The Decline of General Electric...What Happened? 

Q: Why did the soldier salute the refrigerator? A: It was General Electric. well it was funny 68 years ago when I was 5 years old...

It’s 2021, three years after General Electric was removed from the Dow. Now they recently (like yesterday) announced they’re splitting into 3 separate companies. Each company focuses on one of GE’s most profitable segments. This is big news in the business world. Can you make another video covering GE about this situation (like you did with Toys R Us)?

In it's day, GE, invested in emerging technologies. They were leader in development of new technologies and product. In the late 20 century GE was a leading innovator. They would hire and fund people and projects that may not pay off with 20% return within a year but may build a new industry. With the advent of Jack Welch, who expected every unit to be high return and first and second in the industry. If not in that category that year, the unit was sold. Many are now doing fine, (example: sonar radar divisions) which means he gutted GE of their unit that are long term investments. This is akin to eating your seed corn, you have nothing for the future. Aerospace was down in the early 90’s and is doing well today. An example of a CEO who does not understand the business unit under their control.

This video is gonna blow up again.

Finally Tesla got the last laugh.

I knew a guy that worked for GE and he said the only thing they make that doesn't suck is their vacuum. Lol

I saw a guy with a GE tattoo in a supermarket.

Considering that GE put up with a CEO that failed to deliver for 16 years, I don't have much hope for the company.

Ex-CEO was running a stock, not a company for his bonus. Divested assets (that could have been future cash cows) for cash to do buybacks at above the book value of the company.

I worked for Westinghouse in the 1980s. We were always admiring GE's size and reputation. Westinghouse is another historic company mismanaged out of business.

Can you do a video on Sony? Their PlayStation brand is doing well, but they're bleeding money on virtually everything else.

I worked at GE power & water division for years as a tool & die maker. They cut their workforce. Forced people into early retirement. I took my buyout and started my own business. Glad to be out of there. The amount of bureaucracy in that company is unbelievable. There was so much red tape and rules on every single thing you did that just doing your job is difficult. Corporate insanity.

The GE factory where I live is being turned into apartments

they started trading businesses instead of building them. if you add no value, how can you expect your company to increase in value?

Jack Welch hated the middle class too. He developed a lot way to make things overseas with the GE symbol on it. My uncle was an electrical engineer for GE. He had to go over to Singapore in the early 80’s to help get the TV plant up and running that they were moving from Virginia. It’s hard to believe they use to make TVs in the United States. I think Jack Welch laid the foundation for some of the problems today.

I guess you could say that GE... _blew a fuse_

Specific electric happened

The NBC chimes are musically a G-E-C, started during the days of the original ownership by the General Electric Corporation. Thank you NBC tour at 30 Rock!

Makes sense. My dad worked as an Engineer for GE for over 35 years. He used to tell me that the managers would require him to send them laboratory reports that showed that the products would fail shortly after their warranty expired.

It was Jack Welch that destroyed the company favoring deals rather than innovation and US based technology production of the existing product lines. He, like many US manufacturing CEOs stopped the process of innovation, design, produce and the sale of useful products that Japan does do well. He went for short term stock market gains and lost the DNA.

How about lg(life's good): bigger than you know

I used to work for GE. The company was asinine to work for. Aside from the typical idiocy of the first thing that they always made sure they did when something went wrong was to have a pow wow to figure out who to blame. But it ended there. Solutions to problems were something never discussed. Beyond that, their actual company policy was to have all of their different branches competing with each other in any way possible. And competition wasn't the only thing that different branches did to each other, they tried to screw each other over as well. On top of that, their products in most of the industries I've interacted with were often considered some of the lowest quality. On top of that, one thing I used to do for GE was install the CT scanners. If you followed the instructions on how to install the machine, it wouldn't work. One of my co-workers told me that this was done on purpose in order to prevent external companies from installing them. The only expectation I have for GE is that they'll go completely under considering that people don't even call anything made by GE "Good Enough" anymore.

I have always wondered why that throughout the corporate world, currently there is this urge to grow and expand and have quarterly earnings that constantly increase year over year. It seems to be sort of a "tunnel vision" method that can actually hurt the company's success in the future. It seems very few organizations do any long term planning anymore, but focus only on the current quarter's earnings. There was always a rush to push out more billable products in the closing few weeks of each quarter to artificially increase the current quarter's earnings, but forgetting that these earnings are actually ripped from the next quarter's numbers at the risk of the quality of the products suffering due to the urgency of pushing them out prematurely. GE seems to have operated in this manner over the last twenty years and was reactive rather than proactive in its philosophy.

