General Electric's 50year + plus Gas Turbine Commitment to Excellence

The General Electric Energy site reported the following on December 16, 2008

"Government of Iraq Signs Power Generation Agreement with GE Energy Valued at Approximately $3 Billion Iraq Power Initiative Nearly Doubles Electricity Generation Capacity (Baghdad, Iraq - December 16, 2008)

The Iraqi Ministry of Electricity and GE Energy announced today at a ceremony in Baghdad that they have signed an agreement for power generation equipment and services valued at nearly $3 billion to provide much-needed electricity to support Iraq's future economic development. The announcement is a significant milestone as the country seeks to rapidly develop its energy infrastructure and increase its electricity production.

Under the agreement, GE Energy is providing heavy-duty frame 9E multi-fuel gas turbines capable of supplying 7,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. The Government of Iraq plans to install the units at key sites around the country to provide needed support for the electricity grid. GE's 9E gas turbine technology has proven reliability and performance in more than 400 applications worldwide."

This order demonstrates GE's long term commitment to its core, innovative products and services.

The Gas Turbine business had its roots in the Second World War and made a major venture under the leadership of Ralph Cordiner in the late 1950's. This technologywas used in electrical generation, locomotive and ship propulsion systems. In addition the technology was developed in Evendale's Jet Engine business. Both the Schenectady and Evendale competed aggressively to gain market share in some cases competed against themselves. In my book: The Secret To GE's Success (page 96) I used this internal competition to describe why decentralization had some limitations. "One of the major limitations of decentralization was that in some situations the departments competed against each other. For instance, the jet engine and gas turbine department developed two different versions of the gas turbine and found themselves competing against each other in some markets. This wasn't resolved until much later during the Borch era; meanwhile, the result was customer confusion and the loss of business to competition".

General Electric has long history of product innovation and a willingness to take a long term view, even experiment with organizational systems that provided both external and internal competition. This is a unique characteristic of GE and has contributed to its continuing growth and vitality.

Bill Rothschild, author of the only comprehensive, objective and insightful evaluation of GE's 127 years of successes and failures, THE SECRET TO GE's SUCCESS, now in six languages and a global best seller.