Transformation at GE
May 16th, 2008
GE recently announced it will sell its white goods business. Business Week asked John Kao what he thought:
The creation and destruction of business is what gives these conglomerates long life. The management of a corporation like GE should be complimented for entertaining this kind of transformation, even if it means turning away from an iconic business.
June 24th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
Jeff Immelt said several years ago that as CEO, he loved all the GE children, but that some were going to go places that others wouldn’t. American consumers tend to think of GE as a houshold-brand company, but it hasn’t made GE televisions in years (that business was sold to another company, which licenses the GE and RCA brand names). The 2007 GE annual report said that in the previous five years, the company had exited businesses worth $50 billion in revenue. Appliances’ revenue last year was $7 billion; revenue for GE as a whole, $172 billion.