'Every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it’ – GE’s Jeff Immelt. Why did he say that? What are the lessons?

Jeff Immelt stepped down as GE’s CEO in 2017 after 16 years and handed over the baton to John Flannery.

“I gave him maybe the most important advice for incoming CEOs,” Mr Immelt said. “And that is: every job looks easy when you’re not the one doing it.”

John stepped down within 13 months.

What happened? Why did GE wither away under Immelt?

1. Cope’s rule – Evolutionary biology

Cope’s rule says that if you look across species, their body size tends to get bigger over time. Evolution wants you to get bigger because there are competitive advantages to being bigger.

But there are also a lot of disadvantages to being bigger. It takes more food. It takes more space to live in. You can’t hide from predators. But the bigger you become, the higher the odds are that you’re going to go extinct.

Evolution also destroys species or companies that are too big.

It’s all cyclical and nothing lasts forever. Remember Standard Oil, US Steel, Sears…

2. Perils of Diversification

Immelt's first day as CEO at GE was on Sept. 10, 2001, it was crisis after crisis for the next 16 years across all divisions - aviation, insurance, energy, Oil & Gas, and financial services.

Bad news travels faster and wider than good news, the speed has accelerated exponentially post-internet.

One bad apple can spoil the barrel, sprawling conglomerates and a series of crises led to at least one bad apple in far-flung corners almost every year.

3. Vision is a double-edged sword

Visionaries by definition are contrarians. Being contrarian is not enough, you have to be right and within a time frame. It was not to be.

Mistakes were made, and there are lessons to be learned.

But be aware of the Dunning-Kruger effect, people with limited knowledge or expertise in a specific domain tend to overestimate their abilities and criticize, while those with high ability or knowledge underestimate their competence.

Fast forward to 2024, GE is back.

Larry Culp is a low-key, press-shy CEO who has transformed GE by making it smaller, and simpler by splitting it into 3 companies (Aviation, healthcare, and energy). In 2023, GE stock gained  96%—outperforming Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

The evolutionary cycle continues, and I’ll be cheering from the side-lines.

Full disclosure:

Jeff Immelt was the CEO throughout my career @ GE. I found him passionate, inspiring, and energizing.

Like many, I started as an intern at GE and stayed with GE for the next 14 years. It was the best-accelerated learning experience across multiple industries and locations. Along the way, I had many bosses- great, good, bad, and ugly. I am grateful for the experience.

Views are personal.

what do you think?

“Live, Laugh, and Learn every day”

You can read my writings at view all blogs.

Previous
Previous

Who are you? You are not what you do for a living. Who you are should determine what you do. But you are changing all the time so what should you do? The case for keeping your identity small.

Next
Next

We are naturally predisposed to trust — it's in our genes, and it has helped humanity thrive.