Many people don’t associate big business with social responsibility.
Beth Comstock, the chief marketing officer at GE, thinks that’s
completely backwards.
Comstock believes the key to business success is innovation. Innovation is driven by understanding and responding to the world’s needs, she said, quoting GE’s founder Thomas Edison at the Social Good Summit Tuesday. “We think it’s our job to make the world work better,” said Comstock. “In our minds, that’s the meaning of sustainability. None of us can do it alone and maybe that’s surprising to hear from a company as big as ours.”
Comstock devotes a lot of energy to GE’s ecomagination, an effort to respond to the world’s environmental problems using clean technologies while driving economic growth. She has read some 5,000 pitches from green startups. Despite GE’s big name, Comstock maintains she is open for hearing great solutions from any and all partners. That openness, she believes, is at the heart of economic success.
“Our biggest challenges right now are emerging markets,” she says. “If you think you have a good business model, we’re open for business.”
As for the future of her own company, Comstock would like to see GE forming new business partnerships. “I’d like us to be seen as a partner of choice,” she says. “I want people to think that we’re an open company and that we’re open for good ideas.” Comstock indicated that one of her goals for GE is to make the company a leader in transparency and to connect with global partners to solve the world’s problems.
A popular refrain from Comstock was that there are too many problems in the world for one company or organization to solve on its own. Partnerships are necessary to get things done, but good partnerships must exist around a shared objective and shared risk. You also can’t just fund an idea and then go away, she said. To scale, you have to stay committed.
To that end, Comstock also announced that GE would facilitate the creation of a “super database” of information about cancer, which she hopes will be completed by a collaborative effort from scientists, drug companies and everyday users.
Comstock believes the key to business success is innovation. Innovation is driven by understanding and responding to the world’s needs, she said, quoting GE’s founder Thomas Edison at the Social Good Summit Tuesday. “We think it’s our job to make the world work better,” said Comstock. “In our minds, that’s the meaning of sustainability. None of us can do it alone and maybe that’s surprising to hear from a company as big as ours.”
Comstock devotes a lot of energy to GE’s ecomagination, an effort to respond to the world’s environmental problems using clean technologies while driving economic growth. She has read some 5,000 pitches from green startups. Despite GE’s big name, Comstock maintains she is open for hearing great solutions from any and all partners. That openness, she believes, is at the heart of economic success.
“Our biggest challenges right now are emerging markets,” she says. “If you think you have a good business model, we’re open for business.”
As for the future of her own company, Comstock would like to see GE forming new business partnerships. “I’d like us to be seen as a partner of choice,” she says. “I want people to think that we’re an open company and that we’re open for good ideas.” Comstock indicated that one of her goals for GE is to make the company a leader in transparency and to connect with global partners to solve the world’s problems.
A popular refrain from Comstock was that there are too many problems in the world for one company or organization to solve on its own. Partnerships are necessary to get things done, but good partnerships must exist around a shared objective and shared risk. You also can’t just fund an idea and then go away, she said. To scale, you have to stay committed.
To that end, Comstock also announced that GE would facilitate the creation of a “super database” of information about cancer, which she hopes will be completed by a collaborative effort from scientists, drug companies and everyday users.
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