Thread regarding GE Digital layoffs

@Qi5tW9e-dodg, I sincerely suggest you to read everything here (there're not many), then comparing it to the other companies before making the call.

I was interested in applying as a software engineer in San Ramon. Sounds like that is not a good idea anymore?

My tenure at GE Digital saw employees coming in late 11am, going to lunch early, being rewarded for releases, useless DTLPs (with the exception of a few), and jumping on all the free whatever they could. There were definitely spans of hard work, and there were definitely great employees that cared about the products they built, but the top heavy management, lack of strategy and roadmap and employees that spent more time surfing the web than delivering a product, in my eyes was a contributing factor to where Digital is at. Unless the management changes, we get closer to the customer and understand and move faster to adapt to the customers requirements new and existing faster, this cycle will continue.

There still is potential, but quite a bit has to change.

You kids are ignoring all of the GE Software costs that would have been spent anyways regardless of whether there was a Digital or a Predix. GE has inflated the amount invested by including costs that were normal costs, such as the 12k software developers throughout GE who build thousands of apps for the other BU's. This looked good to the market ("GE Is investing billions in Predix") but the net is Predix only had a small amount of actual net new investment that wasn't dual-use as part of upgrading/converting legacy software. It's neither deceptive nor accurate, it's just what every marketing department does. You tell the truth but frame it in a way to get maximum marketing benefit. Now, the rats abandong ship are blaming the billions spent on Predix. Look at any Op plan the last 3 years, they don't add up to a billion let alone "billions."

@ : @Qi5tW9e-3cyu. you clueless prick..sevicenow digitals ITSM software package.

It's ServiceMax, you moron - not ServiceNow. The billions spent were not only in hiring developers and pizza parties, but also on acquisitions, investments (Pivotal?), events, and lots and lots of marketing. Mucho dolares.

Thanks BR for clarification about billions not spent on Predix. Is it tens of billions? Math is quite simple : revenue-expenses.

Sounds like creative accounting.

It is not a grudge match location vs location. All locations are getting whacked, including HQ.

GE tanked because leaders protected their orgs and sites by playing games with numbers and forecasts. This has to stop for GE to do the right thing (serve customers) and grow (create value.).

We didn't invest billions to build Predix and that's not what is tanking GE. He "billions" number is just market spin to account for all of the internal software costs from GE Software and the BU's - most of that cost would have been spent anyways regardless of whether we were building Predix or one of the other thousands of apps in the GE Store.

GE tanked due to much more fundamental business reasons. Predix was a lifeline not an anchor. Of course, now it's a scapegoat so let's layoff hundreds in San Ramon.

Servicenow was not built in a day is still in need of improvement after 7 years. Predix is no difference.

"we build great people, who then build great products and services" (J Welch). GE Digital is the story of building a GE business hiring only people from the outside, only based on their technical expertise. Very few transfers of people into Digital from other businesses , those same businesses that are supposed to sell Predix. Very smart move... No people-bridges have been built. Short-sighted strategy, privileging readily available technical expertise over horizontal capabilities. The results are under the eyes of everybody. Immelt has been an advocate of vertical/siloed/industry expertise over managerial competences (Welch). 16 years of value destruction are there to testify the fallacy of his way of thinking. Not so smart as he thinks he is at the end...

Predix and APM team is a place for people above engineer level to move higher and higher. In a span of 2 to 3 years a dev manager becomes Sr.manager to Director. Some have become even VP, what a joke. There seems to be way toooo many directors and managers who's purpose is to just increase the team size, even when there is no need, just to justify their role. And they cause confusion to engineers by not providing clear direction. Those in Predix and APM have near zero domain knowledge of different verticals and refuse to satisfy simple business need. Their attitude is not inclined to support businesses. If JF is a true leader he should review the need for management people in Predix and APM team. BR always make the things look rosy but that's not the truth and JF should see it.

I completely agree. It was a failed product from the first day I saw it. The idiots they have running Predix today (Franklin & Barztukis) will never take accountability themselves for sinking the product further. They don't have a clear business model or execution strategy. It's still an unstable platform, with hardly any reputation in the marketplace. I can't wait for all of those managers that are still there to be in the job market - and me being the one that interviews them.

This is the only thread on this site that is actually a meaningful discussion! Good insights

GE did not spend on modern sw development practices and tools except few pockets of resistance in some businesess including Power. But the DNA if the company is selling hardware. JRI recognized this correctly and set out to transform culture. Failure was in execution in believing that you can transform without wholesale replacement of top leaders with outsiders who understand software.

Instead, they decided to pour billions into Predix with build it and they will come strategy. They could have chosen to transform each business through direct investments instead of platform approach GE SR hubris underestimated adoption of platform. All successful platforms either targeted a killer app or lucked into finding one. Think PC, windows, FB, android, etc

They could have taken partnership route of patiently transforming the company, but it would not be bold enough and undifferentiated from competitors in the space. Going from Industrial to software company is not easy and people at the top lacked knowledge, skills and luck to get there. New folks at top don't look any better. But they seem to think capital allocation system and tools will fix lack of knowledge and insights.

Predix is/was a bet in the future. A bet GE could afford if traditional businesses didn't tank due to lack of business rigor and forecasting. Now all seem surprised. Managing the cash flow / surprises is job #1 of CEO. HBR articles and manager of the century titles don't mean a thing if you can't make money for investors. Create value using key insights and methods that are hard to emulate for others. Basic stuff but you need honest and knowledgeable leadership. Read history of OS/2.

Prefix is a good idea but not new or first to the market. IOT/IIOT is not new been around for years go take a look at formula 1 been doing this for years on a small scale. The assumption that GE customers will sign up to the service because they are buying the hardware is misguided. Jet engines, trains, turbines etc are made by the competition there may be parts that are patented to GE but they all follow the same basic design, they are looking to monitor and measure the performance of the same components. Why pay ge the $ when someone can do it cheaper on a more mature platform which is flexible to meet the customers needs.

If your silly rant is true, then all IIoT is doomed. Cloud is the future. Security is very important, but it's not an impossibility. AWS has top secret gov cloud, for example. Put the right controls in place with a resilient architecture and you are 10x more secure than your air gapped plant with a maintenance worker walking in a vrius.

Predix's security is quite leading and one of the components in digital that actually works really well, not to mention the Wurldtech products & services which were the only products sales teams could easily position and sell. But all the cyber sales teams and some operations staff were let go, because who cares about tens of millions when we need to cut billions.

can you elaborate which products you are referring to ?