When Immelt took over as CEO of GE, he was faced with many unexpected challenges which caused a need for change. Within 4 days of his first day as CEO, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center occurred. This act caused a huge downturn in the economy as well as in the confidence of consumers worldwide. Immelt immediately saw the need for action on GE’s behalf as he reassured consumers by reaching out to victims, rescue workers, and their families. He also saw the need for financial reassurance and bought 25,000 shares of GE stock on his own personal account. He remained confident that he could keep the constant growth going even in the face of disaster. Soon after the tragedy of the World Trade Center, the Enron scandal became public. As the public was exposed to the corruption that could occur within large, trusted corporations, investors began to shy away from the larger, more complex corporations like GE in fear of the same thing happening and they lose their investments again. This caused Immelt to look into the operations of the company and what was driving the current growth. He had to consider whether the same strategy would still work, which led to the third reason for a need for change. Immelt knew that he was going to have to keep up the growth that former CEO Jack Welch enjoyed, but Immelt could see that the same strategy of depending on growth from productivity was not going to work. To keep shareholders happy, he had to find another way to keep the reliable growth they were used to ongoing. He decided that innovation and investing in GE’s companies that could create their own growth was the way to