Bolze and his team had let inventory pile up, hoping the market would turn around and leave GE in a prime position to sell scores of turbines. But the power market was going in the other direction, and GE now had a lot of cash tied up in that inventory. The biggest problem was that a miscalculation on inventory couldn’t be easily or quickly reversed. GE, like its customers and its suppliers, planned its manufacturing out months in advance. Even now, long after the folly of Bolze’s investments was clear, it would take even longer to unwind the massive oversupply of turbines and parts that Power
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