Lights Out: Pride, Delusion, and the Fall of General Electric

by Thomas Gryta

“Strategy is a story well told.” That executive was GE’s chief marketing officer, Beth Comstock.

True

Even less accustomed to such a freewheeling operation were the Power, Aviation, and Healthcare businesses. Their products were incredibly complex machines whose success or failure was measured in tiny increments and by thousands of hours of service without a breakdown. The stakes of an industrial update could not be higher: unlike a software patch pushed out before its time, the consequences of failure could be dire, up to and including death.

They would not listen!!!

price tweak, framed internally as a “brand value adjustment,” quietly took care of the problem.

Disgusting really

defenestrations,

Love this word!! Have to use it!!

They felt that they could have persuaded Bornstein to stay on.

Why??? It went south on his watch. He was either inept or malicious

They felt that he talked down to colleagues, and his view of them as ineffective was insulting.

But they were!!

Like many longtime GE executives, his love for the organization ran deep, and he struggled with the prospect of being the one who would have to dismantle it.

Not really true: he had already decided to sell Transportation, Lighting, and BHGE

In addition, there was tension between the board and Flannery, as well as between Jamie Miller and Flannery.

Why? He was fixing their mess. Where were they the prior 16 years?!!

GE’s board of directors was unquestionably weakened from having the CEO as the chairman of the board. Many companies still cling to this structure, but it openly violates basic corporate governance principles. The

Amen. Why is this even legal?

Flannery unfortunately was now building a new and different kind of reputation: for seeming to drop GE’s stock price anytime he opened his mouth.

Very unfair. He was never given a real chance. Expecting him to fix a 16 year mess in 10 months is foolish

Flannery lacked the experience to juggle the steady flow of crises while also running a company that he was still learning about.

Culp had no experience doing that either!!! What crises did he face?

The board had had enough. They decided to hold Flannery accountable for the latest raft of bad news.

How???

Unlike Flannery, Culp was aware of what he was walking into—at the very least he could brace himself before impact. Within weeks, he slashed the GE dividend again, leaving investors to collect a token 1 cent per quarter.

Almost feels like Flannery was the cannon fodder or mine sweeper