Honeywell International Inc. CEO David Cote spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Liz Claman and David Asman about President Barack Obama’s meeting yesterday with CEOs to discuss the economic recovery. Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE:HON) said he came away from the meeting “feeling very encouraged.” He went on to say that, “There’s a broader agenda here for the twelve people who were in there and for our ‘Fix the Debt’ organization than people might think sometimes. There is a tendency to ascribe an agenda to us that may be a little more narrow than what actually gets reflected.”
Excerpts from the interview are below.
On the meeting that President Obama held today with CEOs to discuss the economic recovery:
“I came away feeling very encouraged. I always felt the President understood it and I have good reason to believe that because he is a smart guy. He understands the role of business in society despite some of the reputational issues that you could point to there.”
On who represented the small business community at today’s meeting:
“I would say even if you take a look at the big business community that was in there today, we weren’t just talking for ourselves. I know there is a tendency to look at it and go ‘oh ok big company CEO, let’s see, we will look that up in the dictionary and this is how they behave, this is what they’re interested in.’ At the end of the day, the thing that benefits us is if the economy does well. And you have no idea how many times the subject of competitiveness of the United States came up for our presence in the world. It came up constantly in discussion today about our suppliers, about small companies and about what we need to make sure we do so that consumers feel like they have a part in the system. So that small business feels taken care of. So that big business is competitive in the world. There’s a broader agenda here for the twelve people who were in there and for our ‘Fix the Debt’ organization than people might think sometimes. There is a tendency to ascribe an agenda to us that may be a little more narrow than what actually gets reflected.”
