Abstract
GE is not dead, and it may well revive and flourish as a company. After all, IBM came back from the dead in the 1990s. But the GE model is dead – and there’s a long list of possible suspects. The Great Recession was only the final blow to a model that had been crippled by larger and more sustained forces. The GE model died because of global competition, the technology revolution, investor power, and the spread of professional management. Since GE was such a model, there are still mini-GE conglomerates everywhere. Some big ones, like Tyco, were dissolved early. But others remain, including in emerging markets. These conglomerates would do well to learn from GE in death, as they did in life.