Immelt promises unvarnished ‘interrogation’ on tenure at GE helm
Former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt is publishing a memoir of his 16 years leading General Electric, with the onetime New Canaan resident having moved the conglomerate’s headquarters in 2016 to Boston from Fairfield, while selling off large chunks of Norwalk-based GE Capital.
In “HOT SEAT: What I learned leading a Great American Company” co-authored by Immelt and Amy Wallace, publisher Simon & Schuster promises “a rigorous and candid self-interrogation” of Immelt’s tenure as Jack Welch’s replacement.
Immelt was promoted to CEO of GE the day before the September 2001 terrorist attacks. Two other candidates to succeed Jack Welch left the company, with Jim McNerney going on to lead 3M and later Boeing; and Bob Nardelli becoming CEO of The Home Depot then Chrysler.
Among other topics, Immelt addresses globalization and China’s increasing heft; lining up a bailout of GE during the 2008 financial panic, including how he subsequently “wigged out” during a meeting with a regulator from the Federal Reserve; and the circumstances leading up to the company replacing him after the Boston move that left him “listless, angry and hurt” in his words.
“In October 2017, as I stepped down after thirty-five
years at General Electric, I wasn't sure I could write this book,” Immelt wrote in a prologue. “My ... years as CEO had given me a front-row seat to history, and I’d learned some tough lessons I believed others could benefit from. But my tenure ended badly. Many business books begin with a tacit promise: ‘Let me tell you how to be like me: an unmitigated success!’ Clearly, I couldn’t say that.”
Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that GE would not seek to “claw back” compensation paid Immelt and other executives. Shareholders had sought the measure over accounting controls the company says it has since strengthened under CEO Larry Culp Jr., and a onetime policy of having a second corporate jet fly to destinations as a backup option.
After Immelt’s departure, Uber Technologies considered hiring him as CEO, with the job going to former Expedia CEO Dara Khosrowshahi. Today Immelt is a partner assigned to the Menlo Park, Calif. office of the venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.
The book goes on sale Feb. 23 under the publisher’s Avid Reader Press division.