GE Audio & Video: Podcasts, Stream GE, On Demand
skip to main contentskip to secondary navigationClick on any phrase to jump to that point in the video.
[GE Capital is a diversified financial services company,]
[and we provide a whole host of products and services to commercial]
[and consumer customers around the world.]
[Bill, we just announced a new organizational structure for GE Capital.]
[Can you talk a little bit more about it.]
[We've now created an organization that is largely geographic-based,]
[and so we've got three poles--an Americas pole, a European pole, and an Asian pole--]
[that will provide products and services, principally commercial loans ]
[and leasing activities, though some of our consumer products, in those geographies.]
[At the same time, the business that we call verticals, ]
[which are really global in nature and have a very specific domain expertise,]
[will remain intact and largely untouched by any of this.]
[And then lastly, we've created two special business units,]
[one to focus on our banks and our banking activities around the world]
[and then a group of people that we are calling our restructuring group]
[to focus on some of the assets that we believe are lower returning]
[or aren't consistent with the other business models]
[and that we ultimately want to get smaller in over time.]
[Our approach to business has been more bread and butter, if you will,]
[and I think that has allowed us to enter this difficult economic cycle]
[with a much better portfolio than many of our competitors.]
[That in conjunction with a good operating discipline ]
[that comes from our GE Industrial heritage I think serves us well in difficult times.]
[We've announced the organization now because we want to give our teams]
[an opportunity to get all of the detailed implementation work done,]
[but it will launch effective January 1, 2009.]
[Do we expect any layoffs as a result of this reorganization?]
[Not so much because of the reorganization,]
[but as we look at our portfolio today, ]
[we've concluded that there's a number of segments]
[that don't really meet our return hurdles.]
[And so we're going to be working to reduce those over time.]
[In fact, we've created a special group that will be focused on]
[managing down our assets in these areas.]
[But as we look more broadly at the business ]
[and as our view has evolved to the point where we think we're going to be smaller in 2009,]
[I think we clearly believe we're going to need less resources.]
[So ultimately, I think we will see a reduction in overall workforce.]
[I think the other thing, of course, that we're doing here]
[is consolidating some business teams, and when you do that, you have redundancies.]
[The biggest benefit of the new organization ]
[is going to be to ensure that we've got a very clear process]
[and, as already mentioned, I think be more efficient,]
[particularly around our overall cost structure.]
[So my priorities are very much focused on those two areas,]
[first our capital allocation process and secondly, our ability to drive lower cost ]
