Immelting

The Darden community was treated this week by a visit from Jeffrey Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE. Not coincidentally, we studied a case related to NBC this week. GE is the parent company of NBC, and to my suprise one of only a handful of AAA-rated companies in the US. This giant of a company includes compnents in financial, real estate, health care and media. So what does Mr Immelt have to say to a bunch of executive-wannbes about this?

From my vantage point in the second row, a lot. It was absolutely clear after a short time why this guys was the successor to Jack Welch, the epitome of GE leadership. Immelt has his own style, more of a marketer and a sly humor. But he was amazing in that you knew if you crossed him you'd be fired in a heartbeat. I was really impressed with being able to combine likability with a serious razor sharp focus. I suspect this is very rare.

Why wouldn't you want to run a company that has $150B in revenue per year? That was also clear in Immelt's presentation. "You have to love it." It was clear that this position has completely enveloped him. He needed to look at his notes only for 15 seconds over the course of sixty minutes. He travels with bodyguards and is probably on the road 95% of the time. He is a CEO first. Travelling in a limo all day might seem glamorous to some but I'd seriously question how exciting that is if you do it all day every day. You'd have to love it.