Jeffrey Immelt (CEO of GE), the Second Most Powerful Man in America
Jeffrey Immelt - CEO of GE
Certainly Barack Obama is the most powerful man in America, but right behind him is Jeffrey Immelt the CEO of General Electric (only Obama’s ability to push American Idol back a full 24 hours separate the two). The face of the the General Electric conglomerate has power over major financial institutions, media outlets, cutting edge technology development, energy infrastructure, and even transportation. Oh, did I mention he’s also one of Obama’s financial advisers? Fortunately, I believe that the second most powerful man in the world is very bright, in touch with reality, and will play a huge role in pulling the United States out of the recession.
In 2006 when General Electric was the toast of Wall Street, Jeffrey Immelt spoke as the commencement speaker for my graduation from Northeastern University. He was appointed the CEO of General Electric days before September 11th, 2001, and the company was immediately sent into crisis as the stock plummeted down 80%. At the commencement, he spoke about the challenges of overcoming the crisis and how he built General Electric to become an even stronger company than when he started. Many of the challenges that he faced then such as restoring faith in the company are the same challenges that we face with the economy today.
One of the things that struck me about Immelt was how in touch with reality he was, and rather than ducking problems he addressed them head on. To start his commencement speech, Immelt addressed what everyone was thinking, the CEO of GE probably wasn’t our first choice. He compared himself to other people speaking on that same day including John Stewart, and Hillary Clinton, and hoped that he was a higher choice on our list than Paris Hilton. Then he pulled us on board when he told us that he had something to offer that none of the others could, he said “I can offer you a job.” This approach to problems brought him out of the 9/11 crisis, and will help bring GE and the rest of the economy out of the current crisis.
Immelt continues this direct approach to problems to this day. General Electric has not been immune to the recession, in fact the stock has dropped about 75% since their high point of 2007. In a time where so many CEOs are quick to blame the economy, Immelt has claimed responsibility for this downturn of GE, stating that he failed to position assets in the proper places to prepare for hardships when times were good. Despite the terrible year, GE offered Immelt a 20 million dollar bonus, which he wisely turned down citing his failure to protect the company from the recession. Then to evoke confidence Immelt bought 50,000 shares of GE with his own money, showing that he had more at stake than just a job title.
As a CEO it will be important for me to emulate the problem solving approach that has made Immelt so successful in the past. The other crucial part is learning from Immelt’s mistakes as to avoid repeating history. Jeffrey Immelt is a CEO who I will continue to follow and hopefully be able to follow up on with a post describing how he was able to bring General Electric out of the recession to an even stronger position than their 2007 high.
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