"Until then he can whine all he wants but investors will not buy GE stock."

All the more for me then. Seriously, not buying GE stock when it's on sale? That's pure genius. Good game, everyone!

Jeff makes over 19 million a year, so no matter how much the stock drops he will do just fine.
It's one thing to blame everything on the economy but another to justify the stock is worth less now then it was when he took over 8 years ago.
It's great he's buying and selling businesses, but how about NBC- that hasn't made money in years.
I think it is time for new blood. I'm sure Jeff has a huge "golden parachute" to fall back on. He'll be just fine.

This is what I wrote last June in the Chief Executive magazine...about what Jeff needs to do.
I think that Jeff needs to CONSIDER some of these ideas..

Suppose the Immelt game plan doesn’t move the stock or, even worse, doesn’t meet the goals he has set and the expectations he has created? Let’s step back and review some of the options that exist. 

Reduce Complexity

· Make It Simpler. Make the company less complex. This can be achieved by focusing more on products and services than solutions, as well as reducing the risk by participating in lower risk global areas. This strategy is not exciting, but it could build more investor confidence and increase the stock price.

· Continue to Prune the Portfolio. Continue the traditional GE portfolio management approach perfected by Welch. In this case, the company asserts that nothing is sacred and all businesses are potential divestiture or harvest candidates. Immelt has already done this. He divested the insurance and reinsurance businesses and was even willing to take losses. He sold the advanced materials business (man-made diamonds, silicones) to a private equity firm.

In January of this year, Immelt announced that the company’s plastics business is now on the block. It could yield $12 billion from a Saudi firm—a major financial windfall for the company, similar to the Welch RCA deal.

I think that broadcasting and even additional parts of the traditional GE lines, like major appliances and lighting, could be divested. These moves would permit the company to focus on its major solutions, technology business, while maintaining its strong financial services operations. This portfolio approach may build more confidence among investors, since they recognize that the primary goal of the company is to continue to increase the bottom line.

What if neither works? In this case, I think we need to adopt the new company motto “Imagination at Work” and look for a more creative approach that may initiate the next stage of the company.

Let’s imagine that:

· GE gives the investor an opportunity to invest in selective sectors of the company and not just in the total company portfolio. In this scenario, GE decides to offer stock in its key areas/sectors. For instance, it creates separate stock offerings in GE Healthcare, GE Infrastructure, GE Money, GE NBC/Universal, GE Commercial Financing and other key components of the company. These would replicate the current building blocks of the company. So investors could invest in either the total company or selective parts of the company. This is not unrealistic since many companies have done this and have been successful in doing so. Of course, this will require more evaluation.

· GE is major stockholder of new companies. The GE Corporation would continue. The company would only sell a part of the new companies and retain majority control over the businesses. I would recommend that GE retain 75 percent of the companies and sell the other 25 percent on the open market.

· GE would focus on maintaining GE traditional success factors. Under this new scenario, the GE corporate staff would be significantly reduced and focused on a few key areas. For instance, the company would continue to work on succession plans for the key management positions in the company and especially the next CEO. The corporate staff would monitor external changes and help the subsidiaries anticipate and respond to change, as well as change the portfolio as required. It would continue to have companywide training at all levels, take stands on political issues as needed and continue the strong financial, strategic and manpower networks that have contributed to its past success.

The anticipated results could be very positive to all of the key stakeholders. The stock should rise overall, the investor will have more options and the company will continue to retain its AAA rating and have a strong and deep bench.

In my latest book, The Secret to GE’s Success, I describe the company as remarkable, since it has had the ability to succeed and prosper for over 127 years. I use the word “Latin” to capture the five reasons for this success. These include leadership, adaptability, talent, influence and networks. Though all are important, I think one of the most important is the company’s ability to adapt and admit mistakes.



Immelt and his team have adapted and created a solid, though complex, game plan. (See chart, above.) The real question is whether it will work and whether the investment community will reward the company if it does.

The verdict will be in within the next few years. I continue to believe GE is a remarkable company and hope that if and when the company must adapt, it will do so as effectively as it has in the past.

Bill Rothschild is CEO of Rothschild Strategies Unlimited and the author of The Secret to GE’s Success.

philblock@aol.com

Any CEO that is that far off in earnings 3 weeks out needs a parachute..Golden or otherwise...

Well after costing stockholders big bucks with his positive statements in March, Jeff slips out of the well deserved noose again at the latest stockholders meeting in Erie. He has cost me alot of my retirement in stock and continues to make promises which for the most part have never come to pass. When will the stockholders say we have had enough and get rid of him so we see the end of his strangle hold on the GE Co. I can only hope it is soon and will not come too late.

jhay

My solution to this GE problem is have Jack Welch health checked and have GE do something smart. Hire Jack Back for a part-time reorganization of the onetime Giant Company. Cut the Jeffs',Jonathans'and if one left a Todd. Jack
Welch is no doubt happy where he is however, he would make a hell of a lot of shareholders happy to hear that name again at the helm. A. Philllips

What seems to be seldom mentioned is GE's nuclear division. Central nuclear power plants (as central power plants and their spider web transmission systems in general) are a 20th century technology that is has been made obselete by the FUEL CELL and technology. Distributed power is the solution to 21st century technology. The only people that buy nuclear power plants today are leaders of backward countries that have no engineering knowledge or where the taxpayer can be made to pay for them.
GE's nuclear division is one of the best kept secrets
and has basically only come to light because people have forgotten what a disaster they were in the US.