General Electric





General Electric is also known as GE. It should not be confused with GEC,
The General Electric Co. Ltd.

Employees (2000): 313,000. Revenue 2001: $126bn

History

In 1876, Thomas Alva Edison opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New
Jersey. Out of the laboratory was to come perhaps the greatest invention of
all-a successful incandescent electric lamp. By 1890, Edison had organized
his various businesses into the Edison General Electric Company.

In 1879 Elihu Thomson and E. J. Houston formed the rival Thomson-Houston
Company. It merged with various companies and was later led by Charles A.
Coffin, a former shoe manufacturer from Lynn, Massachusetts.

Mergers with competitors and the patent rights owned by each company put
them into dominant positions in the electrical industry. As businesses
expanded, it became increasingly difficult for either company to produce
complete electrical installations relying solely on their own technology. In
1892, these two major companies combined to form the General Electric
Company, with its headquarters in Schenectady, New York.

Today

GE is an enormous multinational industrial company engaged in a wide variety
of markets including the generation, transmission and distribution of
electricity. Also involved in lighting, industrial automation, medical
imaging equipment, motors, railway locomotives, military gatling guns,
aircraft jet engines, aviation services and materials such as plastics,
silicones and abrasives. It was co-founder and is the sole current owner of
NBC, the National Broadcasting Company. As General Electric Capital Services
it offers a range of financial services as well. It has a presence in over
100 countries.

The CEO from 1981-2001 was Jack Welch, who many regard as one of the premier
business managers of his era. Nicknamed "Neutron Jack", he presided over a
28-fold increase in revenue with his policy of sacking the worst performing
10% of his staff every year. In running GE's many diverse businesses he
maintained a policy of only keeping those businesses which were #1 or #2
within their respective industries.