Jeffrey Immelt: How I Remade GE

Last week WSJ reported Jeffrey Immelt is the frontrunner for Uber's next CEO. Out of the blue this article pops up. With sections about "Transformation", his connections to Silicon Valley, how he's hip and watches Netflix;

with quotes like

>"We were a classic conglomerate. Now people are calling us a 125-year-old start-up."

>"The two things that influenced me the most were Marc Andreessen’s 2011 Wall Street Journal article, “Why Software Is Eating the World,” and The Lean Startup—Eric Ries’s book, which I literally read in a day."

The PR spin machines are already churning.

Sounds a lot like a classic "submarine PR piece", with all the right references and even one spicy one (Mike Tyson quote).

"At the other extreme are publications like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Their reporters do go out and find their own stories, at least some of the time. They'll listen to PR firms, but briefly and skeptically."

I thought HBR was also relatively immune from printing such vanity pieces, evidently not.

The article may as well be titled "Why I should be CEO of Uber."

Is a ghostwritten 6000+ word tome about Immelt's tenure at GE effective PR? Perhaps this is effective for advancing his goal of becoming the CEO of Uber, but it feels very dated.

I'm curious what would be an effective strategy for him today. Personally I think my title for his article would be more authentic. Just come out and say what you want. Declare that you are the best qualified person and aggressively state your case. No one will fault you for wanting this job.

The first thing people smell when they see this article is the PR effort that created it. The indirect approach creates suspicion and skepticism because of the cynicism tied to traditional PR.

Anyone else feel like being an armchair advisor to Immelt? What would you do?

This reflects very poorly on Uber’s future prospects. This candidate seems like a professional fail-upward person. There are plenty of these people in big businesses, but most are just barely better than leaving the job I filled.

For example, he says the CEO’s job is to tie together all of a company’s initiatives, and then he offers this:

“All the major initiatives we implemented during my tenure as CEO were aimed at making GE one of the 21st century’s most valuable technology-driven industrial companies—one that can grow; one that can generate greater productivity for ourselves and our customers.”

The thing that amazes me most about all of this is that apparently, going from CEO of GE to CEO of Uber is considered an upgrade.

this post would be much better if treated like the Satire it is ...

For people that don't know what 'digital industrial' is: Basically you put sensors on all your products and then gather all that data to predict/prevent failures or problems.

But why does GE constantly use the term to showcase how they are drastically changing their company (the term was used 12 times in this article alone)? Their main products are still engines and trains right? The only difference is now they have trains with sensors on them. This seems like just the next move forward, using the computer/internet for more productivity. Why would you have to name it something and then write articles about how your entire company is changing?

God, I despise this culture.

This might sound petty, but the number of "I" in the writing was a bit overbearing.

GE share prices have mostly been in decline since Immelt took over from Welch. Just saying.

This firmly points to his imminent appointment as the next CEO of Uber.