Ask Venki Rao what is on his mind relative to technology and be ready to listen. He is always laser focused on interesting topics and willing to share.  All one needs to do to get his knowledge stream flowing is ask and then show interest. I did both.

On this occasion, he responded quickly with assurance that GE Energy is still focused on increasing productivity. Like other companies, they are very attentive to the efficiencies of business but they differ some in how they are getting there.

With a true worldwide organization, which has to be supported wherever the sun might be shining at the moment, efficiencies can be realized through basic activities such as reduced travel expenses. Rao acknowledged that they are making a lot of progress in this area and he points to Cisco TelePresence as a communications environment that makes a lot of sense for his organization. Rao says they are increasing the number of installations because they can now show significant savings through continued use of this modern technology.

Learning to use the technology has been important and Rao is pleased with the progress they have made. He said that finding ways to constantly improve communications is going to be a constant challenge for all businesses. With this awareness in mind, Rao has now acknowledged a 22 year old person to serve as his Communications Mentor. “Mike, if they are not going to use the same tools that we have been using for years, then we had better pay attention and learn how to be effective in the new environment they are creating”.

Rao says that a lot of topics from the past are still going to be with us this year but the ones to pay the most attention to are going to be: online collaboration, SAS and Cloud computing. These are the ones to stay on top of this year. "We at GE are not going to be the first into anything that still has issues with security; but as those problems are resolved, we will be fast followers in any area that helps us to improve our business."