Yes, you are accountable Mr. Immelt..."And" you will be accordingly punished, the same as we were. Our pain is now your pain.
Next to Bear Stearns shareholders, GE shareholders must now be considered the second most stunned and angry group these days. Perhaps they should now band together and actually take Mr. Immelt up on his multiple, placating, and gratuitous "I'm accountable" interview statements, by responding with the requisite penalty – departure or at least a hard hit to his pocketbook, as they themselves took.
Now that's true accountability. One that elevates the words to action and shareholders pain to "debacle partnership" – i.e. we're (really) in this together. Your pain really is my pain. We both lost. Now we have a common base to rebuild upon.
Anyone using "EZ Pass" knows it adds value in terms of time saved. This author finally capitulated after years of saying gonna gonna gonna and secured an EZ Pass tag three months ago. Assessment - an absolutely wonderful service. It deserves all the kudos for delivering better than expected service (results) to its customers. In fact, deserving of a premium rather than discounted price.
No CEO however, should ever get an EZ or rather "Free Pass" for being so "apparently" totally out of touch from the reporting and/or operations of its business, and causing such significant damage with Wall Street. Even Mr. Welch this morning stated GE has the best financial systems in the world. So it's really hard to find any room for excuse.
The result being the economic damage to those common people (small investors/shareholders – working class families, widows, orphans etc.) who believed in the hype and invested their limited, precious financial assets. They put all their faith in that particular person's caretaking of their assets for "in the bag" results, yet instead only received share price collapse.
George Bush senior was always chided for appearances of not being involved in key government business. Recall the old Democratic Presidential campaign chant in 1988 - "Where was George?". Might it not be time for Wall Street analysts and GE shareholders to unleash their own derivative version of this battle cry, with a change of GE leadership proxy, spearheaded by the slogan "Where was Jeff?", punctuated by a follow-on "Where was the Board?".
Mr. Immelt, your personal brand image has been severely tarnished and with your own statement that you are "accountable", so too should it carry an equivalent substantive rebuke. Do you not agree?
As "General" Schwarzkopf embodied leadership in the Army, GE shareholders looked to you as their leader, their own venerable "General" Electric.
Schwarzkopf delivered for his constituents, the American people, and was accordingly promoted to icon status. It seems however, your failure to deliver to your constituency, GE shareholders, as you essentially all but guaranteed, if not arguably providing "a guaranteed guarantee", should yield an equivalent, yet degraded change in rank and personal branding, as in demotion from "General" Electric to "Captain" Chaos.
Finally, as the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen might have been inclined to say if he were alive today and a GE shareholder - "Mr. Immelt, you're no Jack Welch".
And after watching Mr. Welch's wild (sometimes scary) fire and brimstone tirade this morning on CNBC, maybe you'd prefer he stick with "you're no JFK".
Next to Bear Stearns shareholders, GE shareholders must now be considered the second most stunned and angry group these days. Perhaps they should now band together and actually take Mr. Immelt up on his multiple, placating, and gratuitous "I'm accountable" interview statements, by responding with the requisite penalty – departure or at least a hard hit to his pocketbook, as they themselves took.
Now that's true accountability. One that elevates the words to action and shareholders pain to "debacle partnership" – i.e. we're (really) in this together. Your pain really is my pain. We both lost. Now we have a common base to rebuild upon.
Anyone using "EZ Pass" knows it adds value in terms of time saved. This author finally capitulated after years of saying gonna gonna gonna and secured an EZ Pass tag three months ago. Assessment - an absolutely wonderful service. It deserves all the kudos for delivering better than expected service (results) to its customers. In fact, deserving of a premium rather than discounted price.
The result being the economic damage to those common people (small investors/shareholders – working class families, widows, orphans etc.) who believed in the hype and invested their limited, precious financial assets. They put all their faith in that particular person's caretaking of their assets for "in the bag" results, yet instead only received share price collapse.
George Bush senior was always chided for appearances of not being involved in key government business. Recall the old Democratic Presidential campaign chant in 1988 - "Where was George?". Might it not be time for Wall Street analysts and GE shareholders to unleash their own derivative version of this battle cry, with a change of GE leadership proxy, spearheaded by the slogan "Where was Jeff?", punctuated by a follow-on "Where was the Board?".
Mr. Immelt, your personal brand image has been severely tarnished and with your own statement that you are "accountable", so too should it carry an equivalent substantive rebuke. Do you not agree?
As "General" Schwarzkopf embodied leadership in the Army, GE shareholders looked to you as their leader, their own venerable "General" Electric.
Schwarzkopf delivered for his constituents, the American people, and was accordingly promoted to icon status. It seems however, your failure to deliver to your constituency, GE shareholders, as you essentially all but guaranteed, if not arguably providing "a guaranteed guarantee", should yield an equivalent, yet degraded change in rank and personal branding, as in demotion from "General" Electric to "Captain" Chaos.
Finally, as the late Senator Lloyd Bentsen might have been inclined to say if he were alive today and a GE shareholder - "Mr. Immelt, you're no Jack Welch".
And after watching Mr. Welch's wild (sometimes scary) fire and brimstone tirade this morning on CNBC, maybe you'd prefer he stick with "you're no JFK".
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
