Dear Friends,

In light of what many have called the Great Recession, the world is reset. Now we must lead an aggressive renewal to win the future. This year’s report, Renewing Responsibilities, examines GE’s partnerships with our employees, business partners and communities — in jointly tackling the world’s most complex and pressing problems. The key question is, where can GE apply its innovation, knowledge and expertise to create new products and services while helping to solve these tough problems.

Change must come, requiring a new way of thinking. It requires a clear and determined plan of action. It requires candor about the troubles we face. It requires leaders throughout the economy to take command of events. And the only way to sustain a real competitive advantage is to invest in innovation and growth.

While GE is focused on the future, we also have a long heritage in citizenship. We are the oldest remaining company in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. This is not because we are a perfect company; it is because we adapt and remain competitive. We globalized the company while investing massive amounts in technology, products and services. In restructuring during the downturn, we also increased our investments, repositioning the company and putting us on a value-creating path in a dramatically changed financial services industry.

The global economy is getting better, but in the near term, consumers in the United States and Europe will be more focused on saving, and the emerging market will be the real engine of growth. More than half of GE’s revenue is from outside the United States, increasingly from emerging markets such as China and Brazil. As a result, we are poised to launch more new products at more prices than at any time in our history — and we plan to sell these products in every corner of the world.

As I see it, the two biggest global challenges — and the two that may have the biggest impact on us as human beings — are clean energy and affordable healthcare.

On clean energy, we believe that wise investments and enlightened policies can provide us with far greater energy diversity and security while reducing global warming. We made a business decision to develop new products focused on energy use and environmental stewardship. Solving the clean energy challenge will create broad economic opportunity — and jobs. And we’re looking to support a low-carbon economy in emerging and developing markets.

Our ecomagination commitment has created thousands of jobs at GE and in our supply chain. Governments can play a role in this leadership. For example, if the U.S. would drive a renewable energy standard of 12 percent of energy supplies coming from renewables by 2012 — up from 5 percent today — it could create thousands of green jobs. And jobs are the currency of today. Whether I am in Riyadh, Paris, Delhi, New York or Washington, D.C. — the only thing that people want to talk about is who can create jobs and growth. If you can create the opportunity for commerce, not only are you more sustainable, but you are also welcomed in any region.

In the future, we can also increase affordable healthcare. GE is also a long-term investor and innovator in healthcare. Through healthymagination, we are doing all we can to improve the access, affordability and quality of healthcare. Over the next six years, we will spend $3 billion to create at least 100 healthcare innovations that will substantially lower costs, increase access and improve quality.

All of this is within our reach.

Successful companies can only create solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems by working collaboratively. Business must engage — with communities, governments, customers and each other — because the status quo is not an option. It is not only possible for a global business leader to be a good citizen, but a requirement.

GE’s impact on healthcare is not complete without a discussion of our willingness to partner, as one key aspect of renewal is a spirit of public-private partnership. Today, people want to see business and government work together, both in the U.S. and globally, to drive innovation, employment and growth. These partnerships will be the catalyst of positive growth and change. We have to engage with governments from Berlin to Washington to Beijing to Brussels to Tokyo.

Based on a commitment to integrity, a commitment to performance and a commitment to learn and grow stronger, GE is creating a better company coming out of this reset — a renewed focus that is better for GE, and also better for our world.

Sincerely,


Jeffrey R. Immelt
Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer