The highly regarded GE management philosophy is on the move and this is worth noting for employers and employees alike…

Wall Street Journal:

The New GE Way: Go Deep, Not Wide

…GE is opening a new chapter in management philosophy…the conglomerate that once groomed jack-of-all-trades generalists is now betting on deep industry experts instead

…In break with old paradigm, GE’s top managers relocate less and concentrate expertise in their field…rather than purposely relocate it’s senior leaders every few years to expose them to more of the company, GE now is leaving them in their business units longer than it used to, in hopes of their deeper understanding of products and customers will help them win sales

…competition is fiercer

…the world is so complex…we need people who are pretty deep…

…we were moving people every two years so it was musical chairs and the joke was you could parachute into a business that was on an upswing and get all the credit…the new philosophy strives to promote accountability so executives can see a business cycle through

…strategy is to recruit talent with deep customer relationships and expertise in the field.  Employees need depth to be able to listen effectively and translate the needs to new technology…

…customers won’t tell us exactly what they want…if you are very generic, if you don’t have that domain understanding, you will develop products that will be average and not very successful…

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