Jeffrey Immelt - CEO of General Electric (GE)
Yesterday I went to see Jeffrey Immelt speak on the UT campus, the CEO of one of the worlds oldest and largest companies, General Electric (GE). Originally founded by Thomas Edison, this company has grown up with America and has been one of the leading innovators in American technology. I fortunately got the chance to meet Mr. Immelt before and after the speech.
--Three big trends he says will get stronger: Globalization, larger interaction between government and business, volatility and face paced business.
--He says one of the secrets GE uses is turning their enormous size into an advantage, and not making it a disadvantage. He also says reinvesting so much money in research is a HUGE factor in their success.
--Good Business Leaders Must: Lead with an undying sense of optimism, believe in change, have a healthy disrespect of history, know the difference between confidence and arrogance.
--He reads 4 newspapers a day, 40 journals a week and about 50 books per year. He says he is an avid reader, something I've noticed most great business leaders are.
--He says his main job as a CEO is to: Pick initiatives and businesses to get involved in, shape the company culture, pick great people.
--"If you want something done, ask a busy person."
--He started out at a very lowly position at GE in 1982. He worked his way up over the years, but never really planned on becoming CEO. He was hand picked by Jack Welch.
--He gave the standard spiel about being successful in a company: Make your job fun, have a passion for it, work hard yadda yadda yadda.
--Immelt and Steve Balmer used to share a cubicle at Proctor & Gamble many years ago.
--He is very interested in doing business with Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He also sees much more growth ahead in China and India. He says in 5-10 years half of all business done by GE will be outside the U.S. He constantly stressed that globalization is here to stay and extremely important.
--I asked if he works out, and he said EVERY DAY at 5:30 am for one hour.
Of course I had to take a picture with him. This man is just about one of the most powerful people in the world. He was actually genuinely interested in what all the people who swarmed him after the speech had to say, and a very nice guy in general.
--Three big trends he says will get stronger: Globalization, larger interaction between government and business, volatility and face paced business.
--He says one of the secrets GE uses is turning their enormous size into an advantage, and not making it a disadvantage. He also says reinvesting so much money in research is a HUGE factor in their success.
--Good Business Leaders Must: Lead with an undying sense of optimism, believe in change, have a healthy disrespect of history, know the difference between confidence and arrogance.
--He reads 4 newspapers a day, 40 journals a week and about 50 books per year. He says he is an avid reader, something I've noticed most great business leaders are.
--He says his main job as a CEO is to: Pick initiatives and businesses to get involved in, shape the company culture, pick great people.
--"If you want something done, ask a busy person."
--He started out at a very lowly position at GE in 1982. He worked his way up over the years, but never really planned on becoming CEO. He was hand picked by Jack Welch.
--He gave the standard spiel about being successful in a company: Make your job fun, have a passion for it, work hard yadda yadda yadda.
--Immelt and Steve Balmer used to share a cubicle at Proctor & Gamble many years ago.
--He is very interested in doing business with Eastern Europe and the Middle East. He also sees much more growth ahead in China and India. He says in 5-10 years half of all business done by GE will be outside the U.S. He constantly stressed that globalization is here to stay and extremely important.
--I asked if he works out, and he said EVERY DAY at 5:30 am for one hour.
Of course I had to take a picture with him. This man is just about one of the most powerful people in the world. He was actually genuinely interested in what all the people who swarmed him after the speech had to say, and a very nice guy in general.
Labels: Meeting CEO's
posted by Neville @ 1:03 PM
50 comments
50 Comments:
Good read. Keep it up.
Great job meeting him.
-Jennifer
Great read. I like the "Healthy disrespect for history" quote.
"know the difference between confidence and arrogance"
Wonder how long it will take Nev to learn that lesson....
"Pick initiatives and businesses to get involved in, shape the company culture, pick great people"
At the end of the day that is really all a CEO does. As a GE shareholder, I like hearing how open and honest he was.
Jeffrey Immelts supports that lousy TV show The Office because it mirrors all the hate, racism, sexism and disrimination that is such an integral part of GE and its daily culture. A woman has to sue the ocmpany to get equal rights when she is pregnant at GE. GE says it supports diversity. I guess they mean the diversity of the number of white males wearing different ties to work.
Jeffrey Immelt condones the blatant disregard of federal and state law as they relate to discrimination and TITLE VII.
