Word: immelt
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...outside the company, particularly on Wall Street, where GE stock has enjoyed a hefty Welch premium, Immelt knows it's just beginning. Following a successful CEO is never easy. Consider such CEO casualties as Coca-Cola's Doug Ivester and Xerox's Rick Thoman, who followed high-profile bosses--Roberto Goizueta and Paul Allaire--and barely got a chance to make a mark before the long knives came...
...doesn't help matters that Immelt is starting his tenure at the end of an unprecedented bull market and in the midst of a global economic slowdown, when GE businesses from lighting and appliances to NBC are slumping and, some critics suggest, cash cows like power systems and aircraft engines may be peaking. Even the political climate has changed. In Europe, regulators scotched GE's proposed $43 billion deal with Honeywell (last week they moved on to Microsoft). In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency is forcing GE to clean up the mess it made dumping PCBs into the Hudson...
...company has consistently delivered 10% to 20% in annual earnings growth. Even during the current downturn, GE posted a healthy 15% rise in second-quarter earnings, though its stock has fallen 33% since its most recent high of $60 last August. No wonder, then, that as Immelt put it at the company's annual managers' meeting in Boca Raton, Fla., in January, "everybody at GE thinks they work for Jack; every customer of GE thinks they buy from Jack; every political person thinks they deal with Jack...
...Immelt jumped a big hurdle in getting the job. Succession is practically papal at GE--Immelt is only the ninth chairman in the company's 123-year history--and a close three-way race emerged among Immelt and two other senior executives, Robert Nardelli, 52, and W. James McNerney Jr., 51. Immelt was the youngest of the three, and the fact that he could serve as CEO for two decades may have nudged him ahead. As for the losers, within weeks they were running FORTUNE 500 companies. Nardelli took over retailer Home Depot, and McNerney now heads 3M, a tech...
...sense, Immelt's campaign for the top spot didn't begin until after he won it. Living on airplanes, where he devours mystery novels and biographies (including David McCullough's John Adams), he has crisscrossed the globe to meet with employees, key customers, suppliers and investors, morphing the company's public face from Jack to Jeff in person. "I've used the time to transfer relationships," he says. "It's got to be done retail, face to face, and you've got to keep doing...