Interview Summary Dr. Charles A. Reed with Louis Kraar, FORTUNE May 13, 1977 The following is a summary of FORTUNE Magazine's Louis Kraar interview with Charles E. Reed on Thursday morning, May 13, 1977. The summary is reconstructed from notes and is not intended to be a verbatim account of the interview. Q. I have a difficulty understanding what's so different about strategic planning as GE does it. A. The problem in a corporation like GE is to get an understanding of the strategic planning process to permeate throughout the organization. It takes a long time to get understanding of a new program of this type. (Explanation of factors considered in strategic planning) That's really what we've done in GE over the past 7 years. Now it's becoming a way of life. The key is judgement. Q. Your background in this... A. On CPC for a number of years. Technology emphasis. And for 15 months had strategic planning at a time when we were trying to pull together an overall articulation on strategic planning. Bow Bob Frederick is trying to pull together an overall organization strategy... I am now conducting in-depth technology study of the whole corporation. Q. Would strategic planning identify an opportunity in a new field? A. If you want to talk of the ideal, it certainly would. Q. Does it in fact? A. Yes, I think so. One of our businesses which has done one of the best jobs is plastics. My background is there. A beautiful example. We've come forth and identified that sector of the plastics field where GE can make the best contribution: engineering plastics (Here a history of the plastics business.) We came into the 70's and the plastics business took an overall look at our stable of plastics and came up with Valox, filling a big gap. Now we fill the whole range. This is one of the fastest growing businesses we have. A real strategic approach... since 1969. On stream last year with new plant in Mt. Vernon. You should talk with Dr. Welch.