He screwed over some of my friends at GE and they plan to tell the world.
I plan to help them.
I have spend the past 7 years at this company to only have them continue with their discriminaotion and retaliation of me. THey have no regard for the sick, disabled, blacks or women.
GE believes globalizaiton is here to stay but right now the people in India are waking up and deciding that working for GE sucks and they are better off going somewhere else. THat is why the India turnover is so high. And that is exactly what they are doing. People in India are leaving GE in droves. The low paid workers in India are leaving GE in droves due to poor treatment and a negative work environment.
GE makes money in spite of its poor practices.
P.S. MortonFolks, I enjoy "The Office" Grow a sense of humor.
GE has been around for 120+ years, while Jeff Immelt has been running it for about 5 years.
I'm pretty sure any problems at GE are NOT his fault. By the way, I love my job!
-GE Employee
Ge employee you may love your job and that is fine for you. But is does not changet the fact that when I got pregnanat Ge decided to discriminate against me for my pregnancy. Jeffrey Immelt condones this behavior and should be removed from GE for it. He is a sexist pig that does not care about the so called 'spirit and letter'
THere is high turnover among Ge's India team just as there is among some GE US businesses. I personally heard the GE people complain about the long hours at gE and better pay they get when they leave and go somewhere else.
If Immelt is doing so well, why has GE stock been lanquishing in the $30s for so long.
No offense...but don't blame your problems on the company that feeds you. If you hate it so much, leave.
Anon has a point tho-if you hate it. then leave. A former manager of mine (not at GE) told me once when we were having department issues: "This is the way the VP wants it. This is the way it is. If you don't like it, if you can't work in this environment, then it is time to find another job."
I"m full up on GE crazy, so that is what I'm doing.
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They each had my quarters
Jack came back with a big piggy bank
That Jeff proceded to slaughter
The poisonous and rascist atmosphere generated by the senior staff there is sickening and heart-breaking to say the least. From hiring practices to promotions, non-white personnel are routinely maligned and otherwise mistreated openly without fear of repercussions. The fear of being released without cause keeps the lid on the reprehensible situation. I just can't believe that the entire G.E. Corp in any way represented here.
I am sure I can read the paper and play in the Gym as well as him and I'll do it for half the price. He has always maintained here at GE that we are all FAMILY yet he sold off the Advanced Materials Division to Leon Black's thugs knowing that Black will eventually burn every one of them to make a buck.
I have worked for GE for ten years and it was all great right up until I needed “reasonable accommodation” for a disability, then the landscape changed drastically.
I have my website www.gesupplydiscrimination.com and my Blog http://gesupplyrexeldiscrimination.blogspot.com/ to tell of my adventure with the once great company.
I have two older sons that are in their 20’s and the last place behind Iraq that I would want to see them go, would be GE.
You have great talent, continue to make me laugh,
Best regards,
Rob Delsman
I've been with Corporate for the last 2.5 years and work closely with GE Plastics, Equip Finance, and Cap Solutions.
In my experience, GE has done a great job of integration and is the opposite of "racist or sexist". My bosses have all been AA or female and are considered "rising stars" of the company.
The BUs can be cold in terms of compassion, yet they will respect progress. As long as you're doing your job and producing, the bottom 10% rule will not apply to you.
To be honest, the people here complaining must fit into the bottom 10% that HR must churn and are resenting their treatment. Good luck with your next positions!
To the comment from GE water, give it time! You’re in a cyclical business and the portfolio of infrastructure should be strong over the next decade.
My company is a subsidiary now and has been on a downward spiral since GE stepped in and forced their policies and such. GE does not want to build anything either, but yet outsource everything to be built and stick your ge label on it the claim to the public ge developed and actually built the products. Oh, I hope that 9 million a year salary is enough. I'm trying to provide for a family of 5 on 38k as an engineer. Our increase only comes every 18 months now with ge and whooo a whoping 1% increase while cost of living has went up 4.7% in the last year alone in my state. BTW - most all my co-workers would not mind if GE pulled out tomorrow. In fact we are not proud at all to even mention we work for GE in public in my area. Your ge company sucks and not a friendly caring environment to work in at all. Six Sigma, Lean etc, what a load of dong...
Rob Delsman
Rob Delsman
DOn't dare say ANYTHING like "you're lucky to have a job." I guess I'll admit if you can get out without having invested a large part of your life - get while you can.
