Many employees, particularly those long-tenured, do agree that the company has changed dramatically over the years, for worse.
The fundamental issue is that of a complete and total leadership failure. On many levels. There have been some robust analyses put forth in the media concerning the failings at the very top, and many are valid and painfully true.
However, several comments point to another critically important, pervasive and insidious problem. Indeed, there was a time when the culture of this company was very much different from what it is today. In the past, the company’s culture drove its achievements and propelled it towards global greatness. Today, the company’s culture is one of key reasons behind its unfolding failure.
The company’s original storied culture rewarding talent, deep expertise, experience, focus on product, and enlightened, effective leadership has been altered somewhere along the way to have become a highly-politicized bureaucracy paying lip service to the formally-espoused concept of meritocracy. The ranks of senior management have been saturated over the years with people without true life and commercial experience, who move from a role to role on an accelerated timetable, failing to develop necessary competencies, and whose sole goal is upward progression. There are many home-grown senior managers, directors and VPs who have been installed into positions of rapidly-growing responsibility straight out of college, never delivered a real product, never ran a P&L, never developed an outside perspective allowing any sort of critical and honest introspection on the company’s culture and way of doing business. And, with many a so-called-leader having clearly no aptitude for, or even an ability or willingness to understand, true leadership. In addition, people’s work and achievements are now often rewarded for reasons mostly detached from their true contributions to the company. Institutionalized nepotism and centrally-driven activism prevail. The concept of merit and commensurate opportunity has been purposefully and fashionably contemporized.
Over time, those factors have steadily eroded the original culture, brought it to the breaking point, and created numerous systemic inefficiencies that used to hide behind abundant profits. Now, in tandem with depleted revenue streams, those cracks have fractured the company wide open and exposed the rot within.
There are many good, talented, dedicated, hard-working employees – and yes, including some managers and leaders – who have given up their health, life, time with family to perform up to par and above. The true pillars of this organization, those carrying the load, silent heroes. Their hearts are crying out in disbelief and agonizing pain for what they have seen as replacement of excellence with mediocrity and substance with appearances as self-perpetuating and reinforcing values of this modern and now deeply-entrenched culture. They view them as representing and facilitating a gross misappropriation by the entitled class of their sacrifice and deepest pride in working for this historically-storied company.
Unless these issues have been addressed systemically and resolved, the grossly impaired culture will have been one of chief factors behind the company’s resultant demise.
Great post by @WkwLdD1-1ndo . An excellent analysis of GE’s downfall. Thought I should repost it.