GE's defining moves.
The defining strategic moves at GE — each one explained and grounded in the record.
The Cross-Subsidy · Cross-Subsidy
GE Didn't Break Up Because It Got Bold. It Broke Up Because the Trick Stopped Working.
GE split into three companies in 2024 — and the official story calls it strategic clarity. The truth is older and harder: for decades GE Capital, a finance arm at 37% of revenue, smoothed the earnings the factories couldn't. The breakup is a confession, not a strategy.
8 min
The Fall · Decision Forks
GE Didn't Break Up Because It Got Too Big. It Broke Up Because a Regulator Drew a Line.
The legend says Larry Culp dismantled the conglomerate. The forcing function arrived five years before he did: in July 2013 a regulator labeled GE Capital systemically important, and the finance arm that had powered the empire became the thing that had to go.
7 min
The Succession Question · Decision Forks
Welch Didn't Hand Immelt a Crown. He Handed Him a Bill.
GE's succession is taught as best-in-class. It was a six-year public horse race that drove off two of three finalists - and the baton itself was poisoned: reserves underfunded by $9.4B and a GE Capital habit already worth 40% of earnings.
8 min
The Cross-Subsidy · Business Model
GE Capital Wasn't a Crutch. It Was a Shadow Bank Hiding Inside a Jet-Engine Company.
In December 2008, the company that made jet engines and MRI machines borrowed money backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Not because the engines failed — because a bank nobody could see on the balance sheet had run out of cash.
8 min
The Succession Question · Decision Forks
Jeff Immelt Didn't Inherit GE. He Inherited a Bomb Jack Welch Built.
The Welch-to-Immelt handoff is taught as a people failure - the wrong heir picked from a famous horse race. But Welch handed over a company where finance had grown to over half a trillion dollars in debt. The trap was structural before it was personal.
8 min