And to the person who said those kinds of people are the underachievers. Give me a break and do your homework. Studies indicate that those people are usually the top performers. I know of one case where a person had a successfule GE history of more than 25 years and they turned on him. It almost killed him. Don't pull information out of some colloquial place and flaunt your opinion as fact.
There is a systemic problem within GE. I know of several cases where their corporate 'people' policies were ignored. Where people out on disability (salaried management) simply had their pay halted. The person out on sick leave called to see if they were fired "Oh no. YOur pay? ...we'll check into it," and they never do...they just want the person to go away. (Again, not just one incident or person.) GE HR people have said to others with disabilities, "EEOC, ADA? Never heard of it?"
Several incidents where people questioned managers who were mistreating employees and they were told that they were next in line if they didn't back off. HR is told to support the manager, even though the person they are abusing may be a manager as well.
Listen, a company's job is to maximize profits through efficient use of resources. But no corporation has any right to allow or encourage the abuse of employees. If a person must legitimately be let go, fine, as long as procedure is followed. But nefarious and insidious internal practices such as those I've seen at GE are unacceptable.
By the way: Anyone at GE or at GE in the past consider going to http://ebosswatch.com
and rate the place and your boss. No identity whatsoever from you, but it will serve to warn others of your experience. It allows you safely to name names.
Good luck.
At a recent meeting with Jeff Immelt, Peter Marsh, a Financial Times Manufacturing Editor, as Mr. Immelt which site was the best manufacturing location for GE.
Mr. Immelt said to check out Erie Transportation in Erie, Pa.
Mr. Marsh wrote an article about GE
Transporation, whose 2007 profits were up over 20% on just a 9% increase in sales. GE Transportation sells energy efficient locomotives to China, Russia etc., and employees over 10,000 globaly, 5000+ in the Erie area. Mr. Marsh referred in glowing terms about GE but referred to Erie as "unfashionable". Long time local resident, Danny Lucas, in a series of email to Marsh mananged to change his perception. Erie has geared to welcome GE, in these troubled economic times GE has a "jewel" in the NEW ERIE. International press, national
media and local press will cover this meeting. Pa. will have its national election primary April 22, the day before the GE meeting. The spotlight will be on this town.
Jeff Immelt is a visionary, he chose Erie for a reason. Check out the comments on www.globalerie.com, this town and GE are on the move!
George Vietze
Jeff Immelt has a credibility issue. I beg
to differ. Jeff must
have a lot going for him
in that department as his
name came up for vice
president when V.P. Cheney
was seriously ill.
Phyllis Kunz
As an ex-GE employee and graduate of one of its highly esteemed Leadership programs I think Jeff's days are numbered...personally I thought the other executives who were not picked as the CEO got the better deal since they were able to leave and make way more (see nardelli 250Mil and Calhoun 125Mil for neilson) than jeff's paltry 20 million per year at GE. The point is this, Jack used every trick in the book to get this elephant to dance and when he ran out of tricks he left the company. Though september 11th did not help Jeff then made the mistake of drinking Jack's cool aid when he should of mixed up a new flavor i.e. sold as much of GE's old businesses as possible similar to what Jack did in the 80's when he was called neutron Jack and hated by most GE employees.
Now some advice for all you newbies confused and dazed by GE the bottom line is this... if you are a new or future college graduate GE is the best company to join if you want to become one of the best in various facets of business in america. I have been at a consulting company since leaving GE and let me tell you that the talent at GE far outguns where I am at or the companies I consult for so I am a superstar using simple principles GE has fostered and implemented decades ago. So go out and interview, if you get the job show up with drive and a get it done attitude and once you are in one of their leadership progams you will get the best training (FMP, IMLP, CLP, CLDP, HRLP) offered in corporate America in finance, IT, Communications, Sale, HR. However when you graduate from one of these programs spit out the coolaid they made you drink while on program and become CEO of your career; showing up and getting the job done is no longer good enough. The best advice that I got from a GE CEO is this...always know your value on the market no matter the business environment always go on atleast one interview every two years because it very clearly helps you discover what you will and will not put up with on your job. Too often people forget this and get bitter...security is dead so whether you're pregnant or cancer striken don't expect GE or any corporate company to show pity; you're a number, expense, and headcount if you want to be valued start with you valuing yourself and leave on your own terms if you're right the market will reward you! It is the American Way!
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