South China Hub Launched!On November 17th, at the Qunying Hall of Asia International Hotel, over 120 members of GE Women's Network South China Hub attended the highly anticipated launching ceremony. This event created a platform for these female employees to learn and share each other's experience in personal growth and career success.

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What HappenedShanghai -

Roundtable with Sharon Daley on Work and Family      Balance

Bill Meeker – Technical Career Development       and Technical Depth Initiatives

Seminar on Women Health and Early Education

Beijing -

"Pink October" – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Happy Talk on "How to Sell" Bill Meeker on LeadershipJoe Hogan - Breakfast with GE Women's Network

Taiwan -

Yoga Experience

Hong Kong -

Roundtable with Heather Wang – Career Development        in GE

Who's WhoGrace Liang

Plastics Shenzhen Area Manager, HK & SZ Region (South China Co- Hub Leader)Bessy Ou

Asia Sourcing Manager – Global Commodity, C&I (South China Co-hub Leader)

Something InterestingDon't Let the Holidays Sabotage Your Health

What's ComingBeijing – Joint Project with Peek-a-book Bookstore

              – Women in Commercial & Role Model Sharing

                   Session

Editorial Team

Heather WangWomen's Network Asia Leader

Rachel DuanWomen's Network China Leader

Sydney LaiChief Editor, Women's Network China

Evon DongEditorial Coordinator, Women's Network China

Julia ZhuEditor, Shanghai Hub

Huang XingEditor, Beijing Hub

Fiona YuEditor, Wuxi Hub

Connie YeEditor, South China Hub

Rebecca WongEditor, Hong Kong Hub

Miriam Liu Editor, Taiwan Hub

Contact us

Feature Story What Happened Who's who Something Interesting

South China Hub Launched

On November 17th, at the Qunying Hall of Asia International Hotel, over 120 members of GE Women's Network South China Hub attended the highly anticipated

launching ceremony. This event created a platform for these female employees to

learn and share each other's experience in personal growth and career success.

Participants representing all GE businesses and functions took part in various

programs, allowing them the precious opportunities to interact with GE's senior

leaders and distinguished guest speakers.

The ceremony started with an opening speech by Nina Dankfort-Nevel, Chief Learning Officer of GE China. She introduced GE Women's Network's functions and its global operation to

all the participants. She spoke about Career Coaching. External speakers attended this event

included, Milson Lau, CitiBank Branch General Manager and Wendy Wang, from the top sales

management of Fuji Xerox. They warmly shared their precious experience with the audience.

The South China Hub Launching Ceremony was concluded with 3 interactive activities, including

Dancing, Beauty Salon and Nice Home.

Feature Story What Happened Who's who Something Interesting

Shanghai Hub —

Roundtable with Sharon Daley on Work and Family Balance

How to set career priority while managing quality time with family? How to

evaluate and balance your life when conflict arises? How to communicate with

colleagues when family needs have to take the priority? How to achieve

agreement at home when work related changes that may affect family

decisions?

For all these questions female employees care about, Sharon Daley, VP of

Human Resources for GE Energy, also being a wife and a mother, shared her

personal experience and useful tips with 30 local members of GE Women's

Network Shanghai Hub on October 11th.

Sharon, a mother with three kids and a GE executive, shared her family life and

career experience, and her tips on how to manage work and life. Shanghai Hub

members at the event, mostly young wives and mothers were eager to get her

tips on problems they face.

"Listen to your heart, be honest with yourself, have the attitude that choices

between work or family are not a life vs. death decision" – Sharon emphasized

as one of the most important take-aways from her 23 years at GE while also

being a wife and a mother. The roundtable was actively participated and well

received. Each attendee left with practical suggestions and advices to handle

future challenges regarding work-life flexibility and career path planning.

Bill Meeker – Technical Career Development and Technical Depth Initiatives

"The only source of profit, the only reason to invest in companies in the future, is

their ability to innovate and their ability to differentiate." – said Jeff Immelt. And

to fulfill the mission of innovation 26,000 technologists worldwide are eager to

learn how to grow their technical depth on the technology career track.

On the pleasant afternoon of Oct 19, about 20 technologists from GE Energy,

Money, Water, Advanced Materials, Transportation, C&I and Plastics joined a

Women's Network Shanghai Hub Technology initiative event. Bill Meeker,

Manager of GE Infrastructure Learning Centers of Excellence, held a roundtable

with the technologists on "Technical Career Development and Technical Depth

Initiative".

After kicking off the event, Bill began with an introduction to a technical depth

assessment tool, and then an elaboration on the career management model.

