Thread regarding Baker Hughes layoffs

One problem rooted from GE leadership culture

The GE leadership culture did not respect the uniqueness of mid-level engineer managers, who have expertise in one or a few special areas. After loss of so many domain experts, BKR's (sudden) fall in the future won't be surpprised.

Here’s Charlie Munger's comment on GE's leadership development culture.

“What caused the failure of performance at General Electric? . . . Part of it I would say, is the system at General Electric where you rotate executives through so different assignments as if they were so many army officers, building up a resume to see if they can become Generals. I don’t think that works as well as keeping people in one business for a long time and having them identify with the business, the way Berkshire does.” 3

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| 1902 views | | 6 replies (last May 16, 2021) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1ao0WWam

6 replies (most recent on top)

It’s not Jack’s GE anymore and it shows. I’d rather work for Jack than the next thousand years of Immelt. Jeff should stick to writing novels. There’s no room for his fiction in business. BKR is fused with Immelt personalities. Big bets, no survival skills, and nonexistent deliverables.

BKR still feels like its ran by GE.

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Post ID: @ugsp+1ao0WWam

I believe the original post was correct. I’ve seen first hand for years that the GE culture has evolved from a culture of delivering NPI and manufacturing delivery to a culture of feelings and it’s not what you deliver it’s what you can prove or deflect blame.

The business needs to understand the inputs and outputs in order to work properly.

I will compare the responses to a dying would be ghost town. If a resident of a town suggests it’s growing due to the traffic volume and nothing else. Question infrastructure or unemployment. Only two reasons during COVID why so many are driving around. Nothing to do so let’s drive around to get out of the house.

The same is true for GE and BKR.
I wish another Jack Welsh would be hired.

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Post ID: @fcis+1ao0WWam

all you need is good presentation skills to advance and survive!!!

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Post ID: @4gwh+1ao0WWam

The OMLPs worth a c––p leave on their own. The lifer’s leach until the company d––s!

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Post ID: @4fpv+1ao0WWam

@myi+1ao0WWam Well it would help if the current Executive didn’t cause a Brain Drain by making the Brains redundant, & employing people without them for less money, so that they can look good.
It would help even more if the Executive were Team Players themselves, instead of self serving individuals that seem to get bonuses, even though the losses are eye watering by any standard.
We don’t need Intellectuals in Engineering, we need practical thinking Team Players, with Leadership qualities, which can spot a problem & fix it before it becomes a major haemorrhage.
Meanwhile redundancies continue, but in a crafty fashion, so the press won’t see.
The Company is a sad place to work these days, but it still pays our bills....for now.

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Post ID: @1gbw+1ao0WWam

Slightly disagree but the point is well understood. Executives can rotate around and manage things outside of their expertise IF

1: strong team of experts reporting to executive
2: executive has the intellectual curiosity to learn about the subject matter
3: executive trusts and empowers his team to do things he may not fully understand
4: everyone is on the same team and wants to work together to prop up the executive until they learn and understand what they’re managing.

I’d argue the bigger problem isn’t the executives managing outside of their expertise it’s the brain drain list beneath where that’s not possible.

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Post ID: @myi+1ao0WWam

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