Brand Relevance: Making Competitors Irrelevant - always yours

328 BRAND RELEVANCE
through acquisition and divestiture that were number one or
two in their marketplaces. Growing the business from $ 25 billion
to over $ 100 billion, Welch was one of the most respected
CEOs of his time.
Immelt concluded that a change in strategy, dictated by the
changed GE and the realities of a dynamic marketplace, was
needed. The core GE business units were large and established,
and Welch ’ s acquisition and cost containment strategies were
no longer going to be a sound basis for growth. Instead, Immelt
decided that the focus needed to be on organic growth and
needed to be fueled by innovation. To support the strategy, the
organization needed to change, and change rather radically.
The signature program, initiated in late 2003, was the internally
branded Imagination Breakthrough (IB) initiative, in
which each business each year is charged to propose three breakthrough
proposals that would realize a $ 100 million potential in
a three - to five - year time frame. To be selected as an IB project
by an Immelt - led commercial council, a proposal needed to demonstrate
not only the market projection and economic viability
but that it had the potential to transform markets. Funding, if
needed, was available from an internal “ venture capital ” source.
The central marketing group that led the IB process provided a
planning framework that included such dimensions as calibrating
the idea, exploring it in the market, creating the offering, organizing
to deliver it, and executing in the marketplace. Four years
after it was launched, the IB initiative was adding $ 2 to $ 3 billion
in sales each year and had some forty - five IB projects under way. 2
One was the GE Rail Evolution Locomotive, a fuel - efficient
diesel locomotive that meets the aggressive emission standards
created in 2005 by the Environmental Protection Agency.
To accentuate the renewed innovation culture, Immelt
elevated the innovation thrust of the GE training effort, the
centerpiece of which was the John F. Welch Leadership Center
in Crotonville, New York, which trains some six thousand