InformationWeek

December 22, 1997

Chief Of The Year Honorable Mentions

Fast Learner Acts Fast: Gary Reiner, General Electric

By Richard Adhikari

hile the rapid pace of technological change may wear out many IS managers, it's meat and drink to Gary Reiner, CIO of General Electric Co. "Gary has the same impatience for change as does Jack [Welch, GE's chairman and CEO]," says Harvey Seegers, president and CEO of GE Information Services (GEIS). Adds Reiner: "Life gets pretty boring otherwise."

That attitude shows up in the speed with which Reiner acts. Take the way he hires people. Reiner interviewed Seegers back in 1992 and offered him a job the very next day. Similarly, when he called Mark Mastrianni three years ago to offer him a job, "It was maybe a nine- or 10-minute discussion," says Mastrianni, today GE's manager of technology. "That wasn't an anomaly." To Reiner, first impressions are lasting ones. "Almost always when I haven't made a decision on a person, that person is wro ng for the job," he says.

Reiner's attitude has led to fast action on the technology front, too. His successes to date include reducing cycle time with just-in-time manufacturing. In another effort, Reiner launched a strategic sourcing initiative that trimmed the number of suppliers to GE and, through increasing the size of orders to those remaining, achieved economies of scale. He also initiated procurement over the Internet. And he launched a training program for suppliers so they'll be more efficient in working with GE.

Above all, say GE insiders, Reiner has been instrumental in helping CEO Welch realize his vision of attaining Six Sigma-a quality methodology-throughout GE. When Reiner was named GE's CIO and senior VP, and chairman of GEIS in April 1996, he broadened IT's task in promulgating Six Sigma. "It's one of the most important things he does,"Seegers says.

Reiner is also a fast learner. In 1980, after earning an MBA with honors from Harvard Business School, he was hired by Boston Cons ulting Group. Six years later, he made partner. Reiner was hired away by GE in 1991 as VP of corporate business development, andhe quickly learned everything he could about GE's business. That's no small task: Eight of GE's 12 businesses are so big, they'd be Fortune 500 corporations if they were independent.

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