It is OK for GE to apply the top 10% system to the employees but the great oversight was for the Board of Directors not applying the same system to the CEO like this: If the CEO does not perform at the top 10% among S&P 500 companies, he would be shown the door. In addition, if he was proven to have cooked the books, then all his pass bonuses would be forfeited.

General Electric will go away...and come back as “General Atomic”, selling nuclear powered household appliances and potentially automobiles.

I remembered when I was a kid I always thought GE logo was a fancy candy logo like York 😅

I remember being a kid in the 70s and I saw "GE" on every bit of electronics and the commercials were always playing: "GE.... we bring good things to life!" It's fairly shocking to me that it's struggling now. While I hope they have a future, that really comes down to getting the right employees and right ideas.

I think a video on the Disney 21st century Fox acquisition would be very interesting.

My new house has all GE appliances. All of them are horrible except for the oven.

You didn't even mention their Long Term Care business. That's what's killing them!

How Edison screwed Tesla now everyone is using Tesla's inventions and mocking general electric

GE in the complete opposite in the Aviation World, they are kicking ass selling jet engines.

I lived in Schenectady NY (old GE world hq is here) I for most of my life, you could really watch GE slow down and die through that time

Edison didn't invent the light bulb, he simply perfected what already existed.

okay, I'll be "that guy"...didn't Thomas Edison invent the MODERN incandescent lightbulb? didn't someone else invent the FIRST lightbulb? anyway, great video. I do appreciate that you show your sources but could you start putting links in the description so we can also read up on them? Also, maybe you could start a "Company Man Explains" series where you explain various concepts from IPO to VC vs Angel investing to different chapters of bankruptcy. I know you already sorta do it in your videos and other channels have vids like that, too. But, maybe you could put your own spin on it! Just a thought...

GE is kicking ass in the railroad world.....

Love your videos Company Man and Keep up the good work on your videos.👍👍👍👍👍

In my town There's a big GE Factory that's been sitting vacant since 2003

Haha that's what the first season of 30 Rock is so heavy on GE product placement, because they owned NBC. 😂

*stares at GE fridge* cries

In the 80s & 90s, GE was touted as the example of how to succeed. They would dump any division that needed fixing or long term investment, and just buy an already successful firm that did something else. I never liked their philosophy, and it sure looks like it isn't working too well anymore. Just buy, sell, spin it off, and who cares what they make or do, it's just numbers that they want to go up.

Can you please do the decline of Hastings?

Their logo looks like an *"H"* to me

Jack Welch gets a lot of acclaim for being a guiding "light" for GE management. He's even held up as the standard too in the area of management. As you have shown in this video Jeff Immelt has been given a lot of blame for its recent fall. I would submit that Jack Welch's forced ranking system of employees and managers is a big part of it. As a former manager for a major bank that used his theories it was held up as "the Way" to go. In fact, they pushed Jack Welch's books as a must read when I was there. The forced ranking system basically goes like this: if you have a team 10% get great marks and praise, another 10% are labelled a "Needs Improvement" with a mandatory development plan designed to lead them out the door. And then, 80% get rated as OK and a speech at raise time basically claiming times are hard and you'll only get a 2% raise; but really, you're lucky to have a job. Lol. Of course, the top 10% are given the keys to the kingdom, fast tracked for promotion, large raises and hefty bonuses where applicable. Here's the problem. Not every unit has an even distribution of talent. Some have quite a bit of high achievers. Others are solid 80 percenters. And some suck so bad you need to start over and build a new team. When I tried to explain this to my director his eyes glazed over. I said what if you had a team of 10 top performers and you use this forced ranking system? Half would leave after the first evaluation. You'd be lucky to keep 40% if 30% had poor self esteem. But top performers know they are top performers and they would not put up with this bullshit. Therefore, over time there would be a gradual brain drain of great performers. And some units would promote less talented individuals because they were lucky enough to be grouped with mediocre performers. As for our implementation at the bank, sure it worked for about 3 years. In fact, with all the wheeling and dealing at GE it works great with acquisitions and mergers. You have to get the synergies of putting two organizations together. But after 3 years it starts to tear at the very fabric of the organization. Eventually, we cut too deep. Letting great talent out the door. This led to a shortfall in staffing requiring us to hire in more expensive "consultants". If they got lucky enough to be brought on fulltime? Eventually, they would be snared into the forced ranking system. Which as the FNG (F'ing New Guy) often led to a needs improvement review. And the vicious cycle continued. Elevating the good ole boys and crushing the people they didn't like. In my banking scenario, eventually my boss cut so deep he was demoted. Before finally being shown the door himself. As for me, I saw the writing on the wall. Raised my hand for a generous reduction in force package. Allowing me to take an interesting assignment with a bank overseas. GE can come back. And I hope they do under CEO Flannery. However, he is a big disciple of Jack Welch too. So, we'll see what the future holds? I would submit good managers build good teams which leads to solid continuity and improvement. Don't let a tactic used in limited situations be your guiding principle forever. Good managers have many tools in their arsenal. Not every problem is a Nail. Lol. Nice food for thought video.

