Letting Trian take seat on the BOD is another example of how the incompetence of Leadership and the BOD has allowed this investor to step and dictate only one thing...cut cost and get my money back that I invested without any concern for keeping GE a viable entity. Once they recover their investment they will step away with not a care in the world of the aftermath of what’s left. Go read what is happening at P&G and the proxy war going on to keep them off their BOD. Although we definitely need a changing of the guard at the BOD as they are as guilty as anyone for the current state of the company letting Trian in was not the answer. The fact they came in without a fight is very concerning to say the least as their track record is less than stellar.
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Why assume only Trian will make out, are you all so naive as to think all the suits at the top won't gain from the coming shenanigans. Best case scenario is they are so blind they can't see, truth may be they are complicit.
@tae He may be just one member on an 18 member board, but that 1% of shares the Trian group has represents nearly $2 Billion worth. Ed Gardner is representing the majority share holder of GE stock. They will get what they want out of GE no matter what. It's what they do.
Dusted off my 20 year old resume!
I spent 16 years at 3 different GE businesses. A couple years ago I got called in by my boss and told my job was being eliminated. No advance warning. No respect. But this program kid quickly hired her former team from another division who knew nothing about the industry. This is how management operates there. If it were truly about results, they would stop these political moves. Honestly, I think GE has seen it's day. Nothing lasts forever. Although, I'm sick looking at my 401k. All those years, and leadership ran the company into the ground. Too busy looking out the window at their shiny BMWs. I assure those of you who are left, there is life after GE.
Trian just lost a very time consuming and expensive proxy fight trying get a seat on P&G's board. I think John and others on the board didn't want to go thru that. Remember he is one vote in an 18 member board.
Headcount and salaries will be slashed to cut costs. It's going to be very ugly.
This post is very true. These finance nuts and other bean counters are the reason GE is in the mess of today. They are gifted with finance jargon and charts but have no expertise in the actual product that GE sells to the customers. As long as they have the "gift of gab" GE promotes them with $Millions. GE also promotes other professional meeting mongers that do nothing all day but sit in conference rooms. These idiots go home at the end of each day thinking that they actually did something. The only thing they accomplish is warming conference room seats with their tush and yap their jaws all day.
Go read their 2015 presentation, much of what has been done such as the Baker Hughes formation is out of that playbook. They also quote Jeff Immelt committing to
I voted against every incumbent BOD member for 15 yrs, not that it had an impact. Andrea Jung, former CEO of Avon was fired for running them into the ground, what qualifies her to be on the board?
Your last sentence is very concerning to me also. Great post