Immelt talks citizenship at CSR conference

November 7, 2008

On Thursday, November 6th, Jeff Immelt shared his thoughts on citizenship and corporate social responsibility at the BSR conference in New York City, an annual gathering of about 250 companies committed to finding more sustainable ways to do business. In his keynote, Jeff talked about the “four pillars” of any successful corporate social responsibility program. Watch the keynote below.

* Read Marc Gunther’s blog post on Jeff’s remarks, “An emotional, social, economic reset.“

Glenn M. Heller

Speaking of corporate responsibility and specifically transparency, it wasn’t long ago — just after the collapse of Enron — when Mr. Immelt was specifically asked about derivatives and whether or not GE had much exposure to the derivatives market.
At the time, Mr. Immelt stated that GE did have some small exposure to derivatives, but that the risks posed were negligible and quite manageable within GE Capital’s portfolio, and further that GE would be cutting back on that risk and on GE’s involvement in the future with derivatives.
Fast forward to today 2008: Hasn’t it been GE Capital’s recent exposure in the derivatives market that has cost GE Capital its extensive losses, and accounted for a large percentage of the recent plunge in GE’s stock price?
Why isn’t Mr. Immelt now being held to account for misleading investors back then during the Enron collapse as to the extent of the Company’s real involvement with derivatives?
Glenn M. Heller

And one more point: Why isn’t Mr. Immelt also being held to account for not doing as promised (when Enron failed) and scaling back on GE’s involvement with, and exposure to, derivatives?
Had Mr. Immelt followed through back then on his promises, the likelihood is that GE Capital would not now be in the position of having sustained its huge losses as a result of the derivatives market.
Gheorghe Curelet-Balan

Just the fact that people’s opinions are freely expressed in this blog is a proof of transparency to me. This is my personal opinion (of a software developer) that was not influenced in any way by my employer General Electric.
Rob Delsman

Unfortunately, transparency will continue to be a problem at GE until there is a change in leadership. (no mean spiritedness intended here)

After all there is no real incentive for Immelt or the existing BOD to let the existing skeletons out of the closet and confront the issues head on.

With that said, some time ago I suggested on my blog that if GE were to survive, that they should immediately engage their stakeholders and listen to what they have to say and it appears that the GE blog is a decent start.

The next step is to listen, then implement the good ideas that GE receives as a result of this new forum.

Lastly and most importantly, GE has to come to grips with the human component of the company. That is, to utilize this wonderful asset with respect and dignity, this will foster a spirit of innovation and cooperation that has to exist if GE is to survive these current economic times.