GE was founded on April 15, 1892.  On April 2, 2024 there will be  no more GE.  This podcast explains that what took 108 years to build, culminating in Jack Welch’s huge growth spurt from 1980 to 2000, was systematically destroyed by CEO Jeff Immelt and his successors.  How?  By focusing on earnings rather than growing revenues.

This week Boeing was put under criminal investigation.  Its reputation is a disaster as we wonder if its planes are safe.  Founded in July, 1916 Willliam Boeing created the commercial aviation industry.  And Boeing led it for decades.  This podcast explains how leaders that focused on cutting costs, defending and extending old platforms rather than using new technologies to develop new products, led to Boeing selling planes that lose doors in flight – or worse – crash.

These stories remind us that business exists to make solutions that meet customer needs.  Earnings are the RESULT of meeting needs, not and end unto themselves.  Forget that and your business – large or small – can find itself in the situation of GE or Boeing.

Thinking points:

• Do you put revenues first or earnings/cash first in your strategic planning?
• Are you investing in new technologies to make new solutions to better meet customer needs, or are you investing in defending and extending what you already have?
• Do you realize no company ever saved its way to prosperity?
• Do you recognize that business success comes from making new products that people need, want and buy – not by trying to make more money with what you already have?

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