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Ge- Evo Project

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9-907-048 REV: JUNE 30, 2008 CHRISTOPHER A. BARTLETT BRIAN J. HALL NICOLE S. BENNETT GE’s Imagination Breakthroughs: The Evo Project As he prepared for the December 2006 meeting with GE’s CEO Jeff Immelt, Pierre Comte faced some difficult decisions. Only eight months into his job as chief marketing officer (CMO) of GE’s Transportation business, Comte would be presenting Transportation’s recommendations on some of the most visible growth initiatives in its locomotive business—projects that had been designated “Imagination Breakthroughs.” IBs, as they were called within GE, were new projects with the potential to generate $100 million in new business within two to three years, and were a key part of Immelt’s organic growth …show more content…

Immelt Takes Charge: New Demands, New Responsesa On Friday, September 7, 2001, 43-year-old Jeff Immelt became GE’s ninth CEO in its 109-year history. Four days later, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers. In the turmoil that followed, an already fragile post-Internet bubble stock market dropped further, and the subsequent downturn in the economy resulted in a drop in confidence that spread rapidly around the globe. Despite his many efforts to tighten operations while continuing to grow the business, the new CEO did not have an easy initiation as he tried to deal with the resulting economic downturn, the post-Enron suspicions of large corporations, and the growing global political instability. In 2002, after promising that earnings would grow by double digits, Immelt had to report a modest 7% increase in GE’s profits on revenues that were up only 5% on the 2001 sales, which had declined 3% from the prior year. (See Exhibit 1 for GE financials, 1996–2006.) By the end of 2002, GE’s stock was trading at $24, down 39% from a year earlier and 60% from its all-time high of $60 in August 2000. With considerable understatement, Immelt said, “This was not a great year to be a rookie CEO.”1 Driving Growth: The Strategic

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