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

Review

“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