Liquidity
GE’s rapid growth of the 196os had allowed slack in the reins of financial controls. By late 1973 the liquidity problem was compounded by rising interest rates, cash management problems, double-digit inflation, the financial plight of the electric utilities (major customers), the reality of a serious business downturn, and the energy crisis with its high costs and material shortages. Jones insisted on attention to financial fundamentals—balance sheets, cash flow, return on investment, and costs. Getting receivables down was accomplished mostly by teaching the whys and hows to the top layer in the company.
Jones had not been known to be a good public speaker. In his earliest speeches as president, he chain-smoked while he read his notes. In one of his first appearances at GE’s Crotonville, New York, training center, he made a brief courtesy appearance with a ten-minute presentation that disappointed his managers and left them wondering what he had said.
Reg was very much aware of the fact that he was not an outstanding public speaker, and that he needed to improve his podium skills in order to do well as a chief executive. By reading books on speechmaking he learned to respond to the short attention span of his listeners and to recognize the need for pointed examples, humor, and dramatic quality. He listened to recordings of his own speeches. And, essentially, he became a good speaker by polishing his own skills rather than by formal training. Now he took to the stump. In sessions with individuals or staffs of component organizations, his message was consistent. “We’ve got to stop the hemorrhaging. We have to learn how to manage cash
because we’re in desperate straits. You must each find ways to cut inventories, to reverse the course of receivables. We’re cutting back on appropriations.”
Only when this behemoth began to turn around and it was obvious that the crisis was clearly behind them did Jones cease his jawboning. In 1975 Jones went out of his way to tell his people, “My God, if you can turn this General Electric Company around, there’s nothing you guys can’t do. Look what you did with this. You turned this cash situation around in six months.”
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