GE's historical strengths....

Over the past few months I have highlighted many of the reasons that GE is having problems and why its stock is moving in the wrong direction.

But I totally agree with Jeff Immelt that GE is a strong, well managed, strategic company and should be more highly respected and valued.

GE has faced major problems before and has been able to adapt and even make the company stronger.

• It started with GE's ability to survive the GREAT DEPRESSION. The Swope/ Young team was able to survive during the Great Depression, even though the company revenues dropped 75%. One of the human resource innovations was the LAMP business allowed workers to volunteer to work four days a week, with four days of pay to prevent 25% of the workers from losing their jobs.


• In the 1950's, the GREAT ELECTRICAL CONSPIRACY, which was a major price fixing scandal, shocked the company to its core and even changed its succession plan, but it was able to move beyond and the company became stronger.


• In the 1960's Borch embarked on a number of misguided ventures, most of which failed and caused the decline of its stock, but Borch took action and installed the strategic management system which saved the company.

One of the criticism, I have received about my book THE SECRET TO GE's SUCCESS, has been that I am too supportive of GE.

It is true I strongly believe that GE's leadership has been able to ADAPT to change and, though I have challenged the Immelt GO BIG/ GO GLOBAL strategies, I am still a GE fan, I believe that Immelt and his team will do the same and succeed.

(However, this will be even more difficult since the company is now so big and complex, but if Jeff and his team, learn from the past and uses GE's enormous, deep leadership, technological, innovative and marketing skills, GE will win and the GE investors, as well as all stakeholders will reap the rewards).

Bill Rothschild, author of the most objective, comprehensive view of GE's successes and failures and the lessons we can learn from them, THE SECRET TO GE's SUCCESS...now a global best seller in six languages, including Simplified Chinese.