BusinessGeneral Electric -- Not so generalAn iconic conglomerate breaks upPerhaps the most remarkable characteristic of General Electric (GE) over its 129-year history has been how thoroughly it reflected the dominant characteristics of big American business.Most of its history was a chronicle of boisterous expansion, then globalisation -- followed by painful restructuring away from the now-unloved conglomerate model.On November 9th Lawrence Culp, its chief executive, announced that ge would split its remaining operations into three public companies.Each of these entities will be large, essential and very modern.One will make jet engines, which GE reckons already power two-thirds of all commercial flights.Its power business will provide the systems and turbines generating one-third of the world’s electricity.The health-care division will continue to be the backbone of modern hospitals.Yet it speaks to GE’s remarkable role that this is a modest reach given its past sprawl.From the late-19th to the late-20th century its products lit dark streets; provided the toasters, fans, refrigerators, and televisions (along with the stations beamed to them), which transformed homes; delivered the locomotives that hauled trains; and then built a huge business financing all that and more.The ambition to be everything was enabled by the perception that it could manage anything.
