Interview with Raj Kapur, ECLP Alumnus on the Ecomagination Team

What drew you to ECLP versus other related programs?

Prior to ECLP, I was involved with marketing/brand management in the area of consumer goods. I also had an internship at another company, and both were really good experiences. I came back for my 2nd year of business school, and reflected on what I wanted to work on. Those [consumer goods] companies would make me a great marketer, and I aspire to be a marketer, but what drew me to GE was the opportunity to learn how to run an entire business, not just be a good marketer. I would have to interact with technology, finance, supply chain, etc., and that would help me learn how all aspects of a business need to come together to really drive improvement and change.

What did you enjoy most about your ECLP experience?

The variety of experiences you have on program, for sure, was most appealing. I had four different rotations – sales, product management, business development, and a marketing role, each with a different GE business.  I know things are different now, with ECLPs remaining in the business to gain more depth of expertise. It is still possible for current ECLPs to gain the variety they need right in their business. My last role, and the one I aspired to roll into, was more of a classical marketing position in Cleveland with GE Lighting. I also enjoyed my sales rotation with Appliances, which was similar to the culture and context of my pre-MBA career.

How are you different or better now versus pre-ECLP?

Great question.  Because of the variety of experiences I was fortunate to have, I can think more strategically. ECLPs are given challenging projects that show what management of the company is thinking about. The ECLP experience made me “assume less”… before ECLP I assumed I knew the answer… the program gave me the idea to ask better questions, and develop hypotheses rather than jump to conclusions. This helped me develop a better thought processes on solving complicated problems.

Executive presence is something ECLP forces you to work on, either on program or right after. You are forced to work with senior people in the customer organization, or within GE, or both… to be able to present yourself and your ideas, as well as you as a person. This is something you learn while at GE.

What is it like working for Corporate vs. a specific business within GE?

Another great question. In a specific business, you are sort of forced to deal with everyday realities… making quarterly numbers, limited budget, adapting quickly to market environments. In Corporate, you deal with those things, but you have a cross-business longer-term view. Benefits of being in Corporate include seeing the overall power of GE, and looking at all the different places - country by country, initiative by initiative, where we can make impact. In Corporate, you end up working on major problems of the world, especially around ecomagination. You have many data points about what is going on, and if you have that cross-industry view… you are in a position to see where and how GE is contributing to important world-wide solutions.  If you are in a business, you may lose sight of the larger perspective and bigger picture, but likewise in Corporate you may lose sight of daily realities.

On that note, tell me about our role with ecomagination.

A couple of projects are interesting – first, I am working towards a “publically stated internal energy efficiency goal”. The background is that our products and solutions provide customers with energy and water savings, greenhouse gas reduction, and other ways to protect the environment. The thought is if we can’t prove those same achievements within our own facilities, what right do we have to sell to the marketplace?  My job and role is to work with corporate environmental programs, sourcing, and business teams to help drive those goals to measure progress, and identify challenges and progress through 2013. We already achieved one round of goals and in many cases the low-hanging fruit, such as “changing light bulbs”, improving pumps/motors, etc., has already been completed. Now we are looking at more aggressive goals, and they are proving to be more challenging.

Another project I’m working on is looking at where a lot of our markets are growing in the next decade and how ecomagination can best position GE’s businesses to lead in those evolving markets.

Raj, you have a very strong digital/social presence, especially on Twitter.  What are your thoughts… benefits, risks, advice for the rest of us?

Around the benefits of social media, I am a bit philosophical. The world has changed, and the generation after us, call it “people in college”… is going to communicate in completely different ways than we are used to.  If we’re not up on new things that are happening, then when they’re leading initiatives, we’re not going to be able to communicate with them. People talk about “us” as the ones using new tools, but the rate of tech change is so fast, you have to keep up if you call yourself a marketer. You have to try, even if you don’t end up using it. You don’t have to be on Facebook every day, but you should be able to dabble around and play because those are the tools people use. It is also great to have a have a leadership structure that participates and supports social and digital marketing – Beth Comstock, Mark Vachon, and even Jeff Immelt, are all over digital media… it shows vision and leadership on them to be cutting edge. They can easily take the view that it is not important, but they don’t.

One great way to get information specifically is Twitter, if you follow the right people important to you.  You can keep a pulse of what is going on.

One of the challenges is that it can be over-whelming and all-consuming. You can spend all day on Twitter reading articles and responding, but I went through a natural curve where I used to use it a lot and have backed off, now finding my own rhythm for checking content, responding, and tweeting my own thoughts.

I want to also recommend two books for ECLPs and those interested in the program, about the relationship between industry and our environment  – Cradle to Cradle, and Hot Flat & Crowded.

I invite anyone interested to please follow me on Twitter.

Posted by Samir