I was initially impressed when Flannery committed to cutting Corporate and Senior Executives. However not a week went by and he announced he was replacing Rice and Comstock. Too make matters worse Stokes follows up with the longest and most generic organizational change in Power that one has to sit and try to decipher all the moving pieces. When you finally get through it the bottom line is we’re adding more Senior Leadership layers and in one case the Supply chain will have two Officers reporting to another Officer who reports to Stokes. So much for delayering the Leadership! Here we have a business down 51% in profit and our solution is add more Leadership and cut thousands of lower level white collar workers. Additionally I guess not enough talent in Power we have to bring the Supply Chain Officer in from transportation...the cronyism is just amazing! They both preach they know what the problems are and can be fixed....apparently they missed the biggest issue in that we have too many chiefs. The spin around the constant organizational structure changes is absolutely amazing. Changes are so frequent people have no idea who they will work on an almost 6 month basis. If we’re going to get “back to basics” as they both so eloquently preach let’s get rid of the executive oversight so people can actually get work done for our customers.
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Flannery committed to cut Corporate and I assumed (I guess incorrectly) that the message was clear to his Business Leaders to do the same! However Stokes must have missed the message as he not only added executive levels he rearranged the deck chairs so no one can even understand where everyone will ultimately report. Hipocracy at its best...when we have to reduce headcount somehow the luxury of backfilling is not permitted— that would obviously defeat the whole purpose. Somehow at the Corporate and Power HQ level they not only get to replace those open roles but add more bureaucracy. Disgusting... an absolute joke and the worst part is they think people are so ignorant they don’t see it! If they haven’t figured out how frustrated employees are by now (as certainly apparent by these posts and feedback) they have their heads in the sand to put it nicely. Wake up Flannery and team we’ve had enough of the business as usual at the top and the millions executives have walked away with leaving thousands of employees suffering with lost jobs due to incompetent Leadership. Ironically even when executives leave they’re set for life with their golden parachutes so don’t talk to us about how empathetic you are for all those thousands of families impacted by your negligence.
How about clawing back some of the millions those responsible have walked away with...how many jobs would that save?
Great to hear we’re getting another incompetent Officer in Power just what we need! How about for once getting someone who knows the business and our customers and will stick around to deal with repercussions of their decisions. In the 5 months Stokes has been here all he did was come out with an organization that is top heavy with executives and positions that have nice titles but will do nothing but ask for information continually to justify their roles. What did he do in EC...nothing!
Simpson from transportation is bad news. Buddies with Stokes. He's inept. Good luck power.
Flannerty was product of the GE way. He is never going to get rid of the fat at the top, just change to his people. It was easy to blame that idiot Jeff, but he was part of those crappy decisions. He is vary aware of what wall street wants to hear. Over the next couple years GE will be again over-crowded at the top and the company being split up and sold off and eventually only exist in name like GE appliances. All the moves in Power are to position it to get sold off while placating those in charge until then.
There won't be a GE in a few years. He wants to sell off more and what will be left will not make any profit and eventually go bankrupt or be sold off pennies to the dollar. What a shame and disgrace for this once great company.
Stokes providing his safety net, add layers so he can blame others for his failure. Not impressed with him a history of not staying in the job long before moving on means he never lives with the consequences of his decisions.
Stokes’ reorg plan was a joke. Makes the structure more complicated, not less! These guys really are helpless in a crisis. Would not want any of them in my foxhole!
Here’s a tip Stokes...saying ”bullsh!t” repeatedly is not a plan, and it does not convince anyone that you are tough, a leader, or even competent...it only shows that you have a limited vocabulary.
Guess the competence level has gotten so bad you now have to have Officers report to Officers. You also forgot to mention the Head of Supply Chain Officer from transportation will be based in Baden (Switzerland)...so add that nice fat ex-pat compensation package to his already fat paycheck. All for the sake of US tax avoidance...what a standup company. And all at the same time they preach integrity!
Shut down GE power no one cares! Sell it off! There is life after GE and after I got my new job out side of GE I couldn't be happier!
Flannery is one of the leaders who pushed the Alstom acquisition. He still denies it was a bad move. He therefore cannot help GE turn around.
Good post
The hypocrisy is even worse when you consider that a typical salary employee laid off will get one week pay for every year service and the executives including Immelt who got us into this mess walked away with millions. Oh and they all got to say they’re retiring...what BS. All that does is allow them to have access to more compensation. Employees should be outraged and start demanding accountability at the top...seems like that typical buzz word only applies to everyone else. The BOD all need replacing as they have been asleep at the wheel while this great company has turned into one of the worst performing in Dow history over the 16 year reign under Immelt.
If this true for power , they deserve to get their a$$ handed to them. The business is down and they are addding leadership. The last thing Power needs is more chiefs and no Indians.
Good luck to anyone who thinks Stokes, Flannery will save Power.
Who were the three musketeers who pushed the Alstom acquisition thru : Immelt, Bolze and ??