Subject: Investor's Business Daily Interview
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked]
Cc: [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 02:56:00 -0800 (PST)

Ken -- 

Investor's Business Daily would like to write a profile of you for their 
"Leaders & Success" page.  The daily feature is a 1200-word profile with a 
top executive about their keys to success and how they motivate people.   You 
are scheduled to do a 45-minute telephone interview with David Saito-Chung, 
IBD's markets writer, on Wednesday, 
Nov. 29 at 1:30 p.m.  David said the goal of his story is to not just 
describe what you have accomplished at Enron, but show how you achieved 
success.  He is looking for specific examples and anecdotes that illustrate 
Enron's vision and innovation.  

David has submitted the following questions in advance of the interview:

What did critics say when Enron proposed to create a natural gas trading 
market? How did you respond to their opinions? Why did you see an opportunity 
while others didn,t?
You debated with people at the FERC on how the natural gas market should be 
run. You also lobbied the government to change its rules that regulated the 
natural gas industry. Was persistence the biggest key to your success in 
those matters?
Tell me about the planning of EnronOnline. Whose idea was it? How did you 
initially respond to it?
Why do you think EnronOnline has been so successful?
How do you view technology? What role has it played in Enron,s success? 
Some publications have named Enron as having one of the best-quality 
management teams of any company. Why? 
How do you build and keep foster a strong managing team? How many people at 
Enron have &CEO8 in their official business titles?
Why can you compete with major investment banks on Wall Street to get the 
brightest business school graduates?
How does your company inspire employees to be creative and innovative?
Why was Enron the first to create risk management products for the paper 
products industry and other industries?

As additional background, I've also attached the Leaders & Success feature on 
GE's Jeffrey Immelt in today's paper.  I will come to your office at 1:30 
tomorrow to place the call.  

Thank you.
Karen

About Leaders & Success
We uncover what turned ordinary individuals into extraordinary leaders. These 
motivational profiles reveal the techniques, philosophies and determination 
that drive successful people to the top. Learn practical management 
techniques and methods to move you ahead in your career. These are proven 
models of success you won't want to miss.?

