This week the Scottish online journal The Business profiles GE’s bionic leader, a man known as much for putting in 100 hour work weeks every week for the past 24 years as for his relaxed, calm exterior. Nothing seems to ruffle this seasoned executive, yet he isn’t without his fears and uncertainties about the future:

“Immelt doesn’t worry about what could go wrong in the world as much as he worries about how to position GE for whatever happens. Thus, $65 oil is a problem for his plastics business because it’s the main raw material, but it’s an opportunity for jet engines, locomotives, and power systems because if GE can make those products more energy efficient, customers will love them. He’s confident about most of the trends he’s betting on, but he cites two overarching uncertainties—two things “that are going to be determined while I’m in this job that are bigger than GE. One is where healthcare goes in this country and on a global basis. That’s going to be played out in the next 10 or 15 years”. How will the developed world pay for the healthcare of its rapidly aging population and how will the developing world meet its people’s fast-rising health-care expectations? The other major uncertainty is “the future of the US as a manufacturing nation—that’s going to be played out not in the next 50 or 100 years, but in the next ten or 15 years”.

Earlier the article points out that “Developing economies will grow faster than developed ones and Immelt believes their need for basic products and services—water, energy, transportation, health care, financing—will grow faster than their economies. For example, GE figures nearly half the world’s people will soon be water-stressed—unable to get the clean water they need. That’s a huge long-term opportunity, as are those other industries, so Immelt is making major investments in all of them.”

Water as a valuable resource. Healthcare. The future of manufacturing. Oil: its impact not just on the polymer industry but on aircraft engines, power and propulsion systems.

Many of the same issues that the calm, cool, collected 100-hours-a-week Immelt worries about, constantly running various possible scenarios over and over in his head, are the same ones driving the scenarios presented here in TechFutures. It is this kind of scenario planning helps us deal with the uncertain future. It’s what keeps people like GE’s Jeff Immelt up at night, and what keeps GE at the head of the pack.

What are forces that you fear? And how should NE Ohio’s tech community begin to address them?