[michaelt]

In some fields, acclaimed works seem cliched and obvious from where we are today, because the innovations that brought their acclaim have been so universally adopted.

I'm not a historian of management theory so I don't know if the ideas are original, or even of how well Welch followed his own advice, but plenty of the things in his books are straight-talking common sense:

* You should know your business well enough you don't need management consultants to tell you what to do

* HR and hiring are important and should be represented in your senior team accordingly

* If you want candour (which you do) you need to reward and praise it, not punish it

* When there's a crisis, don't deny there's a problem

He's not the first person to come up with every idea in his books, but even 40 years later there are companies that need to learn these things.