During the following discussion session, questions were asked about how to

find the best technical career in GE, how to become a role model in the focused

area, and the relationship between technical depth vs. leadership.

"The most important thing, is to find out your career interest," – advised Bill to

the audience. "Use the PIE model - Performance, Image, Exposure – to prepare

yourself for a successful career," as Bill ended the interactive discussion.

Seminar on Women's Health and Early Education

Can you name some top concerns of a businesswoman nowadays? Inevitably,

it would come across key words such as baby/child, family and healthcare.

Being a newly wed, are you worried about bearing a child, when & how? Being a

mom, do you know how to stay healthy while managing a full house and work?

Being a working lady in today's fast-pace metropolis, could you catch the early

signals of your body's warnings?

On Nov. 24, 2006 GE Women's Network Shanghai Hub work-life balance team

hosted a special seminar on Women's Health & Early Education to address

these concerns. The guest speaker, Dr. Zhou Jian from Shanghai First Maternity

Infant Health Hospital, shared her professional views and experiences on this

topic with a group of Women's Network members.

During the interactive seminar Dr. Zhou introduced basic knowledge of common

gynecologic diseases, taught techniques to self-detect early symptoms,

answered questions from new moms on early education for young child;

expectant mothers on birth preparation related questions, shared with

prevention tips on diseases that affects females.

The event was held successfully, as it helped all the participants in

understanding how to make lifestyle choices wisely, while find ways to stay

healthy to achieve a harmonic family and work life.

Beijing Hub —

"Pink October" – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Breast Cancer Awareness Month, also known as Pink October, first started in

October 1985. It aims to bring women's awareness on breast cancer and to

promote the importance of early diagnosis of breast cancer patients.

GE Healthcare, as the top-ranking expert in breast radiography, has been

appealing to the society for the breast health of Chinese women. Women who

have no children by the age of 30 and working under intensive pressure are in

danger of breast cancer. Most of GE women lead their life and work under great

pressure, therefore there are even higher risk in breast cancer than the common crowd, so there is a even more

urgent necessity in breast cancer prevention and early treatment. By this year, Pink October, the international

movement of breast cancer awareness has entered China for five years. To call on the attention of the society on

early prevention and treatment of breast cancer, GE Healthcare launched a series of public welfare activities for this

year's Pink October named "Care for Breast Cancer" which includes:

1. Pink Ribbon Donation: wear a pink ribbon and make a donation to Wang Huiqin, an impoverished mother who has

breast cancer.

2. "Care for Women, Care for Breast Cancer": an internet activity to promote health survey and to enable public

education of this malignant disease that is highly incidental among women and popularize health knowledge on early

prevention and treatment of breast cancer.

3. GE Women Breast Examination: to conduct a breast examination free of charge with People's Liberation Army 305

Hospital to promote the idea of Appeal to Early Treatment and Care for Women's Health" and as a benefit to female

staff with higher risks in breast cancer.

Pink ribbon was the symbol of female breast in ancient Egypt. it shined in the offices of GE during the activities, and

formed a unique scene at GE during October. The series of public welfare activities not only have reminded GE women

to take care of their own health, but also put forward our attention to the community, so as to become a leading force

in appealing to the public for the attention of breast cancer prevention and treatment.

Happy Talk on "How to Sell"

Do you want to share your sales experience with your peers?

Do you want to get some inputs on how to improve your selling skills?

Do you want to have a free lunch and chat with some interesting people?

With these attractive points, GE Women in Commercial Beijing team invited GE

Women's Network members to join "talk about how to sell", which was held on

12:00pm Oct 25, at Starbuck, Fortune Plaza.

22 ladies from various GE businesses attended the session while having a lunch at Starbuck. With the proactive

sharing and learning approach, ladies from commercial roles shared their key factors of success, at the mean time,

non-commercial ladies also articulated their understanding of being a success sales person, as well as the

importance of interaction between marketing, pre-sales, and sales functions inside GE.

The talk was conducted in a cordial atmosphere. During the one and half hours talk, the topics covered not only selling

skills but also touch upon growth traits to work & life balance in GE.

The "talk" also got many positive feedbacks, one participant sent thanks to everyone and in attendance to GE

Women's Network, while many members wish to have this kind of activities more frequently.

Bill Meeker on Leadership

Leadership is the word and topic we hear, discuss and practice everyday at GE -- whether you may have just been in

the company for months, or have been a veteran in your function. How does an individual develop his/her leadership

traits in a company like GE? What's the implication to women who are adventuring into leadership position? How to

lead the team, challenge them and achieve the next goal?

