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[[BSR Conference Sustainability: Leadership Required November 2008, New York]]
[[Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric][Highlights]]
[[Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO, General Electric] It's great to be here with you this morning. ]
[What I'll try to do in a very]
[short period of time is to kind of share some of the ideas we have,]
[at GE and that we continue to formulate, ]
[around the subject of corporate social responsibility.]
[maybe five points this morning]
[give you some things to think about. ]
[The first one I think is that the economic]
[crisis that we're going in right now]
[doesn't represent the cycle,]
[And I think people that understand that will prosper]
[in the future, and people that don't understand that]
[will, I think, get left behind. ]
[The era of transparency, accountability ]
[for corporations--responsibility--]
[is profoundly different today]
[versus where it was even 6 months ago. ]
[I think some of you are apprehensive when you came here today, ]
[or came here this week saying, "In an economic downturn, ]
[is my function going to get cut]
[because we can't ascribe what we do to ]
[the bottom line, necessarily?"]
[I think when we come out of this fog, this notion that ]
[companies need to stand for something and they need to be ]
[accountable for more than just the money that they earn]
[Point number two--people are afraid. ]
[People are afraid in Europe, they're afraid in Asia, they're afraid in the United States.]
[People are fundamentally afraid because they don't think they]
[And so the burden now, I think in this reset world--if you will--]
[to turn this fear into confidence]
[competitive structure of the economies that we deal in. ]
[I would say the pillars of competitiveness are energy, healthcare, ]
[education, and financial systems]
[My third point to you is in that context.]
[Corporate social responsibility]
[If you have this strategic alignment, in terms]
[of how you think about what it means to be responsible, ]
[then it never becomes superfluous.]
[You don't have to worry that you've become redundant.]
[The number one step in corporate social ]
[responsibility is corporate-- ]
[is long-term dedication to profitability, to competitiveness, ]
[and doing those important things.]
[The next pillar to corporate social resposibility is]
[you've got to run the company with trust, ]
[which means compliance, governance, and transparency. ]
[We spoke earlier about the GE Citizenship Report.]
[It's probably, I don't know, Bob, our fourth year of doing it?]
[I read it every year over a weekend,]
[and I'll pick up the phone and call Bob, our general counsel, and say,]
["We can't publish all this stuff."]
[And I get talked down off a ledge every year]
[saying, "Hey, you've got to do it."]
[Ombuds complaints and 1100 people got ]
[fired on the Ombuds complaints. ]
[I'm like, "Ahh, do you have to do all this stuff?"]
[But I think what we've learned over time,]
[there's no grey area on transparency. ]
[You either do it or you don't. ]
[The third pillar of corporate social responsibility has to be a long-term]
[So the culture of the company, this long-term dedication to the company, ]
[this long-term dedication to people, is something]
[that is very important to build an outstanding]
[corporate social responsibility program. ]
[And then I think the last pillar of every successful corporate social responsibility]
[program is to orient the company]
[Four billion dollars out of the 6 billion dollars we spend]
[is fundamentally oriented towards two, ]
[what I would consider, long-term social problems. ]
[One is clean energy--clean water, clean energy]
[And the other one is access to affordable healthcare. ]
[We have aligned the profit goals of the company]
[and the long-term technology of the company]
[to go after those two long-term social problems. ]
[The fourth point I make is engagement. ]
[I think one of the things that I have learned]
[over my career is the importance of ]
[engagement with sometimes people that make you uncomfortable, ]
[and it's probably the only thing you can do in a ]
[reset world--is learn how to engage. ]
[economic discussion on the environment]
[In other words, unless you try. ]
[So this is a place where the world,]
[particularly in Asia, looks to U.S. for leadership. ]
[Basically, Europe has achieved leadership,]
[engaging--if you will--in that discussion]
[in Asia, you're not going to be able to ]
[create any tapestry of long-term solutions, ]
[particularly on things like the environment. ]
[The fifth point I'd make in this group, because I think it's so important--and it's]
[clearly important for GE--and I think it's something that we have to fight for.]
[It's not going to be given to us.]
[A company our size--we're 185 billion dollars in revenue. ]
[We'll be 55 percent outside the United States this year, ]
[probably 60 percent outside of the United States next year. ]
[We've got to be allowed to globalize. ]
[In the end, I talk about the first four points]
[to earn the right to do the fifth point--]
[to be able to compete, to be able to win, to be able to take our company ]
[forward in the future and not be pulled backwards. ]
[So at the end of the day, we've got to make all your CEOs, everybody]
[in this room, not look at globalization as ]
[a bad thing, but look at it as a way that we can ]
[help the reset, help give people confidence,]
[be more socially responsible on a global basis, ]
[to do more engagement in an ever-increasing global world. ]
[And if we can do all those things, then I think we've earned the right--]
[I don't think we'll be given the right--]
[but I think we have to earn the right to globalize,]
[to compete, to take our brand, our great company, in every corner of the world. ]
[And that's worth fighting for. ]
[[BSR Conference Sustainability: Leadership Required, November 2008, New York]]
