How Jeff Immelt is tarnishing Jack Welch's self-image

You are definetly right. I am a longtime shareholder, and this guy is the worst yet!!!! His compensation is way out of line for the jb he is doing, Lets all vote him out!!!!!

I am with you 100%. Jeff makes 19 mil a year, so he will do ok whether or not the stock price rises. It's high time the buck stopped at the top and Mr. Immelt is replaced with someone who can lead the company in the right direction, make people want to invest in GE again, and always has the shareholder's best interests at heart. He doesn't control the market, but he sure has a say in the image and value the company projects. Jack got this one very wrong and it's time for new blood.

Jack has a lot more to be responsible than Jeff Immelt. Jack pushed out just about all the old experienced management team that could have helped Jeff, in favor of a new herd of 40-ish, tough young bulls before he left. I think he was trying to invigorate the company. I also think he let too much experience slip out the door.

Let's not make this more complicated than it is. The question the journalist's should be asking Welch is this, "If Jeff Immelt performed like this while CEO of GE Med Systems under Jack Welch, what action would he have taken"? The answer is clear, he'd have fired his ass, and rightly so.

As a shareholder in this company for the past 45 years I am appalled we are paying this kind of money for the type of performance that is being delivered at GE. Consequently I have voted to oust Jeff Immelt as company CEO. I do not appreciate the fact that we were lied to in March about the rosy picture drawn by Jeff Immelt. We all know what has happened since. Please join me in ousting this incompetent individual who is not worthy to be at the helm of this great company.

What Peter Cohen wrote here is typical of Jack's management style. This is not the first time that Jeff got a similar needling, he admittedly deserved from Jack, when he ran the plastics division at GE some years ago. I wouldn't put too much credence in Jack's dissapointment in Jeff yet, but it is a warning shot across the bow. I would give Jeff another 3 years or sooner to get their numbers right at GE.

Peter Cohan
all your squawking over Jeff wont do much good. GE will be next GM in ten years or so. GM management is among the best yet GM went through the floor. Why? wages and benefits skyrocketed lately. GM is a bit worse than GE because GM deals with main street customers who tend to haggle on prices. GM can tell its customers to go suck somewhere else and hold the best prices for maximum profits. It is still not enough as metal prices, energy prices, foreign competition and so many other head winds all of sudden showed up right after Jack Welch left. Jeff is left holding the bag and is dealing with those the best he could. I always knew that GE will eventually decline like GM did. Soon enough someone will compete with GE crown divisiions like jet engines and turbines and whatnots from China, Russia and whatever soon enough. GE will keep on plugging ahead but it wont keep on growing fast anymore. It is being eaten up alive..Jack Welch was in right place at right time when copper was selling for 75 cents a pound and energy was selling for a fraction of today's prices, etc... GE workforce is now graying beards. The roosters will come home.. GE has too many shares 12 billion after multiple stock splits under Jack Welch. GM has only 500 million shares. GM and GE may look different to you but they share many parallels. GE is not as bad off as GM but wait ten years you will see GE downgraded and downgraded and heads rolling .. I had been toying with the idea of GE buying GM out... Why not? I dont know..It iwll improve GE sales on shares as GE/GM will vault over $350 billion in sales on practically same shares outstanding just 500 million shares more on top of GE already 12 billion shares. We can call them General Electiric Motors..

G E M that is ....

GE will have financial problems as GE will have to fill up pension coffers for union workers. GE had been eerily silent on pension obligations. Same happened to GM , boom, GM was forced to sell off assets to satisfy UAW's voracious appetitie for reitirement benefits and health costs. GM already built up over $100 billion stash of cash scattered all over the world in form of investments ready to be liquidated for future UAW reitrees . GE might be still having so many younger workers but I am pretty sure that the fastest grwoing share of GE workforce are sporting gray beards already...

Maybe this was Jacks plan all along.He didn't want any star shining brighter than his own,so he picked the least qualified candidate of the three.I wouldnt put it past him.

Folks,

Am registered owner of a mere 1100 shares. I spent 6 years with GE when just to "Get in the Door" required a legacy. My level was 19 of 32 when I left because there were at least 20 or thirty other Top Quality Guys ahead of me.....The best run and best management team the world had ever seen. Thus that part of GE brand on my butt for life....But....

It is GONE!......The life and blood has been sucked out of the company by short term and narcissistic Greed. And that Greed long ago stopped providing the Shareholders with their due. Stop and think about it....Just what in the hell does Immelt do for $19MM per year. There were and probably still ARE at least 40 or 50 guys that can do the job....and get the damn stock going in the right direction.....This is RIDICULOUS......

Furthermore.....IMMELT KNOWS IT! Poor Performance SMELLS even to its owner!

GE needs to get back to basics. The industry that will lead the way for next 10 to 25 years will be the one who SOLVES that damn energy crisis.....Research it, Steal it, Buy it,......Same way we "bought" the Piezo Cube ......

