vivid, though often biting, portrait of the CEOs who steered the ship into an iceberg. The prose is sharp, but I found his treatment of Jeff Immelt a bit one-sided. It felt like Cohan had a personal axe to grind at times. However, the sheer volume of primary source material—interviews, memos, and board minutes—is impressive. It’s a cautionary tale about the hubris of capitalism and the dangers of a board that is too enamored with its star CEO to ask the hard questions. Some sections drag, especially when he gets into the weeds with minor executives, but it’s mostly a fascinating ride.

As someone who spent years analyzing industrial stocks, I can say the level of detail Cohan provides here is staggering. He manages to weave together thousands of disparate threads into a cohesive timeline of decline. Look, the book isn't perfect—it definitely could have used a more aggressive editor to trim the 150-page deep dives into bit players. But the core story of how GE transitioned from an engineering marvel to a financial services firm is handled brilliantly. You get a real sense of the boardroom machinations and the disconnect between the executives and the hundreds of thousands of employees they affected. It’s a sobering look at how easily a legacy can be dismantled by a few years of poor instincts and bad luck.

Not what I expected from a 700-page business history, as it felt surprisingly personal and biting throughout. Cohan clearly has strong opinions on his subjects, and while his obvious disdain for Immelt is clear, it makes for an entertaining, if slightly biased, read. The book excels when it focuses on the culture Jack Welch created—one of relentless competition and performance-at-any-cost. Personally, I would have liked more coverage of the early Edison years, which are rushed through in the first few chapters. However, the subsequent deep dive into the 1980s through the 2000s is incredibly thorough. It’s a fantastic, if long-winded, look at how the 'Manager of the Century' might have actually set the stage for the eventual collapse.

Finally got around to finishing this behemoth and it left me with a profound sense of how ego destroys value. Cohan captures the hubris of the 'GE Way' perfectly, showing how the company’s internal training and culture created a feedback loop of arrogance. To be fair, the book is quite repetitive in places, and the author's voice can be a bit too present in the narrative. But the insights into the Reg Jones transition and the lack of R&D funding are crucial for understanding the full picture. It’s a very well-researched primer on the failures of 20th-century management styles. Even with the occasional typo, it remains an essential piece of corporate history for any serious business student or investor.

Truth is, the book could have used one more pass by a copy editor, but the content is too good to ignore. There are some glaring typos that shouldn't be in a prestige release like this. That said, the actual analysis of John Flannery’s short tenure and Larry Culp’s subsequent takeover is fascinating and provides much-needed context to the recent breakup. Cohan succeeds in showing that GE’s downfall wasn't a single event but a slow, decades-long erosion of common sense. The breadth of the book is its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. You get the full story, but you have to be willing to wade through a lot of secondary details. Still, it’s a highly readable and important work.

While I’m a fan of financial history, the density of this book made it a legitimate slog to get through. Cohan has clearly done his homework, yet the editing feels surprisingly loose for a book of this stature. Not gonna lie, the frequent typos and repetitive sentences started to grate on me by the halfway point. He also leans heavily on snarky, first-person asides that distract from the factual narrative. He treats Jack Welch like a flawed god while casting Immelt as the ultimate villain, which misses some of the nuance regarding the R&D vacuum Welch left behind. It's a 3-star read because the information is valuable, but the presentation is messy. I expected something more polished and objective.