*on a date* guy: i watch company man, do you? girl: company who? guy: yeah we should break up

The company behind Necco & The candy hearts just shut down. You might wanna make an update video about that

Ever since it was revealed in 2008 that GE was doing business with Iran, they were done. Also keep in mind that Fukashima nuclear power plant was designed and built by GENERAL ELECTRIC, and at the time was known to be unsafe.

Love the Video, would love to see an update and one on Tuesday Morning

GE is based in my home town. As an observer of what has been going on, you can see them downsizing by firing a lot of people (there was a huge protest), knocking down a lot if buildings, and just minimizing everything. Yes, they still are huge but these minimizing tactics keep me watching. If GE goes down our entire town may go down.

Quiznos!!! What happened Company man?!

Worked for them as an engineer and project manager in the late 1980s. I was excited to work their and waited to learn the "GE Magic" that Jack Welch had. I left 4 years later still waiting to learn. I felt that their quality and management was very over rated even then. They had a good run. Time to move on.

I grew up with GE lightbulbs and appliances, and still live with said bulbs and appliances. The fact that they're (potentially) crashing is appalling; and their lighting segment only brings in 2% of revenue when it's all I see in a store's lighting section!? And to think that it's the same company which made my great aunt's stove, which has run like a clock since 1952. What has this world come to?

I put in over twenty five years and was invested heavily in stock. Jack Welch (nutron jack) is the culprit dismantling the company. I worked in finance and could flood your ears with foolish and stupid moves by Jack and his protease gang. We all tried to advise them to stop wasting company funds. All the top was filled with puffed up, know it all show offs. Most all the units sold off now make very good and stable returns.

GE just said to Enron hold my beer and i will show you how to cook some books.

You should talk about heelys

I see GE being replaced in the Dow by Walgreens as a reflection of today's economy. America is rapidly shifting into a spending-driven, consumer economy, while manufacturing and heavy industry has been declining for decades.

I work at a nuke that has a GE design. I can speak to the consumer side, regarding power. Like you said, it is complicated. They have not adapted well to fit the need of the consumer and have spent too long knowing most of the plant with their design would never dream of obtaining 3rd party support for maintenance and new upgrades. I have many many examples. I'll put it this way, they make westinghouse look like an innovative well run machine... if anyone is interested I can tell a tale or 2.

I was in their Healthcare division, and their bad leadership probably contributed quite a bit to this situation. Reducing headcount is nothing new but they really make the teams so understaffed that those who were still there couldn't bare all the extra workload and left. (At least in the healthcare side) They have bought some good companies with good brand image into GE, however, those tech people ,who knew what they were doing and know the do's and don'ts in the R&D, were put into the unfamiliar frontline or management duty and they generally don't like that. The result is tech people left the company, GE only got some product brand name but without the development experience and knowledge, and product quality suffers and features aren't competitive anymore

Talking to former employees, GE is very ridged internally. Top down management and poor employee delegation. Stifles creativity and innovation possibly which is why they need to buy other companies that are not like that to try and remain relevant. Great people at GE but needs a culture change.

Please do a video on Heineken or Phillips, or any other big Dutch company

You should do Cisco!

Love the days when Letterman used to make jokes about GE when they owned NBC.

When this video was made their stock was 13 a share, today it is 6.74. Wow.

Current ratio .67. They are two quarters from Chap 11.

What happened......??? Poor management. That's all it takes to ruin a great company....😎👎

Company Man, could you please make one of these videos about the fall of KFC? It went from the business standard to the business joke.

