Thursday, March 8, 2012

A conversation with Jeffrey Immelt, General Electric Global Chairman/ CEO


Jeffrey Immelt, Global Chairman/ CEO of General Electric (GE) Corporation USA recently paid a visit to Lagos, Nigeria to meet with the cream of the business community in the country. This is SIGNIFICANT indeed considering the fact that there has never been a visit of a General Electric CEO to Nigeria in its 130-year history. The company has had a somewhat low-profile presence in Nigeria for about 40 years but it reckons this is the right time to up the ante. 

On 31st January 2012 this exclusive interactive session held in Lagos under the auspices of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and was 
well attended by Nigeria's key business leaders in GE's key sectors of Power, Oil & Gas, Aviation, Health Care and Financial Services. Mr. Immelt is also the Chairman of US President Barack Obama's council on Job creation & Economic competitiveness and was present at the event with GE's Senior Leadership Team for Africa. Although GE's Africa operations are Headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya the corporation has revealed Nigeria as its next big strategic focus. This move by GE underscores the strategic imperatives inherent in Nigeria's emerging economic and political development. OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND or is this an overtly optimistic perspective? Having had the unique opportunity of a front-row seat to listen to Jeffrey Immelt state the strategic focus for GE, I can surmise that AFRICA IS THE NEXT FRONTIER for corporate growth margins. As for the Nigerian Oil & Gas/ Energy Industry, at Thgirb Company Limited we think that with such strategic imperatives as Local Capacity Development, Stakeholder Engagement and a Sustainable Supply Chains - beyond the cliche - , it will be desirable to have the likes of GE establishing partnerships which result in REAL, TANGIBLE stakeholder alignment. Stakeholder alignment is corporate bliss. 


Scroll down to view the photo reel of the event.


  




















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