FEATURE-GE uses training to build customers in Asia

By Scott Malone

OSSINING, N.Y., Nov 26 (Reuters) - On a warm October morning, some three dozen executives gathered at General Electric Co.'s (GE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) training campus north of New York for a weeklong program.

But rather than a group of up-and-coming GE managers, this class was made up of executives from airlines, oil and gas producers and power companies, all of them GE customers from Southeast Asia.

The training course is just one way that GE, a conglomerate with more than 300,000 employees in 100 countries, stays close to its markets around the world.

Asia is one of its fastest-growing regions, and GE holds about six such training programs each year for executives from the region.

"Investing in the relationship pays huge dividends," said Stuart Dean, president of GE's Southeast Asian operations.

"We almost always have the higher price in a particular transaction, and where we've had a strong relationship with the customer, where there's a high level of trust, we always get a last look, at a minimum."

GE expects to generate about half its sales outside the United States this year, and growth in Asia will be key to hitting its goal of getting 60 percent of its revenue outside its home country by 2010.