LyrArc Article Gist
Once a pioneer in X ray machines and jet engines General Electric fell into disrepute under Jack Welch when the company hid low earnings in industrial businesses by setting up its financial business. The 2009 financial crisis hit GE hard. Years of deleveraging followed after exit of the financial business. In 2018 it exited the Dow Jones Industrial Averages. Larry Culp of Danaher joined GE as new CEO of GE in 2018. He sold the healthcare business to Danaher for $21 billion. After about $100 billion in deleveraging the remaining company was split into two companies GE Aerospace led by Culp and GE Energy called GE Vernova a purpose built company led by Scott Strazik headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. GE Vernova is focused on wind turbines and renewable energy, its purpose to accelerate the energy transition and advance sustainability. The new GE is itself a return to the old days when GE was a pioneer and powered America's industrial base, not the company of deindustrialization of Jack Welch of the 1980's Reagan and post Reagan period when investing in financial and speculative business made GE to lose its purpose and go astray. For Culp and others the realization of the failure of policies that deindustrialized America and shifted factories to China after Thatcher and Reagan was a lesson learned. It is now the story of an America on the move under president Biden.