GE Best Buy Speech

when I joined General Electric one of the main reasons I came aboard was because even in those days I could recognize that the people I met in General Electric were good people the kind one could really enjoy working with in the 40 years since I've gained two unshakable convictions about the men and women of GE first that no other company in the world is blessed with so many talented people as General Electric is and second General Electric men and women can do anything they set their hearts and Minds to do and do it better than anyone else I've expressed these convictions many times in talking to GE men and women and to outside groups and each time I have the opportunity to visit with General Electric men and women this belief is renewed but there never was a better time than now 1972 to show what the GE Monogram really stands for as we look at the world about us people are confused not just in the United States but all over the world people are questioning former values and former standards we're seeing across the world a change in the whole value system people want things they didn't think of demanding a few years ago and they want them all right now and yet they sense that this just can't be and the result of all of this has been confusion and doubt we've seen widespread inflation and too much unemployment worldwide and right here at home inflation is not just in the prices of products and services that you and I buy it's also in the taxes we pay for the inflated Services we demand of our governments inflation is a sum of all the inflated costs all along the line and this is why the creative ideas of 400,000 General Electric men and women can make a real contribution Fred borch or anyone else can possibly know as much as you do about how to improve productivity and lower costs in your own operations the challenge is to spin out these ideas and then to take the action to put them into effect other Industries badly need the kind of improved productive equipment that GE folks build so that they too can lower their costs become more competitive and so build their sales and more jobs for their people and let's not forget that consumer customers need newer and better GE products to make their lives at home better and Fuller but confusion and uncertainty don't create good customers and businessmen sensing the uncertainty of their customers have been reluctant to make the Investments That improve productivity and provide the jobs and this adds up to what we might label a crisis of of confidence we need to discover once again that a company of 400,000 fine people can move forward faster in improving productivity in providing the tops and quality and giving folks the very best in the way of service and in going all out to demonstrate that we're good citizens and that we truly contribute to the societies of which we are a part when we do all these things we're truly providing the one Priceless commodity that's made General Electric what it is today value value not only in products and services but value in those intangibles that mean so much to the spirits of all people and who knows if we do this job as well as only 400,000 General Electric people can do it we just might provide that spark of leadership that others can follow and all can March forward with us with a sense of urgency with a sense of drive with a sense of enthusiasm M with rekindle spirits and say to hell were the harbingers of uncertainty and the profits of Doom the source of the single greatest contribution to our business performance is the 400,000 men and women of General Electric and no one knows better than I what you are capable of accomplishing it's up to you to light the fuse that can get us and the United States moving again so let's make GE the Best Buy in the respect and in the affections and in the hearts of all who view the General Electric monogram anywhere in the world for that monogram is really you