21
Sep
The Generals on Jobs, Entrepreneurship and Cleantech
At this year’s Leadership Keynote, at Dreamforce ‘12, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and Gen. Colin Powell spoke with Marc Benioff in the packed Moscone conference hall. The candid talk offered attendees an opportunity to hear the vision of the two leaders regarding the future of job creation, entrepreneurship, cleantech and their views on climate change.
The following offers some takeaways from the hour-long talk:
On job creation:
Gen. Colin Powell:
“What we need is super people who will start examining the issues. Businesses create jobs, and the jobs that have gone aren’t necessarily coming back. We need to go up the ladder of sophistication and educate our kids for the jobs that will be in the United States.”
Jeff Immelt:
[Regarding GE] “We’ve moved all the appliance production from Mexico and other countries back to Kentucky. A combination of the new manufacturing technologies plus better labor management relationships are going to open up another era of competitiveness for the United States.”
I think owning your own supply chain is a huge competitive advantage. The era of inexpensive labor is basically over. Today it’s all about markets. Being infront of your customer, having short cycle times, better speed, that’s what wins. Chasing low cost labor is yesterdays playbook.“
Toward the last quarter of the keynote, Marc Benioff directed the conversation to the topic of the environment by stating a big issue on everyone’s mind is the topic of global warming.
Jeff Immelt:
"We had a group of PHDs study climate science. Global warming is real, it is caused by man. It is hard to tell what the impacts will be… what it means for the polar ice caps.What the U.S. is good at is driving innovation. Seeing how the entrepreneurial spirit can help solve big problems. Anytime you can align innovation and commerce with a social need, things happen faster. If you can align entrepreneurship, innovation and science with a need - it is incredible to see the forces that take place.”
Gen. Colin Powell:
“We want energy independence. All the poor are coming up into the middle class 1 billion, 100 million, from industrialization. Demand for energy is going up. New sources of energy is needed.”
I’m fully in agreement with you that global warming is real. I think it is indisputable. Surely, It it in our interests to cut back on the emissions we are throwing up there.“
On the topic of Green Technology:
Jeff Immelt:
"We invest more now in Ecomagination than we did before. We think over the long term this is a winner and we are long term players. Innovation is the power.
Entrepreneurship is the power. Identify the need, create one or two market mechanisms in between, let’s go!”
Directing the question to Jeff Immelt, Chairman of The President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Benioff asked, “What does the evolution of the economy look like?
Jeff Immelt:
"The U.S. can completely own its energy future - it will be the shame of a lifetime if we don’t do it.
This great resource that we have, I view it as a national strength, a job creator and an economic driver for the next decade.”
(Source: dreamforce.com)
