Ge bid farewell to pure profit

Ge bid farewell to pure profit

although Immelt's first decade in power was called the decade when plastic seemed to be able to withstand 200% or more pull as hell, he pushed the concept of corporate society and made this giant enterprise bid farewell to the image of a simple profit-making machine

in the 12 years since he took the helm of General Electric (hereinafter referred to as GE), Jeffrey R. Immelt's authority has been questioned unprecedentedly. It was in the hands of the successor selected by legendary CEO Jack Welch that GE lost its throne as the world's largest company by market capitalization. The market value of Ge handed over by Welch is nearly $400billion, and now it has shrunk to about $240billion. The former boss can only rank in the top ten now. GE's decade is called the decade in hell

the global economic crisis, the September 11 incident, and the rise of the Internet economy are not enough to explain why Ge is declining, because IBM, Hewlett Packard and other established enterprises with similar market positions perform much better. Even when Welch mentioned his successor, he said impolitely that he should kick his ass

but many years later, when referring to Immelt's historical contribution to Ge, people may say that he has turned Ge from a business behemoth that only pays attention to profits to a corporate citizen who pays attention to social image. Immelt, who was born as a salesperson and was very good at marketing, made this brand for GE, which Welch, who was born as an engineer before, never gave Ge. Immelt even proposed a green creative strategy. Although the source of green innovation comes from social pressure, Immelt plans to turn it into a growth engine in the field of green energy, and hopes that it can replace the growth engine of Ge financial services in the Welch era. Welch spent 20 years to push the market value of Ge from the tenth to the second in the world; It has been nearly 10 years since the green idea was put forward. What will be the future of business led by Immelt

Immelt's great vision

on September 7, 2001, Jeff Immelt took over from Jack Welch as CEO. Four days later, the 9/11 tragedy occurred. Earlier this year, Enron collapsed, opening the prelude to the decade long global economic crisis. This is not a good time to develop business

the world has changed. Immelt put forward his ideas soon after he took office. Enterprises are no longer appreciated, and the gap between the rich and the poor is greater than ever before. Now it's time to use our platform to become good citizens, because this is not only what we should do, but also what enterprises must do. Our age belongs to those who seek benefits for themselves and pay attention to the needs of others

Immelt is 1.92 meters tall and burly. He once worked as an olive player in Dartmouth and worked almost 14 hours a day. His energy is everywhere like his legendary predecessor Jack Welch. Ge under Welch is famous for its strict management and higher shareholder return than the market level. Immelt wants Ge to become a really great company. The reason why everyone works at GE is because they want to be sublimated. They want to work hard and get promotions and options. However, they also want to work for a company that can make great contributions to the world by choosing a suitable measurement range

in terms of the huge scale and influence of Ge, the change of thinking came a little late, which was a hindsight, but Immelt touched the switch

Immelt was aware of some of GE's problems, including social problems, at the beginning of taking office. At his request, GE's management conducted an investigation on the company's social performance. They visited investors, relevant authorities and 65 enterprises in the United States and Europe, including Johnson & Johnson, IBM, BP, Lilly, Nike and kiquita fruit. Although almost all of these companies face a series of social and environmental problems, most respondents agree that GE has fallen behind. This somewhat makes me feel uneasy, because I have never heard such a statement within Ge that it has been included in the 1035 national strategic emerging industry development plan, said srini Seshadri, marketing manager of GE Healthcare, who participated in the survey

in the Ge social survey report submitted to Immelt, Ge ranked among the top five in the United States in terms of management quality, talent introduction and investment value, but ranked 72nd in terms of society. Such findings were beyond the expectations of all senior managers

Kirkland is responsible for passing Immelt's idea of becoming a good corporate citizen to the company's business departments around the world one by one, and encouraging more employees to become volunteers. In an exclusive interview with China philanthropist, Kirkland said that the three pillars of Ge are making profits, making profits ethically and differentiation strategies

create a good reputation

ge shows its global social sense in the primary area, which occurs in the field of health care. GE's health care business has a history of more than 100 years, but it was not until 2002 that the Ge Foundation began to pay attention to the field of health care

this year, Immelt told Bob Kirkland and other company executives that I hope to do something in Africa. He said that the economy there is bad and the manufacturing industry is weak, so we can do something different in Africa; But I don't want to donate simply. I want to invest in our technology, products, money, manpower and volunteers