With all the questions mentioned above, we are honored to invite Bill Meeker, Manager of Infrastructure Learning COE,

to share his vision on leadership with members of GE Women's Network Beijing Hub. This talk was named "Leadership

Capacity Demystified" which took place on Oct. 17, at Kerry Center. To embrace an open atmosphere, we have

borrowed the format of "Talk Show", where participants presented their questions, then followed by Bill’s insights,

and interacted with the audience.

Bill Meeker gave a brief introduction on Infrastructure Learning Center of Excellence, and then focused the rest of

discusion on career development for female staff. He shared the "P-I-E" Model of marketing oneself, career

management model and Goals & Objectives Tool with the audience, and gave kindhearted advices to them on how to

make plan for personal career growth to be a good leader.

We have got maximal interaction in the limited two hours; sincerity and energy were overflowing at the event.

"Through this talk, I learned that my competency and passion are fundamental to my leadership skills and career

progress, while I also learned how to maximize my opportunities, and how important it is for my career development",

said one.

Joe Hogan –Breakfast with GE Women's Network

On the morning of September 21st, Joe Hogan and members of GE Women's

Network from GE Healthcare held a breakfast session. During the 45-minutes

breakfast, Joe provided his opinions on many questions raised by the female

staff on issues like the balance between life & work, lean manufacturing,

enterprise solutions and globalization of local talents, etc.

Referring to the topic of balance between life and work, Joe solicited

everybody's opinions on how he could help with their balance of life and work. A

female engineer pointed out that because of heavy workload, the staff, especially managers, could not squeeze time

out for their annual leaves. Joe shared his time distribution between his work and family: focus on one thing for each

period of time and communicate with family in order to win their understanding. For instance, he would asked for his

family's understanding that he would be extremely busy upon the coming of SII, while when it is public holidays, he

would seize every opportunity to spend the days with his family. He also hoped that flexible working schedule could

help to balance female staff's work and life.

Joe also talked about GE's lean manufacturing as a female factory worker in charge of materials asked: it took Toyota

40 years to establish their lean production, how long does GE plan to spend in promoting this concept? Joe replied

with a famous Chinese saying "A journey of thousand miles is started by taking the first step". He said the promotion

of this concept could not be accomplished within a short time, yet it is meant to be imperative. Joe also emphasized

that instead of replacing human labors with machines and processes, lean manufacturing means to get employees

involved and to empower them in order to make their work more effective.

Before he left breakfast for the airport, Joe concluded his Beijing visit with his own feeling, and encouraged all the

staff that attended the meeting to keep working hard, "I have visited China for at least 30 times during the past 15

years, and for each visit I have experienced tremendous change. I believe such development and changes will

continue for a long time. I urge you to keep on striving together with me for the success in the future with your

persistence and courage."

Taiwan Hub —

Yoga Experience

On December 1st, the work/life balance team managed to schedule a Yoga

experiencing session and offered all the female employees to take some time

off of work and stretch a little!

Everyday we are nailed to our computer screens, keyboards, and often time we

type and talk on the phone, with one side of shoulder holding it. This activity is

meant to remind us all that although with GE's busy schedule we need to keep

a healthy body. It is the foundation for us all, if we want to have a growing

career and to be excellent on the job.

The Yoga master started by explaining what is Yoga, it is not a sport that you

learn to scratch your back with your toe. She pointed out that several simple

stretch can help us not only to relax our tight muscle, active our joints, and it

would also stimulate the endocrine gland and help a person to concentrate.

You can see in the photos attached, everyone was really working on pulling,

twisting, turning and bending, we even tried to walk with our "hips" (try it at

home! And it is hard!) The benefit paid off after an hour and a half of doing all

the postures, and we sure all felt more relaxed, and able to breath in more air,

and have a clear head to take on more career challenges!

Hong Kong Hub —

Roundtable with Heather Wang

On Wednesday afternoon, November 22, 2006, Heather Wang, the HR leader

for GE Corporate – Asia & China, joined a group of women in Hong Kong for a

discussion about building career in GE. A group of Women's Network members

gathered to talk about maximizing opportunities, strategies for success, and

work-life challenges. Drawing on Heather's extensive experience in GE, she

shared insights on working in US and Asia, managing through common career

issues, personal development, and critical choices that women would face as they are moving into more senior

positions.

