For seven decades the General Electric Company maintained its manufacturing and administrative headquarters in Schenectady, New York. Electric City: General Electric in Schenectady explores the history of General Electric in Schenectady from the company’s creation in 1892 to the present. As one of America’s largest and most successful corporations, GE built a culture centered around the social good of technology and the virtues of the people who produced it. At its core, GE culture posited that engineers, scientists, and craftsmen engaged in a team effort to produce technologically advanced material goods that served society and led to corporate profits. Scientists were discoverers, engineers were designers and problem solvers, and craftsmen were artists. Historian Julia Kirk Blackwelder has drawn on company records as well as other archival and secondary sources and personal interviews to produce an engaging and multi-layered history of General Electric’s workplace culture and its planned (and actual) effects on community life. Her research demonstrates how business and community histories intersect, and this nuanced look at race, gender, and class sets a standard for corporate history.

Academic Paper from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: 97, , course: MAN 4504, language: English, abstract: This paper deals wirh General Electrics' operation strategy, production and operating procedures, technology and automation, and CQM. General Electric has been a household name since 1892 when they bought Thompson Electric, Houston Electric, and Edison General Electric Company. Thomas Edison founded his company in 1878 to sell his incandescent light bulb. When GE acquired all the assets from Edison General Electric Company they also enlisted its founder who contributed to GE by allowing them to use his patents and he remained a consultant to the company for many years. (The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2020) GE makes a very wide range of products and services. Their consumer products are where a wide range of their products and services occur; however, GE makes most of its sales to the U.S. Department of Defense. GE has a remarkably diverse product line the market segments they work in are Power, Aviation, Capital, Healthcare, and Renewable Energy. Some of those product categories they make products or services for are: sensor-based measurement and asset condition monitoring, power generation products, renewable energy, and energy services, water & process technologies (Equipment, Chemicals and Services), healthcare technologies and services, mining solutions and services, life science research, pharma manufacturing, and diagnostic imaging, Transportation technology, supplies, and services, lighting solutions and services, aviation engines, components, systems, and services, electricity transmission, distribution, conversion, and consulting, software connected machines and devices, life science research, home appliances, pharma manufacturing, and diagnostic imaging, and transportation technology, supplies, and services.

How could General Electric--perhaps America's most iconic corporation--suffer such a swift and sudden fall from grace? This is the definitive history of General Electric's epic decline, as told by the two Wall Street Journal reporters who covered its fall. Since its founding in 1892, GE has been more than just a corporation. For generations, it was job security, a solidly safe investment, and an elite business education for top managers. GE electrified America, powering everything from lightbulbs to turbines, and became fully integrated into the American societal mindset as few companies ever had. And after two decades of leadership under legendary CEO Jack Welch, GE entered the twenty-first century as America's most valuable corporation. Yet, fewer than two decades later, the GE of old was gone. ​Lights Out examines how Welch's handpicked successor, Jeff Immelt, tried to fix flaws in Welch's profit machine, while stumbling headlong into mistakes of his own. In the end, GE's traditional win-at-all-costs driven culture seemed to lose its direction, which ultimately caused the company's decline on both a personal and organizational scale. Lights Out details how one of America's all-time great companies has been reduced to a cautionary tale for our times.

"O'Boyle has researched and written a monumental book that should be mandatory reading for all CEOs and anyone concerned with business ethics." --The Philadelphia Inquirer "Superb . . . a spirited study of General Electric, and of its sometimes brilliant, sometimes bungling, but always ruthless boss, Jack Welch." --Chicago Sun-Times With convincing passion and meticulous research, Thomas F. O'Boyle explores the forces behind General Electric's rise to the top of Wall Street, questioning if GE, with chief executive officer Jack Welch at the helm, is still "bringing good things to life." Welch--explosive, profit-hungry, and pragmatic--catapulted GE's stocks to the top, up 1,155 percent from 1982 to 1997. O'Boyle argues that these astounding results have come only with the heavy price of employees' lives, blighted under the tyranny of "Neutron Jack" Welch, so named for his bomb-like ability to eliminate staff without disturbing surrounding operations. During Welch's reign, hard-nosed success tactics--unblinking downsizing, ruthless acquisition negotiations, and the virtual abandonment of manufacturing in favor of the more glamorous entertainment and financial services industries--coexist with scandals like price-fixing, pollution, and defense contract fraud. Sure to spark controversy, this gripping, comprehensive account begs the greater question: Is Jack Welch's GE a model company for business in the next century, or is it time to change the way the world does business? "Smoothly written and thoroughly researched." --USA Today "This book makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of corporate America. . . . Thomas F. O'Boyle persuades you that GE--Jack Welch's GE--brings bad things to life. In abundance." --Washington Monthly

The success of every great company or popular brand is often the vision of a great leader. Here in this book, we profile 100 Great Business Leaders, giving an account of their business career, demonstrating the innovations, opportunities and business principles that have been introduced in their companies. Also included is a practical section to demonstrate how a reader might apply these ideas in their own lives. The 100 chosen business leaders are from companies located all over the world and include a mixture of business founders (for example Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Kiichira Toyoda, Liu Chuanzhi of Lenova) and famous business executives (Jack Welch of GE, Lee Iacocca of Chrysler, Indra Nooyi of Pepsico, Chua Sock Koong of Singapore Telecommunications).