Follow the Leader

In December, 2004, Immelt put his plan to a vote with the top 35 executives in the company. The result: The strategy was shot down dead. "They resoundingly voted no," he recalls. "They said, 'This is stupid.'" Only five or six people in the room went with Immelt on the idea; the rest argued ecomagination would cost too much or that it would be undermined by GE's many Superfund sites and other environmental issues that weren't so easy to fix. "I think some people thought it was too soft. GE's an edgy company; this is a little bit of a soft initiative," he says.

But where Immelt's salesmanship fell flat, his pedigree in hard-nosed GE management won the day. He overrode the decision of his executive committee and told them to prepare for the 2005 launch of ecomagination. This was where the company was going, and his team had to trust him.

"There's about five times a year with that group that I say, 'Hey guys, here's where we're going, get in line.' If you did it six times, they would leave. And if you did it three times, there'd be anarchy," Immelt says.

Immelt believes Jack Welch, his predecessor at GE, had to make a similar decision after receiving little executive support for Six Sigma, an efficiency program the company has relied on since the 1990s.

"We've got a good team that knows when to lead, and they also know when to follow, and that's a real trick," Immelt says.

Since that fateful meeting, his decision to go forward with ecomagination despite his team's objections has paid off. According to GreenOrder, GE is on track to reach its long-term environmental goals. Thanks in part to the marketing of ecomagination initiatives, the value of the GE brand has grown 16.9%, to $51.6 billion, according to brand consultancy Interbrand. And Immelt estimates shareholders have benefited about 5¢ to 10¢ per share as of 2008.

§	word or phrase	Russian equivalent
	to make a judgment call	Принимать решение, основанное на личном мнении
2	tenure	Пребывание в должности, срок пребывания в должности
	to get in line	идти «в ногу», следовать тем же курсом
	to dump	сбрасывать, сваливать мусор
	to roll up into	объединить, сформировать
	to enlist	привлечь на свою сторону, заручиться поддержкой
	resoundingly	ошеломляюще, производя сенсацию
	edgy	успешный, прибыльный, имеющий преимущество перед другими компаниям
	soft initiative	инициатива, снижающая прибыльность компании, не подтвержденная экспериментально, неоправданная инициатива
	to fall flat	не достичь предполагаемого результата, не заинтересовать
	pedigree	прошлые достижения, репутация
	hard-nosed	целеустремленный, не подверженный эмоциям, реалистичный
	to override a decision	отменять, аннулировать, использовать власть и авторитет, чтобы изменить чье-либо решение в свою пользу, брать верх, перевешивать
	to undermine	разрушать, наносить вред

Discuss your word list, definitions and examples with your team members.

I. Answer the following questions:

1. What made CEO Jeffrey Immelt make a tough judgment call?

2. Why did Mr. Immelt initiate the introduction of eco-scorecards?

3. Which difficulties did Mr. Immelt experience while launching “ecomagination” program?

4. What was the structure of his campaign?

5. Why did the opponents to the campaign consider it to be a soft initiative?

6. How did the campaign pay off?

7. Which personal qualities are required from a leader to get his subordinates in line?

2. Fill in the gaps using your active vocabulary:

1. Founded in 1782, the school has an excellent __(background)________.

2. The EU commission exercised its power ______(to change_someone else’s decision)_____ British policy.

3. Being a ___(unemotional and determined to get what you want)________ businessman Mr. Red always attains his goals no matter how challenging they are.

4. The constant criticism was beginning ___(gradually make smth less strong or effective)____________ his confidence.

5. Commercial Textiles service is an __(more successful and profitable than others)_________________ company as it orders faster than many similar companies.

6. After the battle the enemy troops were ____(completely)___________ defeated.

7. He has__(persuaded to help you to do smth)____________ the help of a sports psychologist for the team.

8. The company managers decided to ___(unite)_____________various ethical issues into Code of Ethics of the organization.

9. The company has doubled in value during his __(the period of time when someone has an important job)___________.

10. The members of the Board are expected ____(to follow the same policy)_______________ to increase the shareholders’ value despite the tough situation on the market.

II. Work on the structure of the article. Single out the main ideas.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16