I wrote about Jack Welch’s editorial in the 1/23/04 edition of WSJ. The values Jack always pushed were the 4 E’s – energy, energize, edge, and execute.

The annual report for General Electric came out last week. In the Letter to Stakeholders, Jeff Immelt announced a reshaping of the company’s values around four actions – Imagine, Solve, Build, and Lead.

From the report:

Imagine at GE is the freedom to dream and the power to make it real. This requires the values of passion and curiosity. Solve reflects GE’s unique ability to tackle the world’s toughest problems and expresses our values of resourcefulness and accountability. Build requires a preformance culture that creates customer and shareowner value, and the word captures our values of teamwork and commitment. Lead reflects our spirit of optimism that embraces change, and our values of openness and energy; what it will take to win.

It mentioned in the letter that executive development classes suggested the change to “capture the spirit of GE as a growth company”.

What do you think of GE’s reformulated values?