10 Best Companies for Leaders 2012: #3 General Electric

#3 General Electric

Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO

GE established the quintessential executive training ground at its world-famous Crotonville, N.Y. facility—on which GE reportedly spends about $1 billion a year. General Electric’s John F. Welch Leadership Center marks its 55th anniversary this year. According to chief learning officer Susan Peters: “We have 13 offerings involving leadership skills that everybody should have, such as presentation skills, project management skills and understanding finance in a generic way.”

These courses are managed through the Crotonville staff but are delivered at GE businesses around the world, including Shanghai, Munich and Bangalore, among other places. This is done through a Train the Trainer (TTT) concept. “The integrity of the course is maintained because the Crotonville staff ensures that the person teaching it has been trained and certified,” Peters explains. GE trains 50,000-60,000 people a year digitally and an additional 9,000 attend courses at Crotonville. It’s little wonder why so many other organizations covet the company’s graduates.

General Electric is headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. Connecticut ranked #44 in Chief Executive’s Best/Worst States for Business 2011.

2010 Ranking
14

#4 3M, George Buckley »« #2 IBM, Virginia Rometty

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