GE Hones Its Leaders at Crotonville

As companies evolve, so do their leadership philosophies. And General Electric's John F. Welch Leadership Center at Crotonville has had more time to evolve than any other corporate university, as this year marks its 50th anniversary. In that half century, the center, in Ossining, N.Y., 30 miles outside of Manhattan, has turned out internal and external leaders ready to take on global-scale business challenges—and there's no sign of a slowdown.

"Crotonville is embedded in the GE culture and the GE values," GE Chief Learning Officer Bob Corcoran says. "All of our major change initiatives—cultural change and business change processes—have either originated at Crotonville as a result of best practice assessments and evaluations or executive leadership summits, or they have been broadcast, trained, amplified or rolled out with Crotonville as the change agent."

Corcoran himself is a 27-year GE veteran in human resources and executive leadership, and holds the distinction of being the first CLO and head of Crotonville who is a graduate of all of the executive development programs. Past CLOs have been academics, who came to the position, which he has held for five years, following lengthy tenures at universities, he says. "I understand and know the dynamics in the classes, I think better than the other faculty did because I really understand what they're doing, what the impact is. So we've refined a bit more on some of the ways in which we teach, and in some of the ways, frankly, in which we allow [employees] to learn—in other words, we don't teach, but we force them to come to grips with and learn certain things."

He says he also thinks his GE tenure has been especially beneficial in running the facility because he's been able to focus Crotonville on what matters most to the company, explaining that it's the application of the lessons to the business that makes the lessons so effective.

Founded on foresight
Crotonville's history is rooted in forward thinking, Corcoran says. The facility was conceived in the early 1950s at a time when GE, under the leadership of then-President Ralph J. Cordiner, was quite centralized but looking to segment itself in order to stay competitive. However, Corcoran explains, there were not enough trained managers to run additional divisions. Cordiner's team researched universities, but ultimately established its own leadership center, and in 1956, the first class came to Crotonville. After three years, Cordiner, who by then was chairman and CEO, restructured GE, confident he had enough competent leaders on his staff, Corcoran says.

By the 1970s, Crotonville's focus had shifted, and employees could elect to take courses of their choosing. But that changed with a new CEO in 1981, Corcoran says. "[Crotonville] experienced