GE…It’s a Family Business?

Kelly Shaffer IMLP '02I would venture to guess that when people think of a company the size of GE, with its 300,000+ employees, they probably wouldn’t categorize our Fortune 50 Company as a “family business”, but for me, it is.  It feels like just yesterday I was anxiously starting the IMLP program at GE Corporate in 2000 after graduating from Binghamton University with a BS in Business Management, concentrating in Management Information Systems.  With this month marking my 10 year anniversary with GE, I would be remiss not to look back on mine and my family’s legacy with General Electric…

Having grown up in “The Electric City” (Schenectady, NY) and the 1^st Headquarters of General Electric (est. 1892) it is not uncommon that multiple family members would work for the same organization.  In my family, I’m a 4^th generation GE employee.  In the 1930’s my paternal great grandfather was a mechanical engineer with GE Generator Manufacturing, during WWII my maternal grandmother worked in GE Large Motors while my grandfather was fighting in the war, and in 1967 my father joined GE Energy and is currently celebrating 43 years of service.  To “outsiders” GE is just a big business that makes light bulbs, refrigerators, healthcare equipment, aircraft engines, etc.  As a kid, GE was just a place where my dad went to work…the place that sometimes made him late for dinner…but never too late to help me with my homework.  

Today, as an “insider”, GE isn’t just a place where I go to work.  Since my 1^st day on IMLP, it became very clear to me that my post-college-life intro to the “real world” was much different then what my friends were experiencing during their transitions to large IT consulting firms, dot-com start-ups, and/or pure tech companies.  For starters, I spent the 1^st 4 weeks of my new job in an intense training course with 150+ other recent college grads from around the world, who while culturally different, were just like me.  We were being taught skills ranging from leadership techniques, financial acumen, to programming languages and network configurations, all while developing friendships that would (unbeknownst to us) last for many years to come.  While my college friends were thrust into jobs that they would likely hold for the next 5 years, I knew I was part of something unique.  IMLP is, and was for me, a career accelerating leadership program, with a focus on technology and ongoing leadership training, that afforded me the opportunity to experience 4 unique jobs over the course of 2 very fast-paced years.

In addition to the on the job training I’m constantly being stretched by, the emphasis on leadership development has continued to intensify even after IMLP.  I often reconnect with my IMLP friends at GE’s advanced leadership training courses in Crotonville, MIT, and GE’s Advanced Technology Center in Michigan.  Since graduating IMLP in 2002, I’ve held roles at GE Corporate Headquarters as a Six Sigma Black Belt, Program Leader, and Team Leader.  In 2005, I moved into a role at GE Money Headquarters as an IT Operations Leader.  It was in this role, for the 1^st time in my family’s GE history, I was able to see the non-US side of GE by traveling to our global consumer finance businesses in places like Russia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Italy etc.  I wonder if Thomas Edison (or my great grandfather) ever imagined they could one day have a co-worker and friend, in Gdansk, Poland? 

So today, on my 10 year anniversary at GE, I’m the Executive IT Leader for Enabling Functions at GE Capital, a direct report to our CIO, proud to be the leader of GE Capital’s Global IMLP Program, a member of GE’s Experienced Information Management Leadership Program (EIMP), and hopeful that one day I will pass the torch to the 5^th generation GE employee in my family.