ge chose Ghana in Africa as a pilot. It has established extensive cooperation with the public health department of Ghana and promised to invest 20million US dollars in five years to donate ultrasound, X-ray, patient monitoring, bacterial culture, refrigeration and freezing equipment. At the same time, they also provide corresponding doctor training programs to improve the local medical level in terms of software and hardware

the intervention of GE has greatly improved the child survival rate in Ghana. Breathing disorders account for 37% of the deaths of children under the age of five in the world, and a larger proportion in Africa. Most children's ventilators are expensive and difficult to be widely used locally. An unexpected opportunity made Ge staff realize that the ventilator used to treat adult snoring in the United States can be used to help infants in Africa alleviate breathing disorders, each worth only $100. This will become an important public welfare project promoted by Ge on a large scale in Africa in 2013

Bob Kirkland said that these small auxiliary respiratory devices donated by us may save the lives of these African infants, and the cost of rescue in these hospitals has also been greatly reduced. This is our innovation in combining business with donation. He even proudly added that we are better than the Gates Foundation in this regard. We invest not only money, but also science and technology; They have no input in science and technology

starting from Ghana, Ge foundation has extended public welfare support in the field of health care to Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Cambodia and other countries. In the past 10 years, it has donated more than 200 hospitals and medical centers in 40 countries

for example, in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, the best public hospitals only have one patient monitor and two baby incubators. The standard equipment of national hospitals of this size is 50 patient monitors and 50 incubators for premature infants

when Kirkland first entered the hospital, he saw 71 newborns who were not full-term and were struggling on the edge of death. Most of them had developmental problems. Seven babies' intestines and stomach even fell out of the body, and 10 babies had heart problems. The nurse only judged whether they were alive by touching the baby's neck artery. Most of the funds allocated by the local government to the hospital are used to improve infrastructure, and there is no fund to buy medical equipment. With less than $1million, the Ge foundation purchased baby incubators, patient monitors, and a central monitoring station. With the central monitoring desk, a nurse can monitor three babies in one room at the same time. Six months later, when Kirkland came to the hospital again, the infant mortality rate decreased by 76%. Doctors said that 500 babies survived on these instruments in six months

ge has almost no business in Honduras. Its healthcare business is more in China, India and Mexico. It has no direct or indirect market prospects. It is simply not possible to use the charity of the foundation to pave the way for its globalization, and it is more extravagant to talk about shareholder returns. So why should it donate to the public hospital here

Kirkland said that it is because Ge wants to let people know that it is a good company, not only in the United States, but also in the world; Moreover, people's expectations of the obligations of large enterprises are increasing

Benjamin w. Heineman Jr., GE's senior vice president for legal and public affairs, believes that the company should invest more in its reputation. Just as goodwill has value on the balance sheet, he said, or brands have brand value, in a broad sense, reputation is also very valuable to companies

at the same time, Ge also began to review its suppliers in developing countries to ensure that they can act in accordance with labor, environmental protection, health and safety standards

in the Chinese market, Ge made a decision that it would no longer sell low-end ultrasound equipment to China (and put a warning label on the high-end equipment it sold), because it did not want Chinese people to use these equipment for fetal sex identification, leading to pregnant women may abort the fetus, which may have a great negative impact on GE's image. Ge is unwilling to take the risk

after continuous efforts for several years, GE's social evaluation has rapidly improved. In the fall of 2004, GE was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, which brings together 300 first-class enterprises that meet its very detailed standards in environmental, social and financial sustainability

in the spring of 2005, Ge began to publish a report on fulfilling its civic obligations

green imagination

after Edison founded Ge, GE's core business has undergone many changes: when the large machinery business encountered antitrust lawsuits, it expanded its product line from commercial customers to washing machines, air conditioners, radios and other mass consumption fields; During World War II, it developed aircraft, ships and military manufacturing businesses; In the 1960s and 1970s, it also expanded medical equipment, computers, nuclear power, finance and other businesses. Some of these businesses are still doing, and some have already quit

compared with the vigorous promotion of financial business in the Welch era, GE's transformation under the leadership of Immelt is not to turn to traditional manufacturing, but to invest in emerging industries such as biotechnology, healthcare, new energy and so on

as an established manufacturing company, ge used to regard environmental regulations as a cost or burden. Today, Immelt sees clean energy as an opportunity for development. Since 2001, GE has successively acquired a purified water company, a solar energy equipment manufacturer and a