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At the dawn of America's electrical age, General Electric was founded by a group of visionaries: the inventor Thomas Edison, the former shoe salesman Charles Coffin, and the banker J.P. Morgan.
These founders formed a company that led the nation into the Second Industrial Revolution and the electrical age.
Charles Albert Coffin, led General Electric through the transformative years of 1913-1922.
He brought in a masterful blend of operational acumen and strategic vision.
Being the founding president of Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Coffin brought this wealth of experience to help GE's rapid wartime expansion and peacetime diversification, quadrupling the workforce while overseeing the development of new technologies like aircraft engines and home appliances.
Taking over General Electric in 1922, Owen D. Young used his financial prudence and technological vision to transform both the company during the tumultuous interwar period.
He led the company for over a quarter-century overseeing the creation of RCA and consumer appliances.
Young was committed to research and innovation even during the Great Depression's darkest days.
He helped the US win World War II when he organized GE to mobilize American industry for victory.
Philip Dunham Reed, was named President after World War II, successfully guiding GEs transition from wartime production back to civilian products and services.
His remarkable 17-year tenure was known for mass-producing everyday necessities like lightbulbs and maintaining relationships with government officials and factory workers alike.
Ralph Cordiner ascended to General Electric's presidency in 1958 and immediately launched "Project Deck," a sweeping reorganization that decentralized the company into autonomous departments.
Revenues soared by more than half during his tenure.
Cordiner also emphasized professional management and executive development which helped GE become the global conglomerate that we know today.
Under Gerald Phillippe's command in the 1960s, General Electric underwent a shift in how they did things, focusing more on emerging technologies and global markets.
Known for his pragmatic yet forward-thinking leadership style—characterized by granting autonomy to business divisions and championing expansion into everything from computers to aerospace—Phillipe brought GE nearly a decade of steady growth.
Reginald Jones emerged as GE's chairman during the turbulent 1970s—chosen for his engineer's precision and a visionary's foresight.
Jones orchestrated GE's bold pivot toward emerging technologies and focused on promoting key players from within—most notably in his elevation of Jack Welch.
Jack Welch, the legendary CEO who earned the nickname "Neutron Jack" for his ruthless efficiency, ascended to the top of General Electric in 1981.
Welch is known for orchestrating one of the most dramatic corporate transformations in American business history.
Over his two-decade reign, he reshaped the sprawling conglomerate into a lean, aggressive profit powerhouse through strategic acquisitions, relentless downsizing, and an almost messianic devotion to market dominance.
Welch became the most celebrated business leader of his era.
Following in the footsteps of Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt became CEO of GE at a pivotal moment in 2001, having to lead the company of post-9/11 uncertainty and the Great Recession.
Immelt made a big push into environmental technology and global expansion.
But Immelt's legacy would ultimately be marked by unrealized ambitions and lagging market performance, culminating in his 2017 decision to fragment the company.
John Flannery took over GE in 2017.
He came into power with grand ambitions to reshape the industrial giant, only to find himself caught in the undertow of deeper corporate currents that were almost impossible for one man to change.
Despite bold reforms including dividend cuts and structural reorganization he found himself kicked out by the board just a year later.
Larry Culp emerged as General Electric's white knight in late 2018, ascending to the top after John Flannery's brief and turbulent tenure.
Culp has had to deal with a conglomerate reeling from years of mismanagement and strategic missteps.
Drawing upon his celebrated tenure at Danaher and his reputation as a master operator, Culp is focused on an ambitious campaign to rehabilitate GE's fortunes via strategic divestitures and a laser focus on its core industrial strengths.
Culp has been working on bringing GE back toward its former glory, hopefully looking to nurture the innovative spirit that Thomas Edison first sparked over a century ago.
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