China has some 50,000 new skyscrapers in the works to accommodate 300 million citizens who are expected to move from the countryside into the country”™s mushrooming cities over the next few decades.
Jeff Immelt”™s advice to investors is to stick around and find out the impact of that trend on General Electric Co.”™s low-slung headquarters in Fairfield.
GE”™s chief executive officer addressed an estimated audience of 450 people last week at the Bridgeport Regional Business Council”™s annual meeting in Trumbull, explaining his strategy for Fairfield County”™s second largest employer.
BRBC President Paul Timpanelli said the “GE factor” helped boost attendance at the event, at which the Bridgeport Bluefish minor league baseball team was recognized as the area”™s business of the year.
That GE is based in Connecticut today is 90 percent “historical happenstance” in Immelt”™s words, noting the company”™s leadership in 1974 could have just as easily chosen New Jersey as a relocation destination to escape New York City.
“To be brutally honest, we could be anywhere,” he said. Instead, the company chose a 70-acre site in Fairfield for its headquarters, building two buildings encompassing 600,000 square feet of space and later offering a 30-room “guest house” to accommodate overnight visitors and meetings. The company also has large facilities in Stamford, Danbury and Norwalk.
“At its grassroots this is an area that has supported the company over the years,” Immelt said. “We continue to double down on our people ”“ that”™s what it”™s all about.”
Immelt indicated he is not ready to wager any bets that the economy has begun to reaccelerate, indicating that pinpointing the bottom of an economic cycle is an imperfect science.
“I always feel it”™s a lot like food poisoning,” he said. “When you”™re done, you”™re done.”
Immelt reiterated the company”™s most recent projections of revenue growth this year of 8 percent to more than $185 billion, and earnings between $22 billion and $23 billion. He boiled the company”™s product focus to six areas: infrastructure like railroads; financial capital; energy; the environment; digital entertainment and information; and health care products focused on key demographic areas.
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“When you are our size, you have to be big in big themes,” Immelt said. “You don”™t have to be right on all of them, but you have to be right on three or four of them.”
Investors will get their next gauge on Immelt”™s hunches when the company reports its second-quarter results next month, as he jettisons longtime GE stalwart businesses like GE Appliances and portions of the company”™s GE Money consumer finance division.
Immelt said GE”™s past decisions on his watch are paying off, including investments in wind turbines and the divestment of GE”™s former bond insurance business, and he added he plans to remain proactive in an uncertain economic climate.
“One of the things I”™ve learned in ”¦ in my career in business is that nervous laughter is not a good business strategy,” Immelt said.
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”“ The reporter holds shares of General Electric.
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