Ge History, Development and Growth

History, Development and Growth

General Electric or otherwise known as GE was formed in the year 1892, through the merger of the Edison General Electric Company (EGEC) which is founded by Thomas Edison in the year 1878, and the Thomas- Houston Electric Company (TEC), into one of today’s largest energy- providing companies. Through the years, electric technology has evolved, and so as GE. GE, through the years of its continuing and prospering existence, was able to grow as a global leader in providing efficient and reliable energy to its customers.

        In the late 1960s, GE was able to have 46 Strategic Business Units or SBUs, and has also been able to extend its line of operations into computers, nuclear power, and aircraft engines. Through strategies implemented by GE, it was able to cross its US$1 billion mark in earnings.

        In the year 1891, Jack Welch was appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the company. Welch established a core strategy which is known as the Number One Number Two strategy. In the year 1995, a market revenue exceeding US$100 billion was reached by the company. One year later, GE completed 100 years on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the only company remaining from the original list of 12 stocks, which was first published on May 26, 1896.

After the years of service of Welch in GE, Jeffrey R. Immelt replaced Welch as the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the company in the year 2001. Unexpectedly, terrorist attacks occurred days after Immelt became the CEO and Chairmain of the company in September 11, 2001, and thus affected GE through the different changes in the business environment. Immelt, in order to win the investors’ confidence to their company, made different strategic decisions within the company. Three years later, through Immelt and the whole company’s effort, GE was then listed  on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index; and a year later, the company reached revenues of more than US$149 billion.

On May 9 of the year 2005, GE launched its US$ 150 billion environmental initiative which aims to meet costumers’demand for a cleaner and a more energy- efficient products, and to drive reliable growth for the company. The company launched Ecomagination in an effort to accelerate the growth, and to encourage competitiveness in the company. The name “Ecomagination”, came from GE’s Slogan which is “Imagination at Work”, which aims to address the need for a cleaner and more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions, and new sources of clean water. In the same year, GE Financial Services which is one of the business groups of GE, entered into a partnership with the AES Corporation, in an effort to develop a venture called Greenhouse Gas Services in the United States. The partnership aims to offset the equivalent of an annual production volume of 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide gas by the year 2010, through the reduction of harmful emissions from landfill gas,  coal mines, and agricultural waste.  In the GE 2005 Ecomagination Report, in the years 2004 and 2005, the company was able to undertake almost 500 global energy conservation projects which had caused almost a reduction of 250,000 tons of Greenhouse Gases emissions, which is equivalent to removing 50,000 cars in the road.

During the 6th month of the year 2006, GE then launched Ecomagination the China, and five months later it was also launched in Australia. The launch of Ecomagination then led to significant increase in  by 50%  or a total of US$ 656 billion revenues, compared to the revenues of the previous year.

Earlier of 2007, GE Aviation which is also one of the business groups of GE, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Air India. The memorandum aimed to make Air India’s operations more reliable and sustainable by providing fuel- efficient engines to  the airplanes of Air India. Through the use of these engines, Air India is expected to save up to US$ 150 for  the next 15years of operations, and also while providing its customers a more environment friendly airline services. On the same year, GE worked with Wal-mart in reducing energy consumption in more than 500  of its retail stores by providing Wal-Mart refrigerators with GE’s light emitting diodes or LEDs.  British Petroleum, otherwise known as BP, also tied- upwith GE with the aim to develop about 15 hydrogen power projects in order to cut Greenhouse Gases emissions from the generation of electricity. On the later years, GE also came into partnership with not just for-profit  organizations,  but also with several not-for-profit organizations, with the same goal of providing more efficient and sustainable ways of  the reduction  of harmful wastes and Greenhouse Gases.

During the same year, GE Transportation which is another business group under GE, came into a partnership with Union Pacific, with the purpose of launching hybrid locomotives capable of recycling thermal energy as stored power in on-board batteries. The partnership led to a reduction of 10% of the fuel consumption and emissions of locomotives. GE Energy Financial Services, another business group under GE, invested in the battery company,  A123 Systems Inc., to develop the next generation of battery technology for hybrid and plug- in hybrid electrics.  Later, also in the year 2007, National Broadcasting Company, otherwise known as NBC, which is partly- owned by GE, came up with an environmental initiative known as “Green is Universal”, in an effort to raise environmental awareness and educate consumers about environmental sustainability,through airing a program which focuses on environmental friendly content. The project aimed to reduce its Greenhouse Gases emissions by at least 1% by the year 2012. After two years, NBC launched another environmental project which is “Make Green Count”, which aimed to encourage consumers to help in the conservation of the environment and its resources through doing something little in their daily lives which will have a big impact to the conservation of the environment.

Through years of effort and hard-work to become a prosperous and an environmental- friendly company, GE was ranked by Forbes as the world’s largest company with over 300,000 employees in its various units in the year 2009. On the same year, GE was able to have six core business units, and has been known as the world’s biggest manufacturer of power plants, jet engines, locomotives, and medical equipments. Among GE’s business groups are: GE Energy, which provides digital energy, electrical distribution, oil and gas, sensing and inspection, and water and process technologies; GE Technology Infrastructure focusing on aviation, healthcare, and transportation; GE Capital which provides commercial lending and leasing, consumer financing, energy financial services, GE Capital Aviation Services, real estate financing, and Worldwide GE Capital Locations; NBC Universal which is partly owned by GE focuses on providing services concerning media and entertainment to its market; and GE Home and Business Solutions which is considered as one of the leading manufacturers of appliances, electronics, intelligent platforms, and lighting systems. GE Global Research consisted of more than 3,000 employees working in four state-of-the-art facilities located at: Niskayuna, New York; Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany. Despite the struggle in the business environment in the year 2009, GE was able to reach earnings of US$11.2 billion.