| | |  | | August 22, 2017 | | |  | | | | Read online | | | | Jeff Immelt’s GE, in His Own Words | | | | | | From Amy Bernstein
Editor, Harvard Business Review | | | When Jeff Immelt announced his retirement as GE's chief executive, some on Wall Street hammered him for the company's 30% drop in value during his 16-year tenure. But there's a lot more to the Immelt story than a number. The GE he inherited from Jack Welch was an array of loosely connected businesses, from media to jet engines to (yes) pet insurance. Today the industrial giant is tightly focused and linked by a sophisticated digital infrastructure. This shift is extraordinary, especially when you consider that real organizational change is excruciating, most often ending in frustration. A lot of executives pay lip service to leading for the long term, but Immelt actually did it, managing with an audacious vision for GE's future and the guts to place big bets that may not pay off for years to come. In the new issue of HBR, he explains how he reconceived and retooled the century-old company and shares the sometimes painful lessons he learned along the way.
While GE grapples with the challenges of thriving as a 125-year-old company in an increasingly digital economy, Google, Facebook, and Amazon have to address a different sort of challenge: Are they getting too big? As they collect a disproportionate and growing share of economic value, now is the moment to ask, does their sheer power suppress innovation and competition across the economy? And what’s to be done about it? In “Managing Our Hub Economy,” Harvard Business School professors Marco Iansiti and Karim Lakhani lay out their thinking about strategy, ethics, and network competition in the age of digital superpowers.
On a more immediate note, do you ever feel as if you're being pulled in way too many directions, working on too many projects at once? If so, you're not alone. The growth of multidisciplinary initiatives, particularly in knowledge work, had led to an explosion of what Mark Mortensen of INSEAD and Heidi Gardner of Harvard Law School call multiteaming. In theory, assigning people to several teams at once is great: It's an efficient way to solve complex problems. But in practice, conflicting demands can lead to burnout and undermine your team's goals. The authors offer smart insights into managing this reality of modern work.
Until the next issue,
Amy Bernstein | | | | In the Issue: | | | | | | | | | Jeff Immelt, the outgoing CEO of GE, arguably had one of the most difficult corporate leadership tasks in recent memory: remaking an iconic (if not scattered) company during a volatile and complicated time. In looking back over his 16-year tenure, Immelt pinpoints seven key lessons he learned during GE’s transformation, ranging from being disciplined to embracing new kinds of talent. And while he admits that his legacy at GE “will be a complicated one,” he’s confident that his bets will pay off over the decades. | | | | | | | | | | | | | We’re at a particularly dangerous moment in time: It's too late to claw back the power that digital superpowers like Amazon and Google have, but it’s clear that their dominance over the global economy has serious consequences (exacerbating income inequality, undermining the economy, and destabilizing society). So what now? Iansiti and Lakhani make the case that both incumbents and superpowers need to play a role in sustaining competition and acting in ethical ways. Otherwise, they warn, “we are all in serious trouble.” | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | How many teams are you on at work? If the answer is “many” and you’re feeling burned out, there are good reasons why. While there are a lot of benefits to multiteaming, including knowledge sharing and solving complex problems, there are some pretty big downsides: competing priorities, poor group cohesion, and exhaustion. The good news is that there are practical steps leaders can take to make multiteaming a lot less painful for everyone involved. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | HBR’s Emotional Intelligence Collection features smart, essential reading on the human side of professional life from the pages of Harvard Business Review. Each book in the series offers proven research showing how our emotions impact our work lives, practical advice for managing difficult people and situations, and inspiring essays on what it means to tend to our emotional well-being at work. Uplifting and practical, these books describe the social skills that are critical for ambitious professionals to master. This specially priced four-volume set includes Happiness, Resilience, Mindfulness, and Empathy. | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
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