Jeff Immelt on Business

Found out some note on my notebook when I listened to Jeff Immelt’s speech during a meeting. Just some random notes.

Big vs Small

  • Credibility
  • Big + Fast always beat small + fast
  • Love and inspire people, but GE is not for everyone
  • Mistakes we still make
    • Allow bureaucracy to win – too process based
    • Too intenal/too American – lose love of customers
    • Confuse current success with future position
    • Metrics that reward the wrong behavior
    • Play small

Leadership

  • I have stayed at GE for 25 years so that I could be in the front seat of history
  • Zoom in, zoom out…
  • "I don’t believe in professional management".
  • 4-5 things deep dive
  • Good managers show interest…
  • These is no substance of experience
  • Build something that last is beautiful

Innovation

  • 10 years ago, everyone was trained by processes, like six-sigma. Now we are all about innovation
  • People has to be the core DNA of the company
  • You cannot just come to work and chop wood
  • You have to drive change and develop other leaders

Making deicisions and Communication

  • Make decision fast, faster and faster, for small companies, and large companies!
  • Decision cycle time
  • How the organization can be quicker
  • Clarity of community
  • Drive the speed
  • Decisive = clearly Yes or No
  • Clarify is key
  • When we go, we go
  • Make a very clear call

On Exit

  • Someone can run the business better than us, it is time to exit
  • A company that makes money from chaos.
  • In a good company, you always has to prioritize very hard
  • GE is all about system, that is tough to match

2 thoughts on “Jeff Immelt on Business

  1. i think any people who in lead have their philosophy on manage.

    and the way they hold doesnot means will match others .

  2. He listed “too process based” as the first thing as a mistake. That should trigger some thinking. Currently it seems all people in China think that “process” equals “morden management” equals “management style that brings you success”.

    This can’t be true.

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