Can GE Remake Itself as a Digital Firm?
General Electric (GE) is the worlds largest diversified manufacturer. Fortune named GE: Americas Most Admired Company in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Jack Welch, GEs CEO and Chairman since 1981, often cited as the most admired CEO in the United States. Headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, the company consists of 20 units, including Appliances, Broadcasting (NBC), Capital, Medical Systems and Transportation systems. With the acquisition of Honeywell announced in October 2000, GE became a company of $155 billion in revenue and 460,000 employees in 100 countries. Despite GEs size and old economy businesses, Internet Week named GE its e-business company of 2000. Did GE transform itself into a digital firm? At a January 1999 meeting of 500 top GE executives in Boca Raton, Florida, Welch announced a new initiative to turn GE into an Internet company. Earlier initiatives transformed GE and are partially responsible for its phenomenal rise in profit over the past two decades. Those initiatives wer