Hey can you do a video on Yum! Brands and how they came to own several huge fast food restaurant chains.

Many years ago, GE's motto was "Progress is our most important product". Their focus, going all the way back to Thomas Edison, was on innovation. I think the problem today is that there are now tons of companies that are focused on innovation, and these companies have access to all the low-interest capital that they can use. The only thing left for GE is to build things like jet engines and power stations - things that are just too big for smaller competitors to build. I hope they are successful !

My father worked for 19 years at the GE Baseworks in Providence, RI. After NAFTA, GE moved the entire operation to Mexico. I hope GE goes bankrupt as well as the all other US corporations that sold out American workers!

The heck with GE! I know lighting isn't a large part of their business, but their spiral florescent bulbs are garbage. I bought eight of them two years ago. Four of them are fine, but four of them burned out within two weeks. I think they make them poorly on purpose so you'll have to buy more.

They have their logo on the boston celtics uniforms

Let's see: their power business is losing Huge amounts of money, so -- let's Sell the parts of the corporation that are Earning money and Retain the parts that are Losing money. Why can't I be a CEO ? I can lose money as fast as anyone else. I can make stupid decisions that don't make sense. Want to waste a billion dollars ? Hire me !

Just gonna done replacing GE kitchen appliances which were new in 2012 in our new home. I just want everyone to know the dishwasher and microwave were crap.

Those GE appliances you spoke of are designed by the same engineers that designed them before, just reporting to a different parent company. It was a good move for us to get out from under them.

Immelt-ed down.

I'll be honest, my core interest in GE stems from Jack Donaghy from 30 Rock.

Also GE used to make Locomotives, then there was this Wabtec merge with the locomotives

Amazing that this modern version of Enron is still in existence.

Had a feeling something was up when we stopped carrying GE Automotive bulbs in favor of Osram Bulbs at the part store I work at. Usually a retailer switching brands isn't a good sign of the original brand being phased out...

You're videos are always very interesting. Great detail with every video I've seen from Company Man.

My brand new GE dishwasher died within 1 year and customer service was upset that they had to replace it!

the same thing is happening with so many manufacturing wholesalers - the top has gotten so diverse and disconnected from their revenue stream they are just confusing their employees and with no direction it just a big house of cards. bye bye GE.

This video is a lot of foreshadowing lol. This guy should make a follow up video like YESTERDAY and link it to this older video

This is sad , Edison was a real maggot of a Man , Westinghouse & His Co. was truly awesome and has a fantastic history.

Thomas Edison did not invent the light bulb. It was invented by Joseph Swan. Edison improved the design book improving a design is not even remotely the same as inventing something.

So still a big company just not doing the best

Company Man called it

I would love to hear you go into depth on investing and the stock market. You have a very pleasing voice, you seem knowledgeable and the material is interesting to a good section of folks that watch your stuff already. I'd love to know how the dow thirty are chosen, and what is required for a company to be replaced. THanks for some of the better content on youtube.

That CEO got paid millions for nearly 2 decades to run GE into the ground! GE needs to get into the ELECTRIFICATION sector that will be growing in the Automotive industry . No company has ever shrank their way into long term profitability!!!

I bet Morgan Stanley had a big stake in G.E.

Please do a Westinghouse video!!!

Jack Donaghy, East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming...

You should make a video about Westinghouse after GE!

IF GE doesn't improve soon and their value continues to decline, then they will be bought out by a Chinese company. China is on a buying spree and GE is a major prize. Buy heavy in GE Common Stock.

Anyone else sad about these once great American companies seeing their downfall?

GE just seems like it's completely directionless and doesn't know what kind of company it wants to be.

Funny thing, you know the NBC three tone chime? It’s actually a musical joke, as the notes are a G, E, and C, for “General Electric Company.”

June 19, 2020 GE Market Value $62,54 Billion. Stock Closed at $7.12 a share. I believed the hype and bought in at $8 and sold at $7.50. I lost 10K and I'm one of the fortunate ones. You read the companies forecast and the actuals are off 40%. This has been an unscrupulous company for years. They lie about everything. Their long term retirement benefits shortfall is estimated almost 3 Billion dollars in 2040.

News flash + it is 7/16/2021 and GE is not doing any better

GE was involved in weapons manufacturing at one point. They supplied Vulcan cannons to the US during the Vietnam War.