Ge Marketing Chief Describes Culture Of Practical Innovation At Carey Event

Main navigation Johns Hopkins Legacy Online packages Faculty Directory Experiential studying Career sources Alumni mentoring program Util Nav CTA CTA Breadcrumb GE Marketing Chief Describes ‘Culture of Practical Innovation’ at Carey Event Beth Comstock has held the title of chief advertising officer for General Electric since 2003. But throughout a recent presentation at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, she used a more colorful label to explain herself. “Innovation junkie.” Appearing at the Harbor East campus in Carey’s Leaders + Legends lecture sequence, Comstock explained that she sees her position at GE as a promoter and facilitator of the company’s “tradition of practical innovation.” “We look to what the world wants, and we invent it,” she mentioned. “What good is an idea if you can’t use it?” At GE, members of the advertising department work as “integrators,” bringing collectively members of other areas similar to technology and operations, and serving to the entire firm anticipate the wants and needs of shoppers, Comstock acknowledged. “Marketers at GE, and hopefully all over the place,” she s tated, “are empowered to know where the world’s going, and then translate that perception into the sensible actions that may make the company priceless â€" to grasp not solely what the client values however how to deliver that worth to them after which convey it again to the corporate as well. We need to work fast, we have to be about simplicity, and we have to be excellent about navigating uncertainty. … Our advertising ought to be as innovative as the merchandise coming from our R&D labs.” General Electric, co-based by Thomas Edison in 1892, is likely one of the world’s best-identified companies. For many people within the United States and different international locations, Comstock said, the brand has turn out to be familiar and welcome over the decades because of GE stoves, refrigerators, televisions, and other family home equipment. Appliances nonetheless matter, however now, she mentioned, “We’re a high-tech company ever more targeted on huge industrial infrastr ucture areas. Think power, transportation, health care. We solve big issues at scale. Some people dream in shade. We dream in scale.” And these desires, she noted, are constructed on “the promise of the economic and digital revolutions. We’re spending lots of time attempting to combine the hardware and software program components of the world. … It’s a very thrilling time for advertising and gross sales folks, to figure out the way to take [massive] information and make our customers extra productive.” For instance, she mentioned, GE is engaged on a expertise that might predict when a jet engine is about to develop a problem. The engine may then obtain a comparatively fast fix, thus avoiding a more critical breakdown that might floor the aircraft for a prolonged interval. Being accountable within the shopper’s eyes is “the Holy Grail of marketing,” Comstock said. “When I took this job in 2003, I was very a lot motivated by [management marketing consultant Peter D rucker’s] statement that ‘Without a buyer, there isn't any business.’ It really comes down to that,” she mentioned. “ … How will we make it easier for our sales force to attach with our clients? And how can we make it simpler for our customers to search out the long-time period value from GE? We don’t want to do enterprise with them just once; we want them to keep coming again.” Comstock, who earned a bachelor of science degree in biology at the College of William and Mary, informed the Carey viewers that she didn’t attend enterprise school but sometimes wishes she had, because of “the nice networks that business colleges provide. ... That increasingly is where business is transferring. It’s about networks, value, taking the connections you make wherever you might be and the way to join the worth.” After her 20-minute address, Comstock took questions from the audience for one more 20 minutes. The closing question was posed by Carey Dean Bernard T. Ferrari, wh o requested how a company as large as GE can “defend the small idea” that might not measure as much as GE’s typically grand scale. Small ideas face powerful odds in a giant corporation, Comstock answered. “You see so many individuals within the company who say, ‘I even have a great idea,’” she said. “But does it scale? Or are you able to connect it to a different concept that makes it scale?” If not, then it gained’t be a great match for GE. But if somebody inside the company can reveal that a small concept has the potential to develop to GE-stage scale, then it will be nurtured. Posted a hundred International Drive