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What Happened to GE? (2021)

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Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#91

Post by gumby »

coliveira wrote: post #83
hakfoo wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason US manufacturing excellence doesn't make sense is because we let it rot. We don't have cities like Shenzhen, where everything you need to get a product to market is within same-day courier range. I understand this was a feature of the old "hardware-centric" Silicon Valley, and it made fast iterations on new products a lot more viable. I wonder if we could even build a hub like that today, with property spe…

Industry was already lost when solar panels started to become a thing. That was never going to be a possibility for the USA, unless it changed its course.

Carter installed solar panels on the roof of the White House. Reagan laughed, removed them, and increased drilling.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#93

Post by stephen_g »

neilv wrote: post #69

After suffering through a new (lemon) GE-branded fridge, I don't see myself ever buying a GE-branded thing again. Fool me once. I have some hope that Samsung will learn from GE, and decide not to fully discard its more recent-era reputation for quality and excellence.

Were Samsung appliances ever like that? I've never owned any but I do remember that their washing machines had a reputation for catching fire (there was a recall if I remember). Perhaps also their fridges, or maybe I'm remembering some other issue with those...

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#94

Post by quickthrowman »

poulsbohemian wrote: post #12

But somehow nothing ever changes - when this article was written back in 2021, the financial analysts had a buy rating and the price per share was hovering around $10. Today it’s at $129, despite significant competition in all aspects of their business. Bill Gates can say he didn’t see it coming, but all that signals is business as usual - the giants of industry are so woven together they seldom see the train coming

GE isn’t up 1290% in 2-3 years; the split adjusted price was $70-90 during 2021.

GE’s all time high share price (split adjusted) is $377.68 on 8/28/2000. It has lost nearly two-thirds of its value in the past 23 years, and that doesn’t account for inflation.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#95

Post by antupis »

tharne wrote: post #7
nuclearnice1 wrote: post #4

> For example, Gryta and Mann report that GE would sometimes artificially boost quarterly profits by selling an asset (e.g., a diesel train) to a friendly bank, knowing that it could then buy back the asset at a time of GE’s choosing. So fraud?

It's fraud, but it's legal in the same way insider trading is legal so long as you're a member of congress.

It is fraud when you don't tell that openly and pad books by it, but it is an okay tactic as a hedging risk as long as you are open about it.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#96

Post by swells34 »

rm445 wrote: post #10
tharne wrote: post #5

What happened to GE? Simple. Jack Welch killed the golden goose. During his tenure he shifted focus and money away from long-term R&D in the name of boosting quarterly profits. Product development took a back seat to selling "services", i.e. focus more on selling contracts around maintaining your turbines than you do on developing and manufacturing good turbines in the first place. I won't even get into the heavy bor…

It's interesting, isn't it. Jack Welch must have had very many superb characteristics, to be as revered as he was. Or is it an element that the profits of golden-goose-killing created the mystique?

It's horrifying. The man destroyed one of the most profitable and productive companies in the world to make himself look good, and make huge quantities of money for himself. From a business standpoint, he has no good qualities, as long as you are assessing over a longer period than ten years. He's really quite terrible at running a business, but great at making it appear that the business is doing better than ever while it rots away. Frankly, it's close enough to fraud that it should be a criminal offense.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#97

Post by simula67 »

rgmerk wrote: post #79
Swizec wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Conglomerates of disparate businesses never work in the long term Tell that to Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Siemens, 3M, etc

Aren’t the Japanese conglomerates perpetually underperforming businesses that get away with it because Japanese shareholders are toothless?

Berkshire Hathway is also a conglomerate, but it does perform fairly well.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#98

Post by mise_en_place »

Swizec wrote: post #76
rswail wrote: post #70

Lesson from GE: Financial engineering is not engineering. Further lessons from GE: * Gaming the system internally or externally is something a CEO needs to actively manage and defeat, not reward. * Trying to turn businesses based on contracts for delivery (with lumpy revenue/risks) into contracts for service and recurring revenue is a dangerous game, because you take your eye off the ball that is delivering the produ…

> Conglomerates of disparate businesses never work in the long term Tell that to Yamaha, Mitsubishi, Siemens, 3M, etc

Most of FAANG as well.

Re: What Happened to GE? (2021)

#99

Post by spondylosaurus »

jprd wrote: post #3
jrflowers wrote: post #2

They messed up when they sold NBC to Kabletown

The amount and subtlety of inside-GE jokes in the first year or two of 30 Rock were just "chefs-kiss". Also, Jack Welch. :(

The fake-but-also-real product placement for GE appliances was pretty funny. As was the promo for other NBC shows (like the ill-fated Smash...)
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