|
|
 |
|
|
|
I am very proud of your team. They are passionate and committed. I spend about one-third of my time on people with my partner Bill Conaty, GE’s Human Resources leader. We recruit, we train, we develop, we improve, we think about people constantly. I am happy to report that retention remains high, with voluntary turnover among our leaders of less than 3%.
Historically, we have been known as a company that developed professional managers. These are broad problem-solvers with experience in multiple businesses or functions. However, I want to raise a generation of growth leaders—people with market depth, customer touch and technical understanding. This change emphasizes depth.
We are expecting people to spend more time in a business or a job. We think this will help our team develop “market instincts,” so important for growth, and the confidence to grow global businesses. Ultimately, careers should be broad and deep, giving our leaders the confidence to solve problems and the experience to drive growth. But today, to get the right balance, we are emphasizing depth.
About a year ago, one of our executive development classes suggested that we reformulate our values to capture the spirit of GE as a growth company. Values can’t just be words on a page. To be effective, they must shape action. We looked to make them simpler, more inclusive and aspirational.
With this in mind, we reshaped GE values around four core actions: Imagine, Solve, Build and Lead. Imagine at GE is the freedom to dream and the power to make it real. This requires the values of passion and curiosity. Solve reflects GE’s unique ability to tackle the world’s toughest problems and expresses our values of resourcefulness and accountability. Build requires a performance culture that creates customer and shareowner value, and the word captures our values of teamwork and commitment. Lead reflects our spirit of optimism that embraces change, and our values of openness and energy; it’s what it will take to win.
Jim Campbell, who led our Consumer Products business in 2003, is a great example of GE values. In 2003, we asked Jim to grow earnings by double digits, generate $1 billion in cash, restore GE as a clear leader in innovation, rebuild relationships with our customers, reduce structural cost by integrating Lighting with Appliances and persuade his production associates to ratify a new contract. He hit them all.
Jim had to imagine new approaches for innovative products in an old industry. He had to solve real problems in our Lighting business, where we have underperformed. He had to build new relationships with customers like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart. He had to lead in a difficult market… one in which tough actions like restructuring were required to fund growth. He did all this with a remarkable feel for the market and our team. He is both a learner and a winner. He lives the GE values.
I love your GE team. I am thankful for their loyalty, commitment and hard work. It is an honor to lead them.
|
|
|
|