Then devise the correct MKT methodology to Dominate that market......PS The solution is HYDORGEN......not wind, not ethynol, not Solar or other short sighted crap.....Come on GE....Get with it......

Take the new technology (in cooperation with Gov) to primary Interstate Corridors .....Make the cost of Travel by vehicle from Atlanta to LA......$400 rather than $1000......Control ALL aspects of the profit on the $400. Dictate...don't ask....LOL.....

Guess what.......You CAN OWN IT....YOU CAN CONTROL IT....YOU CAN REBUILD THE SPIRIT AND POWER OF THE COMPANY.....

PS.....Immelt has to go...and he has to go quick...HE is a Lightweight....Everyone knows.....Make it Official by removing his Ass!!!

I agree that the performance has been abominable, and I have a non-trivial stake. I don't agree re GM and GE being the same. GM is a different animal entirely. Its heads - as have Ford's and Chrysler's - literally drove them into a ditch with their arrogance re engineering and design, while Toyota is kicking their a$$es. GE is a conglomerate in which new companies should be brought in, and old jettisoned, in response to market conditions. This hasn't been done.

Right now, the spotlight is on because GE has been losing. But the bigger story is that over the last several years, share value has not grown, as it has for the market at large and for industrial conglomerates. (And the "Blue Chip index" is dominated by ...GE.) GE used to LEAD (meaning pull, not drag) the market. Time to jettison the current CEO and bring in someone else...

OK, I'd more than settle for Mr. Welch to return. Works for Apple. Might be working for Starbucks.

We shareholders need to demand GE separate the positions of CEO and Chairman of the Board, which GE has all along refused to do. Then remove Immelt at Chairman so at least he will have somebody to report to. This is on the ballot at the upcoming shareholders meeting and GE has again asked us to vote against this issue.

I long for the days of Welch when the stock was $60 and yes, Jack would never have tolerated the performance of Immelt. Read his book "Straight from the Gut" and you will see what is missing now.

This is always leveled in situations like this, but it doesn't hold water. If it were so, Mr. Welch's point was made years ago (see my post above). All wanted it to work. He made a mistake.

This last was in response to Frankie's, which didn't carry onto the board when I used

More I think about it......Am gonna dump my 20 year shares of GE......Gonna put it in POT......600% return over the same past 3 year term.....Suggest we all do the same....LOL

Fortunately....Have 2000 of POT...

But DO agree that CEO/Chairman need seperation....As long as we have the "lightweight"....

Bill: Suggest you learn to spell Hydrogen and ethanol before you are credible about the 'correct MKT methodology. In doing so, you might find that Hydrogen is just an energy carrier, like electricity, and that making and using hydrogen is less efficient than just using electricity itself.

Here's a different perspective. Jack is a disloyal jerk. There. I said it.

I worked for GE twice. Immelt is a great leader and has managed to grow the Company for years, despite the fact that the heir apparents for Jack's job had to kiss his butt and make dumb business decisions to try to get Jack's position once he (finally) left.

A word about disloyalty and integrity. Jack is all about Jack. Ask his ex-wives, his employees, his church, and anyone else that this vermin has ever come in contact with.

It made me sick to listen to him talk to his employees about integrity. His latest outburst is just more of the self-serving egocentric nonsense that the public SHOULD recognize as Jack's character.

His comments about "shooting" Jeff is a phrase he made popular at GE. Translate that to mean "I don't care about anything (especially the long term health of the company). You have displeased me this quarter. Therefore you are worthless". It's the "culture" that Jack brought to GE that causes what he called "chaos in the kitchen". It was really about his desire to make himself feel strong. Frankly, he was a bully and a bore...

Go away Jack. You are an ugly antique and only relevent as filler for slow news days or as a twisted idol for the ignorant and truly uninformed.

Bill Cassidy
ex-GE Healthcare

George,

Thanks for the spelling lesson. If you got the point...all that matters.....

Do you agree that GE is now in its 5th year as a loser? Seems one would have to try to be that bad

GE was historically an exploiter of opportunity! Creating methods to Control Profits and Pay Profits to Customers and Shareholders alike....A very powerful mission......

GE has lost that Edge. But dominating Mkts is done with Strategic Leadership and Action. Not platitudes about having "Dream Sessions".

Get the Top Scientists, Researchers, in the land with the mission of solving the transportation energy issues....Do it with Hydrogen....as opposed to fossil fuels....or expensive "Degreasers".....

Don't kid yourself......It is the lack of focus on what I have already said about profits that is holding GE down....Capeesh!

Uncle Jack eliminated 250,000 US jobs at GE during his tenure, probably sending those jobs to China. This is his legacy! When you build a house of cards it will collapse. Even anti union Henry Ford realized that well paid workers will become customers. The GE employees pension has always been overfunded and should still be unless there is the ever present fraud of todays unregulated corporate culture.