Is Change Inevitable? . . . a look back at my career.

This past week GE announced that they were selling their premier Leadership Development site located in Croton-on-the-Hudson, New York.??This site which began in the 1950”s was the location of premier development courses,??great leadership experiences and significant corporate value sharing and personal growth.??I had the good fortune of being part of this organization for a period of about ten years of my career – as the Chief Learning Officer in Shanghai, China from 2001-2003, as the C.L.O of the GE/ Mubadala LAB from 2008-2010 in Abu Dhabi and three key roles at the famed campus from 2010 until I retired in 2013. The decision to close and sell the property leaves me sad and reflective even though the decision was inevitable with the much smaller GE focused on three separate business units.

This reflection has now taken me back to a review of my whole career and the reality that change was the operative word once I left Graduate School.??I joined the community college in my hometown (Parkersburg Community College) and worked in Student Services for eight years and saw this institution go through significant change and the college today has a new name, a new affiliation with the state University and in many ways is very different that the place I loved in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

I then joined Borg Warner Chemicals as a training and development leader which led to two transfers and a move to Human Resources.??I joined Borg Warner due to its relatively small size, very inclusive management team and thought that it would be a company that would be around forever.??Four years later, BWC was involved in a leveraged buy-out and the BWC owners were desperate to find a buyer and did when GE purchased the company in 1988.

When I joined GE, I still remember the words of wisdom of the psychologist that tested and interviewed me prior to joining BWC.??Dr Porter said,?“you will be fine within a company like Borg Warner, but I would recommend that you never join a large and aggressive organization like GE or Dupont.??You will not fit in and will not thrive.”

So, when GE bought me and 1500 other salaried employees, I did not expect to stay long.??In fact, I thought I would leverage having GE on my resume and then get a job with a better company after six months to one year.

However, I found the GE I joined to be much better than the image of GE in the press which was of a cut-throat young CEO that kept closing businesses and leaving bodies in the wake of the closure.??I found a company that seemed to have high expectations of all employees, who recognized and rewarded folks on their merit and who had numerous opportunities for development.??However, all was not perfect, GE Plastics was new to acquiring businesses and was not very good at making sure new people had a clear pathway to acceptance. I was way behind almost all my GE peers who had been with GE since the beginning of their career and had the mentoring and pull of leaders who had been instrumental in their growth.??I also had the “stench” of being an acquired employee which frankly did not leave me until I finally took over and succeeded in a role in a ‘True” GE site rather than continuing to work in former BWC business units.

I spent about eleven years working within the GE Plastics business with progressively responsible roles in Human Resources and always well rewarded and well regarded, but never quite broke that acquired employee issue.????Plastics is no longer part of GE; it was sold to SABIC and continues to do well even though it is now outside of the GE family.??(You will begin to see a theme about businesses where I worked, they have now all be sold or in the process of being sold).

I made the decision that I needed to do something dramatic if I wanted to be noticed and succeed.??So, I applied for a job that few wanted in the GE lighting business.??Few wanted the job because it was Global Manufacturing HR for a man that many thought was difficult to work with and many GE HR leaders thought manufacturing was something you did early in your career rather than mid-career.??It was a job that involved many manufacturing sites both union and non-union.????What I found was a most interesting business that allowed me to see the world outside of the US as well as inside, the chance to work for a great Manufacturing leader who had a tough image but was totally committed to his team and was a wonderful person.??Success in this role helped me to acquire my next big assignment as the Director of HR for GE Lighting in Budapest Hungary.

Living and working in Europe was something I always wanted to do, but never would have gotten to do if I had not moved out of Plastics.??This was a wonderful role allowing me to better understand unique cultures, meet and work with dedicated HR and businesspeople and to realize the value of my family having exposure to the much broader world.??This role gave me the opportunity to apply for the role as Chief Learning Officer for China.??A role I would never have gotten if I had not had the Learning roles in BWC and the foreign working experience in Europe.

Living and working in China was very impactful to my career.??The chance to build a brand-new center and to hire a new staff filled with highly energetic young and seasoned learning professionals.??Being in the center of Asia allowed me to become engaged with and acquainted with some wonderful talent throughout the region.??As an expat, you gain more than you give.??My learning was great and my appreciation for others was completely expanded.??It did not hurt that educators and seniors are well respected in China, I felt valued and appreciated.

Two years later, GE came knocking on my door and told me that they needed me to return to my HR roots and take a role in the Consumer and Industrial Business (Lighting, Appliances, and Industrial Systems).???So, I packed up and moved to Louisville Kentucky to sit in Appliance Park and join a very well-established HR team and a very long-term appliance staff with responsibility for supporting the America’s Leader and the business CEO.???This was really an opportunity to be a part of a key business team and to feel valued and needed.??My overseas experiences were valuable and appreciated.???Well, the change theme continued and after 3.5 years, these businesses were marked for sale and I had the opportunity to eliminate my role and to take an early retirement package prior to any of the sales occurring.

Rather than retiring, I took a role as the CLO for a new joint opportunity in Abu Dhabi to work with GE in the region and to forge a new learning relationship with Mubadala.??My wife and I again joined the world of expats and found we were living and working in a very different culture.??Abu Dhabi was filled with wealth, very warm temperatures, and a strong Muslim culture.??Again, I had the chance to be a guest in a country and learn about other cultures and to become better acquainted with how others viewed the world.??Once again, I gained more than I gave.

After two years, I had the opportunity to return to Crotonville and take on a Global learning role, handle a one-year assignment on a special project and then returning to the campus in the informal role as Dean.??GE was undergoing a major expansion and reimagination of their learning processes and I got to participate and help guide.??It was two years of extreme optimism for learning and a clear opportunity to define the new world of learning within the company.??A wonderful end for a career that was better than I could have hoped and full of personal and professional growth.

However, since retiring GE sold the Appliance business to Haier and they are doing very well. GE sold the Industrial Business to ABB and they are thriving, GE has sold the Lighting Business to Savant and they are doing well and now GE has placed the Crotonville Campus up for sale.

So, looking back on my career, every business I worked for has been realigned, acquired, or sold.??Did I waste my time????Was all my effort for naught???Should I be regretful or sad?

I think not.???Great experiences were had, in all cases I did what I considered my best and these businesses are all thriving just without me and without an active Parkersburg Community College, Borg-Warner Chemicals or GE name.??The one constant in my career was change and the one constant in all careers is change.??

So, change is inevitable????Yes, work hard to embrace it and love it.??Work to make sure that your businesses can change and adapt to the world they are entering, not the one they are leaving.