Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, GE Aerospace
'I’ve Seen So Many Different Things In My Career' An Interview With Jeff Immelt
Jeffrey Robert Immelt is currently the chairman of the board of the US-based conglomerate General Electric Co. [NYSE:GE]. Two weeks ago, GE announced Immelt would step down as chief executive, with John Flannery, current president and chief executive of GE Healthcare Ltd., taking over from August 1. The text of a June 19 interview with Immelt appears below.
About Jeffrey Immelt
Jeffrey Immelt, former Chairman and CEO of General Electric, participated in two public events in May 2026. At the Imagine 2026 conference on May 19, Immelt discussed leadership during technological disruption and the adoption of AI. He stated that an "AI winter" is inevitable, where people may say "it doesn't work" or that too much money has been spent, and emphasized the importance of perseverance through such crises. Immelt also said that AI will differentiate performance between hospitals, banks, and airlines, and that leaders must "exercise new muscles." He advised that tech professionals should not be the ones to explain technology to the public, saying "we should never let tech people talk about tech." On May 1, Immelt appeared as the inaugural Teevens Center Leadership Fellow at Dartmouth College. During the conversation, he said that leadership involves giving people truth and context, and that "there are two magic words to being a leader: blame me." He reflected on his own experience with imposter syndrome, stating he was "not comfortable enough in my own skin to say, I don't know." Immelt also commented on organizational culture, saying "your culture is only as good as the worst person you're willing to tolerate." He praised Dartmouth's current position, calling it "the best house in a bad neighborhood" and a "differentiated opportunity."
Transcript (16 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Interviewer0:02
During your tenure you've done a lot to add tax features into GE, but you also said that you don't believe factories can be automated and run by robots in five years. Those are two different things.
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Jeffrey Immelt0:16
So in other words, I think we believe that there's a huge industrial internet market and we want GE to be a real leader in the industrial internet. And so we've invested a lot. We'll be about six billion dollars in orders this year. We're growing about twenty-five percent a year. So on that pace, we should double in the next three or four years, and that's our aspiration. I differentiate that a little bit from the standpoint of frequently people say all work is going to be automated, and I take kind of a different tack. I actually think one of the values of our digital strategy is to make existing workers more productive and more efficient. And therefore, I'm a little bit of a skeptic to say everything is going to be done with robots in the next five or ten years. I actually think that we're going to go through a wave where digital tools are going to help make workers much more effective. I've kind of seen it in so many different things in my career. You know, I think I kind of know how to get things from an idea phase to an execution phase. And I think that's something we always pride ourselves on at GE, that not only do we have the next dream, but we know how to make it happen.
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Interviewer1:23
In your February letter to shareholders, you said America will be less of a leader in trade. So how do you evaluate the current free trade environment and the trend of globalization?
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Jeffrey Immelt1:36
Look, I think we're not just in the phase right now of more protectionism. So our strategy of being more of a local player, whether we're in China or the US or Europe, is really going to pay off, and that's going to be a good strategy. All that being said, I think a good relationship between the US and China is essential. There's no more important or strategic relationship over the next 10 or 20 years than the one between the US and China. So I hope we have a good relationship. The fact is that free trade has been eroding for a long time. You know, it didn't start with President Trump. I think China's had a role in it, I think Japan has a role in it, Europe has a role, and everybody's more protectionist than they were five or ten or twenty years ago. It doesn't mean there's an excuse for us to pull back. So we very much believe that GE needs to grow globally, needs to grow around the world, but it's going to be more of what I call connected localization than globalization based on trade. Look, I quite admire initiatives like One Belt One Road. I think One Belt One Road helps China be more effective globally, and I very much wish the US would reauthorize the Exim Bank or other things that would help make the US more well known in Africa and other places around the world. But for us, we have to just kind of play in the world we see.
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Interviewer3:04
What kind of role do you think big companies like GE can play in improving and pushing forward policies in Washington?
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Jeffrey Immelt3:12
You know, it's a great question. Look, all we can do is say what we believe and what we think. I think we're in a time period where nobody trusts any big institution, including big companies. So I think we need to understand the mood in our own country, but at the same time we need to be a good partner in China with the long-term investments we've made. And I think good companies, and companies like GE, we know how to be good American citizens but still be a good partner to China Eastern or to Harbin or other places.
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Interviewer3:47
I hate to mention the stock price. GE stock price has fallen 30% since you took office. So from your perspective, how can a company leader keep the balance between steering the company in the long run and satisfying and rewarding shareholders at the same time?
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Jeffrey Immelt4:07
Okay, I think it's always a kind of an endless battle. You know, I would say we have leading market shares in everything we do, so we have the respect of our customers. We have a fantastic global team. And the market cap of the company is a high market cap, but not one that we currently wouldn't want it to be. But I think as a company, all we can do is grow our earnings, grow our cash flow, continue to build our market position, with the understanding that eventually the stock price is going to reflect all that good work. And so these things go in and out of flow all the time, and you have to satisfy all three: you have to satisfy your teams, your customers, and your investors. And you know, it doesn't always work overnight, but over time if you're doing the right things, they all work out.
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Interviewer4:58
It must have been a hard time during the financial crisis in 2008. What kind of lesson did GE learn?
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Jeffrey Immelt5:03
Oh gosh, I think everybody that went through the financial crisis learned how to be a better risk manager. They know that really incredible unforeseen events can take place. And I think the company today is just much more rigorous and much stronger, much more resilient than it was then. I think we've really used not just that time period but much of the last 15 years to make our company better, to have a better portfolio, more technology, more digital, more global. And I think today we're just a much stronger company than we were in 2000 or 2008. And I think that's all you can do, is make your company better. Globalization is not going to slow down, digitization is not going to slow down, the need to be faster and experiment with new business models, none of those things are going to be any easier. So I think the company is going to continue to evolve and change. The one thing I know for sure is that GE, as a central company, wherever the world is in five years or ten years, whatever the future trends are, GE will be in the lead. I'm totally comfortable and confident of that.
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Interviewer6:09
When Mr. Welch left office, he said my success will be determined by how well my successor grows it in the next 20 years. So how will you define your achievement at GE?
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Jeffrey Immelt6:24
I don't think you're going to know that for five or ten or fifteen years. I mean, the fact is that the products we use, the products we make, the technologies we innovate, they're all long cycle. They all have an impact over time. So come back and interview me in 10 years, we'll have a good conversation and see how we did.
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Interviewer6:42
What suggestion will you give to Mr. Flannery?
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Jeffrey Immelt6:45
Do it his own way. I think these are kind of one-act plays, so he should be comfortable and confident to take his own ideas and take the company into the future. And I'll be always there to support him.
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Interviewer6:59
Any plan after you retire?
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Jeffrey Immelt7:03
You know, I haven't for 35 years, I've kind of worked a hundred hours a week doing one thing. So I know there will be a next act. I don't know exactly what it's going to be, but I'm kind of excited to think about it. But one thing is, I have so many great friends in China. Whatever I do, I want to intersect with China. I learned so much. I have such love and respect for the people in China. Every time I've gone there, and I've done it almost with more frequency than any place else, I've learned so much. And I have such great admiration and respect for what the country of China has done, but especially the people. We have more than 20,000 employees in China. I love them. They're amazing.