General Electric (GE, Financial) chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt discussed the big moves taking place in the company and his mission to lure young talent during an interview with Fortune’s new series. This is Immelt’s first interview since General Electric declared plans regarding disposing its financial assets. During the interview, the company’s top boss spoke of the challenges it’s undergoing, the intended portfolio transformation it’s making toward developing an industrial base and how he’d like to see the company in due course of time.
The key highlights
One thing that got highlighted pretty well was Immelt’s desire to attract young professionals who would drive the conglomerate and help keep the company stay relevant with changing times. Immelt is very clear about how he wants to mold the industrial bellwether, but the problem lies in the fact that the company lacks millennial support that would assist in doing so.
The transitioning of the company to expand industrial operations away from its financial base is another issue that worries Immelt.
Cementing dominance in industrial operations
Immelt aims at sustaining revenue growth and improving profitability at General Electric, and this remains the core of his plans for the company. The American conglomerate’s efforts are being driven toward returning to the roots by establishing as an industrial company focusing in infrastructure and engineering. As a result, General Electric has been divesting its financial assets worth billions of dollars so as to divert attention on core competencies. The company spun off Synchrony Financial which is its retail-finance unit.
In this regard, Immelt commented, “I’m probably one of the few CEOs that’s done $100 billion in acquisitions and $100 billion in dispositions.” General Electric wants to move away from its financial arms not just for the difficulties it faced during the 2008 recession. Immelt always had a mind to streamline the company’s operations since the time he got appointed as the CEO and chairman in 2001, and the 2008 recession added to need of restructuring. The biggest challenge perhaps is attracting young professionals that would facilitate the change just the way they did for Google (GOOG, Financial) and Facebook (FB, Financial).
A couple of months ago, General Electric expressed its plans to dispose most of GE Capital, which had assets worth more than $500 billion at the time. The company had then decided to sell office buildings and commercial real estate debt valued around $26.5 billion. According to Reuters, the sale process of its U.S. commercial lending assets has just begun.
The takeaway
General Electric holds a high ranking among America’s top companies in the Fortune 500 list. Presently the company holds the 9th spot of on Fortune of being the Most Admired Companies. However, the company isn’t satisfied and is continuously working to become a preferred employer of young professionals just the way Google and Facebook are.
Immelt feels it’s necessary to pull in young talent to stay digitally relevant with changing time. Only time will tell whether Immelt would be able to accomplish in making General Electric an industrial heavyweight and a corporation of his dream.
