This story is part of the Behind the Desk series, where CNBC Make It personal with successful business leaders to find out everything, from how they got to where they are, to what they get out of bed in the morning to their daily routines.
Jeff Immelt concedes that his 16-year career as CEO at General Electric was at best ‘controversial’ after he drowned the deep-seated company in 2017 in debt with a crumbling inventory value.
But instead of paying her more than $ 200 million in pensions and laying low, Immelt wrote a book. ‘Hot Seat: What I Learned Leading a Great American Company’, available on Tuesday, details his mistakes regarding GE.
“I want to think about it,” says Immelt, who now teaches at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “I do not want to hide.”
In 2001, Immelt, who previously held executive positions at GE for 19 years, was selected to succeed Jack Welch, one of the most famous CEOs in American history. Under Welch, GE’s market value rose from $ 14 billion to more than $ 410 billion.
Immelt’s run was not so fruitful.
He was at the helm on September 7, 2001, four days before 9/11. The impact of the terrorist attacks has hurt several of GE’s businesses, dropping shares by 20%, Immelt writes in ‘Hot Seat’. Seven years later, the 2008 financial crisis hit GE’s financial services division, GE Capital, which nearly collapsed.
During Immelt’s tenure, GE’s share fell by about 30%, wiping out more than $ 150 billion in market value, which many analysts, investors, and even CEOs had. the blame on Immelt’s missteps. The year after his departure, GE was scrapped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average. In December, GE agreed to pay $ 200 million to the Securities and Exchange Commission for misleading investors and failures in its power and insurance business from 2015 to 2017.
“I know there will be more criticism with the book if we revive it,” Immelt says. But “I really love the company. I really love the people, and I really feel that a different context around GE needs to be painted.”
Here, Immelt talks to CNBC Make It about his biggest mistakes, how he handles extreme stress, and whether money and power can really make you happier.
About whether he would do everything with GE again: ‘The good days are really good’
I think the answer is yes. The good days are really good and the things we had the chance to work on and work on, such as globalizing the business, launching products or developing people, are very rewarding.
And the bad stuff really stinks.
What I try to tell entrepreneurs or MBA students [who I work with] is that you never appreciate the good days without some bad days. I have a unique perspective on appreciating good days after experiencing bad days.
It was an honor to lead, and I will always feel that way.
General Electric CEO Jack Welch and Jeffrey Immelt are attending a press conference in New York City. The conference announces that Immelt has been named president and chairman of GE, which Welch will succeed.
brand peterson | Corbis Historical | Getty Images
On dealing with extreme stress: ‘I would go home and go to bed at 19:00’
Go to bed at night and do not worry about the things you can not control. Do not do your best. People need to learn how to rate themselves on progress, not perfection. Perfection is impossible today.
You also have to take care of yourself. You can not drink too much. You can not do things that will harm your judgment.
When I was not at work, I went home and went to sleep. Some nights it was at 2am and some nights it was at 7pm. I would go home at 7pm and I would go to sleep because you never knew when you would get the next amount of sleep.
About his biggest mistakes: I should have had a more holistic view of the company
I would have to take a much more long-term and holistic look very early after 9/11 [GE], and done so from a precautionary point of view.
The choice I made at that moment was to grow GE Capital while we were fixing the industrial set of businesses. By the time 2007 and 2008 [and the financial crisis] came around, which did not look very smart. There was just so much momentum around GE at the time that it would have been a big task.
But what I’m telling young leaders is to look at your business over a very long period of time. Do not do this every day. I do think history would have been different if I had done it.
To find support: ‘Everyone loves you when you’re on top’
My family and good friends have been helping me for the past three years and for the past 20 years.
Everyone loves you when you’re up, but you need some people who really like you when you’re down, because almost everyone ends up there at some point.
The fact that I maintain close friendships and maintain an amazing wife and daughter, it helped me get through.
About money happiness: I was ‘so happy’ as a GE plastic seller
When I had a [GE] plastic seller in 1982, I was so happy. I was happy when I ran the medical business [GE Medical Systems from 1996 to 2000].
I think people need to be performance oriented and have a vision for themselves and what they want to do that makes sense to them and others. It’s my happiness, and money comes with it.
I did not get the chance to spend as much time with my daughter as I would have liked. But what compensates is that she had to do very neat things. I would be sincere if I did not say that there are benefits [to money], but I always wondered about simple things.
When I was CEO, I went to Walmart to check out our lighting products on the shelves. I will call [former Walmart CEO] Lee Scott of [current Walmart CEO] Doug McMillian and says, “Here’s what I saw today.” I never lost sight of the fact that this is what I like most about my job.