When GE first started, it was a high tech company alot like Telsa, Apple, or Google is today. GE didn't follow trends....GE created new products and whole new markets that didn't exist. Edison created the light bulb. GE installed turbines to power homes and cities. This did not exist prior to GE! What new markets/products are GE creating today? None!
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Too far gone to save. Too many managers & employees are checked out and show up for the pay check or for personal gain vs. corporate benefit. Management speaks of change but hate to hear the truth of the situation or listen to ideas on how to make it better. Short term thinking is the norm and quick action is rewarded. Long term benefit analysis to understand TCO or verify results never occur. Cost cutting is a big concern but useless if you don’t find ways to generate revenue. Aviation & healthcare seem to be the only performers but are they enough to sustain all the GE entities that are non performers and if so for how long?
Take the execs out of the picture. Don't play politics and experienced knowledgable subject matter experts can make this company profitable. GE Store, Predix are good ideas so are value add services that make a difference to the customer but he is bloated with politics, mediocre managers, fear, too much change without confirming or seeing the benefits of the previous change.
To the original OP. Maybe they rewrote the history books again.
I don't think GE ever invented anything. They just buy ideas and attempt to industrialize them.
When the competition catches up they simply dump the business and attempt to license the GE meatball.
There were plenty of people of the due diligence committee that raised concerns about what Alstom was telling them. But they were all ignored or shouted down. Immelt wanted a legacy, facts be damned.
@1vyy the deal was a fraud...Alstom lied and hid their real numbers. How do you blame GE for being defrauded? You must be ex-Alstom.
In GE, you will be surprised by how many quickly advanced their ranks by being a Corporate Audit Staff. The original idea was for them to learn business operations but it eventually put too much focus on numbers. It wasn't a problem when GE Capital was still around with strong cashflow, at the end of the day we needed the people who are strong at doing financial cosmetics. But now you need a visionary leader to go back to GE's industrial root, like it did over the years. Unfortunately the financial engineering root is so deep now that none of the leaders really know industries. CAS once was a great program but it is striking back now.
If it was such a dog why did you buy it? Top execs should have been more astute. They obviously did not have business brains.
The problem with GE is Alstom. That deal has caused the demise of our Power business. GE was lied to by Alstom execs in collusion with the French government. There should be legal action taken to unwind that deal.
Love some of the earlier comments here, they are spot on for the most part. As a former GE exec, my perspective is that GE is f**ked. That's why I left earlier this year for a startup.
Welch was great for setting up a management system to manage a big conglomerate, but don't ever think those managerial half-wits at the VP, SVP, GM, and above will ever turn GE around. Group-think rules and they couldn't bring an original, succesful idea to market if you gave them a map.
GRC is just a GE show piece where they bring wide eyed VIP's to show off their next big failure. Abate has no clue what's going on there. He's only interested in making sure his son has a summer job and getting all his cronies in with him.
I'm sorry but there is no way this company can recover. Stick a fork in it at this point. Capital cashflow was keeping the rest of these unprofitable divisions afloat. How can GE expect to make money on appliances, energy and light bulbs when they have state-subsidized, top notch competition here and abroad like SAMSUNG?
If Thomas edison worked at GE today, he would not be recognized as a valuable employee, he would be getting disposed of like everyone else. Perhaps taking a job at Westinghouse. Then there would be no ge. So this illustrates one of the many problems, there no longer is many leaders at GE, there is executives, managers, and accountants.
The problem with GE is you're all good with screwdrivers and changing light bulbs and nothin else.
Edison and JP Morgan started Edison General Electric to electify the country. Edison did not have insight into advantages of AC over DC (or was blinded by ego). Centralized power gen won over decentralized model Edison pushed. Edison got fired and GE was born.
Now we have decentralized power gen, battery storage, electric drives, DC are in vogue again.
GE is at it's heart Part Edison and part JP Morgan. Now we neither have prolific inventions like Edison or financial smarts of JPM. World has become specialized into investors and inventors. Value of Edison+Morgan has diminished in the new world.
GE wants to renvent itskef into digital industial company by 1) leapfrogging IBMs/Microsoft's/amazons and 2) outexecuting Honeywell/Siemens/Unitedtech. Achieving one is a tall order with a great leader. Doing both with unproven leader (no matter what JF says on CNBC) is a pipedream. GE will sell itslef to IBM or Amazon in 3 years if they don't get help on SW side from real leaders in the space. Running SW business is more than writing code.
Ideas are not enough. Lot of companies were first to invent but could not coordinate other functions needed to turn it into a profitable business. Small example -
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-man-invented-the-digital-camera-in-1975-and-his-bosses-at-kodak-never-let-it-see-the-light-of-day-2015-8
GRC is always focused on getting next year's funding. We need a stable funding that spans many years to work on long term problems instead of chasing what is hot every year to get funding from businesses. We could be working on truly disruptive technologies that create new industries.
The OP brings a good point though. It is very difficult to truly innovate and come up with a new game changing breakthrough. Not because of lack of ideas, but because of fear, inertia and managerial complacency, and I don't know what else. Time and again people proposed some unique solutions here at GRC, which were shelved after at best a year-long project and a series of powerpoints, only to return to them and start working on the project seriously 10 years later because now our competition is doing it so it must be really good and GE now needs to catch up. It has been a systemic problem.
The original post is a little unfair - GE is innovating a lot! Creative accounting practices, super political environments, the magic of shrinking stock value....
GE did not invent the turbine nor were they the first to use it for propulsion or power generation. Gas turbines, steam turbines, jet engines and turbochargers were all invented in Europe. In fact, the first gas turbine used to generate electricity was built in Baden.
The history of invention according to GE. Lots of other inventors created lightbulbs, turbines, power, nuclear, medical etc. GE is an acquisitions and divestitures company. Its talent is often undermined by outsourcing and creation of utility models which drive down the cost even further and yet under this model it struggles to be competitive and its margins are below what other companies generate.
Its talent is further undermined by incoherent strategies, road maps to what defines success which pivot (pivot the new word for kneejerk). Bad decisions, based on bad data exiting markets to early only to rejoin them without the correct due diligence such as sub prime (described as a black swan event) by JI.
Look at SABIC, NBCU, Synchrony Financial etc all flourishing in a competitive market. JF must be asking himself why if he isn't you have another JI.
GE leadership also stifled what made the company good which was questioning are we doing the right thing. Leadership become top down and people became afraid to question. The share price used to be on everyone's lips it stopped becoming a conversation point in meetings because the BoD were embarrassed and had no answers to reverse the trend.
Looks like yesterday's company that has lost its way. Downward spiral is inevitable so get off before she sinks.
Permissive time off is an innovation, according to Sue.
Financial engineering products as part of GE Capital ( certainly very innovating !)