Summary of Bartlett, Mclean's "GE's Jeff Immelt: The Voyage from MBA to CEO"

1. This case is a rewrite of a larger case:  "GE's Talent Machine: The Making of a CEO" HBR 304049
2. Article is titled:  "GE's Jeff Immelt:  The Voyage from MBA to CEO" HBC 307096
1. Chris A. Bartlett
2. Andrew N. Mclean
3. Input provided by:  Jim Ettamarna Harvard MBA 2003
3. Introduction:
4. GE promotes CEO from within the company by tradition
5. Exhibit 1 is incorrect:  Should be the exhibit 1 from original article. (see HBR 304049 page 14)
6. GE CEO List:
1. Edison-> 1892 Charles Coffin
2. ->1951 Cordiner (establishes Crotonville in 1956, establishes Session C)
3. ->1963 Borsch (Nuclear power, plastics, computers)
4. ->1972 Jones (introduced the sector)
5. ->1981 Welch (Crotonville changed from "rite of passage" to talent search, implemented employee survey)
6. -> 2001 Immelt (Took over the day before 9/11, began to bring outside talent in, focused on shifting management overseas for GE India, China)
7. Crotonville- place where managers are educated within GE.  A sought after privilege.
8. Session C assessment- personnel development assessment (GE)
9. Reference 1, describing GE vs. McKinsey
10. Reference 2, describing GE CEO Charles Coffin
11. History of HR at GE:
12. Reference 3, Cordiner's Book on Professional Managers (open source)
13. Welch consolidated the 29 personnel levels (established by Cordiner) to only 7, leading to less frequent promotions
14. Welch used a method dubbed "the vitality curve" to drop the lowest 10% of employees.
15. Immelt entered GE in 1982 and was selected for Crontonville 6 years later.
16. Immelt's initial experience was in Plastics, and his progress was tracked by Dammerman at various stages.  Later he moved to medical devices, and began to cultivate talent around him, tracking and promoting others just as Dammerman had tracked him.
17. Discussion:  Can GE's culture be applied to other companies?  
18. Unique Culture of Edinburgh MBA
19. K. Andrews 1987.  The Concept of Corporate Strategy
20. SWOT analysis- strengths and weaknesses
21. Mintzberg's Emergent versus deliberate strategy
22. Semester 1:  Accounting, Business Ethics, Statistics, Macoecon, Finance, Marketing, OM, OB SM, Leadership & Personal Development
23. Semester 2a:  Corporate Strategy, Critical Inquiry for business
24. Semester 2b:  Leadership (Full time MBAs only)
25. Tom Peters, Management consultant
26. The Immelt Revolution (Bloomberg)