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Grace LiangPlastics Shenzhen Area Manager, HK & SZ Region (South China Co-hub Leader)

Grace joined GE Plastic in 2002 as Account Manager in Shanghai, and later took the role of ApplicationDevelopment Specialist- PC Based in 2004. In July 2006, Grace was promoted to the role of Plastics Shenzhen Area Manager, HK&SZ Region. Grace holds a Bachelor degree from Guangdong Commercial College, with double majors in Finance and Banking.

Bessy OuAsia Sourcing Manager - Global Commodity, C&I (South China Co-hub Leader)

Bessy joined GE Appliances as a Sourcing Specialist in May 2000, and then expanded her role to Sourcing Leadership for Metal and Plastics, while as providing part-time EHS support to the team. In 2004, she was promoted to the role of China Sourcing Leader in managing all Lighting Finished Goods, Industrial Systems, and Appliances Electronics within C&I. As of July 2006, Bessy took her current role to lead all components buying for C&I in the Asia region to support the global team, covering hundreds of plant in US and Europe.

What is your role within GE Women's Network China? What's your vision for this role and how would that benefit members in your hub?

Grace: As co-Leader of GE Women Network South China Hub, my vision is to provide our South China female employees a network platform where they can achieve growth through experience sharing, succeed in their career, and reach better work / life balance.

Bessy: Partnering with Grace as the co-Leader of GE Women Network South China Hub. I hope to provide our South China female employees a platform where they can learn, share and have fun together, while to further develop their unknown potential.

Could you draw us a general picture of the newly launched South China Hub? Such as how many members do you have? What are some of the key characteristics of our members in this South China?

Grace&Bessy: This newly launched network created a platform for them to learn and share each other's experience in personal growth and career success. We have more than 170 members from various businesses as Plastics, C&I, Healthcare, etc. In South China Hub, we have probably more women staff in technical field. Most of them are based in the 3 factories. So we will carry out more activities aiming at developing skills in logical ideation.Besides, for women in commercial our focus of next year will be cultivating members' business sense.

 

Are there any special needs for members in South China? What is the initial plan for the hub and what would be your expectations in the coming years?

Grace&Bessy: Since South China Hub covers 4 cities with remote offices and 2 plants, it is not easy for us to get together, so we need to hold activities individually. We will focus on women in commercial and role model for the next year.

Being a successful female leader in GE, what are some of the key career advices you may want to share with us?

Grace: Always think one step ahead.Bessy: Be aggressive but also be patient.

Can you tell us something about yourself that most of us won't know about?

Grace: In the 4 years I have been with GE, I've almost never made dinner during work days, but after my pregnancy I have been making dinner every night.

Bessy: I have a son just one year old and he really gives me lots of fun, I enjoy playing with him after work and I wish I could spend more time with him.

Feature Story What Happened Who's who Something Interesting

Don't Let the Holidays SabotageYour HealthIt's here, and every year the holiday season seems to come more quickly than the last. Fraught with thestress of present fetching, gift wrapping, feast making and family appeasing, we accept the fact that we are not born with Santa Claus-like efficiency, nor do we have a posse of elves at our disposal. Strangely, however, we resemble the jolly fellow's girth when the holidays are said and done. That's right, for many the holiday season comes prepackaged with one gift that just keeps on giving: weight gain.

Could this be the year you choose not to unwrap the gift of fat? According to a Duke University study, the average American gains five to ten pounds from Thanksgiving to New Year's Eve. But fat doesn't have to happen to you this year. Read on for some simple tips that will have you returning those extra pounds for good.

The Biggest Little Word: No Go ahead and try it. Say no. Hard isn't it? Women especially have a difficult time uttering the word no. This year imagine the power to say no as your lifeboat is tossed about on the choppy seas of mall parking, red-eye sales, Aunt Mary and that pumpkin pie you could graciously refuse to make. Know your limits and stick to them. If you don't, others will gladly define them for you. If saying no earns you a title such as "The Grinch", don't despair. You've only hit a nerve in someone who's yet to learn the power of setting their own limits.

Resist the Need to Feed Be honest here. The holidays come with a fair share of stress. Often, to cope we find ourselves eating with reckless abandon. But stresses don't make us any less responsible for what we put in our mouth. This year load your fat fighting arsenal by following. But perhaps the most valuable gift you can giveyourself this holiday season comes in perspective. Don't expect weight gain or even weight loss. Now might not be the time to increase the intensity of your workouts either. Simply shoot for maintenance, a goal you can surely meet. Take a few moments each day to step back and breathe. Savor the uniqueness of this special time of year. Enjoy putting yourself at the top of the list. But keep in mind you are not Mrs. Claus and you should not look like her either.