The GE Brief: December 30, 2020
LOOKING BACK, AND LOOKING AHEAD
“2020 will certainly be a year I will never forget, for its challenges, of course, but even more so for how the world rose to meet them,” GE Chairman and CEO Larry Culp wrote in his year-end letter to employees.
“I wish we had never heard of COVID and I know we still have several months in front of us that will be hard,” he said. “But I am proud of the way GE has persevered. I do think, despite the challenges, 2020 is a year that we can be proud of. Please take good care of yourselves, enjoy some time with your family and take nothing for granted. Then come back in January ready for 2021. I think we've got a big year ahead of us.”
GE Brief joins Culp in sending our wishes for a safe and happy holiday season — and a brighter 2021. We’ve also rounded up some of our best stories, below, on how GE ingenuity helped the world weather a rough 2020 while putting it on a solid footing for the future. See you in 2021!
The coronavirus pandemic was first and foremost a healthcare crisis, but it touched every corner of the world and every sector of the economy — and drew millions of people together in the effort to turn the tide. Across GE, factories ramped up to manufacture the machinery needed in clinical settings to treat patients suffering from COVID-19; technicians found themselves driving halfway across the U.S. to lend their expertise; in Italy, sales managers pitched in as volunteer ambulance drivers; and aviation plants in England were rapidly stood up to produce heart monitors instead. Here are just a few of the ways in which GE workers worldwide joined the fight.
When Culp joined GE in the fall of 2018, he announced a plan for turning the company around: lean management, the system of continuous improvement pioneered in Japan in the latter half of the 20th century. Since then, lean — which emphasizes waste reduction, strategic thinking and long-term vision — has turned around the performance of GE factories from Mississippi to New York and beyond. It’s given leaders within the company tools and a language for plotting a successful course for their operations, which involves first identifying root causes of problems and then carefully mapping solutions. And as the coronavirus spread around the globe, threatening supply chains and the world’s economy, lean had a crucial role to play. “In the spirit of continuous improvement, what I’ve learned over time and what I’ve seen at GE, progress allows you to see the next field of opportunity,” Culp said. “When we get on the other side of COVID, when we’re in a more normal operating environment, there’s no doubt in my mind that GE will be a stronger, better performer for our customers and for our investors.”
Faced with a pandemic of extraordinary scope and gravity, leaders across GE applied the lessons of lean to respond in extraordinary ways. Here are some of them.
In 2020, protests across the world inspired crucial conversations in places they needed to happen, and led many institutions, large and small, to redouble their commitments to diversity and inclusion. They were ongoing at GE, which hired Mike Barber as the new chief diversity officer, and where the company’s African American Forum, a support network for Black employees, approached its 30th year. GE Reports profiled some of the leaders whose careers demonstrate their commitment to equality — and their determination to make things better for the next generation.
A passenger jet that’s propelled by electricity? Artificial intelligence that can learn to reason as children do? A robotic “worm” that can dig a tunnel longer than five football fields? Those were just some of the concepts — with important real-world applications — that the scientists and engineers at GE Research set their minds to in 2020. Find out more here.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“This battle-tested team at GE was on it from the very beginning. Dealing with our new reality, never losing hope, never losing faith and always focusing on serving our customers. It was — and continues to be — remarkable.”
— Larry Culp, GE chairman and CEO
Quote: GE Reports. Images: GE Reports.