Reflections from Washington

Yesterday I sat down with Walter Isaacson at The Atlantic’s Ideas Forum in Washington. Walter is a great thinker and always a pleasure to talk to. We covered many points, but three stick out in my mind: 

Basic investments are needed to be competitive. Everyone in business and government wants better productivity in order to be competitive. As a company with over 300,000 employees and hundreds of factories around the world, we have a perspective that is real. Competitiveness requires a commitment to simplification in the face of bureaucracy; investments in R&D, workforce training and infrastructure; commitment to exports, access to global markets; and investment in new skills. We are doing this at GE.

We need to engage globally. I travel the world and know that growth is something every country wants to talk about. It is an important lever, along with security, and countries need both to be effective on the world’s stage. Never forget, the U.S. has 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s GDP. If the world gets cut off to the U.S., we’re a net loser – not a net winner.

Digital is transforming industry whether we’re ready or not. Just like you’ve seen the consumer internet, there’s an industrial internet, and it’s going to be a game-changer for business. The principle is harnessing data and turning it into productivity. Think of a jet engine: when one flies from DC to Chicago in the U.S., that engine is going to create a terabyte of data. If we can improve the installed base of GE engines globally by 1% that saves airline customers around $3 billion. This is going to be huge.

Let me know what you think. You can watch our full discussion here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXxWo_9FUjA