Tonight was a pretty cool evening to be a Sloan MBA. As part of one of the premier classes at Sloan called CEO Perspective, our class was able to speak with Jeff Immelt CEO of General Electric from 6-8PM. Now, having interned for GE during undergrad, I have to say I was pretty excited to come to this class. It's like the rock star ads from Intel featuring their engineers.
I think the most interesting parts of this class is when the CEO's share with us their thoughts on managing bad press and how they mentally get through tough times. Immelt said, "Before I go to bed each night I rethink how I could have done things differently and feel self doubt, but in the morning I have to look in the mirror and think to myself, 'I'm the man!.'"
But more importantly, Immelt spoke about how the business landscape in the U.S. has dramatically changed forever since the credit crisis of 2008. We can't expect the world to be the same way we left it entering our first year in business school. The "new currency" for business is no longer cost cutting, but rather job creation and he intends to use GE's capabilities to the max in terms of investing in infrastructure, clean energy, and transportation. His parting words were, "My biggest fear is that you are all living in the past. Instead, be a part of what's next." And that is exactly what I intend to do.
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