Leaders & Success
Tuesday, November 28, 2000
GE's Jeffrey R. Immelt 
His Focus On The Customer Boosted Him To The Top 
By Patrick Seitz
Investor's Business Daily
Jeffrey R. Immelt, the man chosen to succeed the legendary Jack Welch as 
chief executive of General Electric Co., knows there's just one person 
keeping him in business: the customer. And that customer is the person Immelt 
goes all-out to please.
Immelt, 44, was plucked from the company's fast-growing GE Medical Systems 
business, where he had served as president and chief executive since 1997. 
The $7 billion unit, based in Waukesha, Wis., is a world leader in medical 
diagnostic technology and information systems.
Immelt attributes much of his success to his laserlike focus on sales.
"I love working with customers. . . . Sales has really influenced everything 
I do. It has instilled in me the important traits of operating with a sense 
of urgency and listening to people," Immelt said.
Immelt on Monday was named president and chairman-elect of GE. He will 
succeed John F. "Jack" Welch Jr., GE's chairman and CEO, when Welch retires 
at the end of 2001.
When Immelt landed at GE Medical Systems in 1997, he quickly showed a knack 
for squeezing growth from a unit known for sluggish sales. Last year, its 
revenue jumped 23% to $6 billion.
Customers credit Immelt with going way beyond sales. When Chicago's 
Northwestern Memorial Hospital expanded its scanning services last year, 
Immelt spent hours helping to manage its work flow.
"That's the kind of collaboration that we find unusual," Northwestern 
Memorial CEO Gary Mecklenburg told Business Week.
Immelt has proven himself both by turning around troubled GE divisions and 
extracting better performance from thriving units.
Immelt knows how important it is to set the pace, not follow it. To keep GE 
Medical flourishing, he's pushed the unit to expand acquisitions and new 
product offerings. The division's product line ranges from ultrasound devices 
used in doctors' offices to multimillion-dollar CT and MRI scanners.
In his earlier work in GE's Plastics division, Immelt stood out by persuading 
hard-boiled carmakers to substitute plastics for metal on some parts.
As vice president of consumer service for GE's Appliances division, Immelt 
deftly handled the fallout from a recall of refrigerator compressors. To keep 
workers' morale pumped up during the recall, Immelt would often climb up on a 
forklift in GE's Louisville, Ky., plant and pass out words of encouragement 
and praise. He took time to speak with employees during such sessions, 
listening carefully to their ideas and concerns.
Immelt believes that open, fast communication with workers is crucial. Not a 
table-thumper, he meets with employees ) sometimes hundreds at a time ) to 
discuss where GE Medical is going. Colleagues say he works at 
consensus-building, urging others to understand different points of view.
After returning from corporate meetings, Immelt distills the latest GE 
thinking on videotape, and copies are sent to offices around the world.
Understanding that seeing someone face to face helps foster stronger 
relationships, Immelt also travels often to meet employees and customers. 
Constant contact keeps a company united, Immelt believes. So he updates the 
company's employees once a week via e-mail on the latest developments ) new 
business, lost sales opportunities and other nuggets about company 
initiatives. E-mail is sent in five languages, and at times up to a dozen, 
according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Immelt was one of three GE executives who analysts considered possible 
successors to Welch. Welch, 65, has been at the helm of the Fairfield, 
Conn.-based finance, industrial and broadcasting powerhouse for the past two 
decades. 
"Jeff Immelt is a natural leader, and ideally suited to lead GE for many 
years," Welch said. "He brings a keen strategic intellect, a cutting-edge 
technological background, strong leadership characteristics and a unique set 
of team-building skills."
Knowing that preparation is key to long-term success, Immelt has long been 
preparing himself, says Charles M. Lillis, a former GE executive who hired 
Immelt in 1982.
"Starting in high school, (in) everything he did he was a leader," Lillis 
told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "He played football. He was a student 
leader. He went to Procter & Gamble after college and he did a great job in 
sales. He also had the right balance of self-confidence and awareness that he 
did not know everything."
Immelt has strong marketing skills and helped create the GE slogan, "We bring 
good things to life," in his first job at GE.
Analysts and friends say the 6-foot, 4-inch Immelt possesses not only a 
commanding physical presence but also the intellectual strength necessary to 
inspire management and workers at GE. Immelt believes that a consistent 
approach will give the biggest pay off. 
He's been with GE practically all of his working life, just as his father, 
Joseph, before him. His father spent his 38-year career at GE working in the 
Aircraft Engine division in Cincinnati.
Immelt has a good sense of humor and the ability to present himself well to 
both Wall Street and the average worker, much like Welch.
Immelt realizes that humor helps ease conversation, forge bonds and motivate 
people. He saw that as an offensive tackle for Dartmouth College's football 
team in the 1970s. 
Immelt wanted to keep football practice fun to keep his fellow players fired 
up. Immelt came up with gags, including a tongue-in-cheek award for the coach 
of the week. He liked to loosen up the team with jokes on the sidelines and 
in the huddle, according to teammates.
Despite the fun and games, his teammates could see Immelt's drive. "When the 
rest of us were feeling our way through college, he took it to the next 
level," former teammate Curt P. Oberg told Business Week.
Immelt studied just as hard as he played. He graduated cum laude with his 
B.S. degree in applied mathematics from Dartmouth and an MBA from Harvard 
University.
He joined GE in 1982 after a short stint with Procter & Gamble Co. as a brand 
manager. His first job with GE was in corporate marketing. That was followed 
by sales, marketing and management positions in the company's plastics and 
appliances divisions.
When Immelt took over at GE Medical Systems in 1997, one of his first actions 
was to oversee an internal management shake-up.
"He is an extremely capable executive leader, as evidenced by his record as 
CEO of GE Medical Systems," analyst Martin Sankey, vice president of Goldman, 
Sachs & Co. in New York told The Associated Press. "He compiled a strong 
record of generating growth and moving into new markets."
GE Medical Systems has seen profit rise as demand for big-ticket medical 
imaging and patient-monitoring gear has grown.
"Immelt clearly runs the best business at GE-GE Medical," Bill Fiala, an 
analyst at Edward Jones, told Reuters. "He's taken it international, and he's 
done a fantastic job designing new products and capturing market share."
He's a disciple and expert of Six Sigma, the quality movement that has been 
made almost a religion at GE. Six Sigma is a complex, highly statistical 
quality program that Welch wants as his legacy.
To make sure he understood the program, Immelt immersed himself in the study 
of Six Sigma. Relying on his background in mathematics, he worked out 
probabilities by using solid statistical research.
GE's next chief will replace an executive who has become a poster boy for 
American-style capitalism. Welch's relentless focus on profit and market 
share ) and GE's evolution from basic manufacturing to the service sector and 
technology ) has been dissected by corporate managers and studied by business 
schools.

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