GE 2010 Annual Report Download - page 9

GE 2010 ANNUAL REPORT 7
LETTER TO SHAREOWNERS
WE ARE DEVELOPING COMPETITIVE LEADERS
There are certain fundamentals of leadership at GE that never
change: a commitment to integrity, a commitment to
performance and a commitment to innovation. Beyond this, as
the world changes, leadership must evolve as well.
The GE leadership model has core pillars: domain
competency, leadership development, team execution and global
repositioning. We are constantly looking outside the company
for new ideas on leadership. And we are investing more than ever
to train our team.
We are developing careers that are deep first, broad second.
GE has always been a training ground for general managers.
But very little is “general” in the world today. It takes deep domain
knowledge to drive results, so people will spend more time
in a business or a job. In addition, jobs like chief engineer, senior
account manager, chief compliance officer and global risk
leader are respected and rewarded.
We have modernized our leadership traits. We have built off the
foundation we have had in place for several years: External
Focus, Clear Thinking, Imagination & Courage, Inclusiveness and
Expertise. Upon this foundation, we are training for attributes
that will thrive in the reset world.
Leaders must execute in the face of change. Our
markets are less predictable, but our teams must still be accountable.
We still expect our leaders to outperform the competition. We
are doing more scenario planning, and our leaders must be smart
and disciplined risk takers.
Leaders must be humble listeners. We will make
bold investments and learn from our mistakes. We will stay open
to inputs from all sources. We are here to work on teams
and serve our customers.
Leaders must be systems thinkers. This involves the
ability to share ideas across silos inside and outside the
company. Internally, we have always excelled at best-practice
sharing. Outside the company, systems thinking requires
“horizontal” innovation, connecting technology, public policy,
social trends and people across multiple GE businesses.
And we want our leaders to be scale-based entrepreneurs.
They must have a gift for making size a facilitator of growth,
not a source of bureaucracy. Our unique strength is that of a fast,
big company.
We have repositioned where decisions get made. Last year
I asked John Rice, our most senior Vice Chairman, to move to
Hong Kong and lead our global operations. Behind John,
we will move more capability to the emerging markets.
Great global companies will reposition decisions and
strengthen their culture. The biggest leaders—living in the
growth regions—will make decisions more quickly with the
benefit of experience and market knowledge.
We perform as a “connected meritocracy.” In other words, the
best performance wins. We want to expand this definition
of meritocracy to include a view that every job counts. Senior
leaders must have a better connection with front-line employees.
We live in a time where unemployment is high in every
corner of the world. As a result, jobs are the real currency of
reputation. Without jobs, confidence—and growth—lags. GE must
be cost-competitive. But at the same time, we must know how
to create and value front-line jobs.
We have a strong and unified culture. Let’s face it: all of the GE
team has persevered through the toughest times. It made us
better. I have always said that I would not be CEO of GE if I hadn’t
spent three years at GE Appliances in the late 1980s. This is not
because it was fun, but because it was so hard. Perseverance is
a source of confidence.
LEADERSHIP MODEL
Domain
Competency
Team
Execution
Leadership
Development
Global
Repositioning
GE
Voted #1 in Developing Leaders
in 2010 Hay Group/BusinessWeek Poll