Critical strategic analysis forecast of the oil and gas business unit of General Electric Company: A conceptual review

The General Electric Company (GE) is considerably assessed as one of the world’s most successful corporations in the 20th Century. GE is a huge multinational conglomerate with one of the most highly innovative business units/divisions in the world. Due to the vast majority of GE’s products and services, a critical strategic analysis forecast of one of the conglomerate’s eight business units – Oil and Gas is presented for a conceptual review. The paper details how these Strategic Business Units (SBUs) explored the efficiency and market focus of their business portfolio through diversification, innovation, and acquisition. Resource allocation and value chain analysis of the SBU was conducted to determine the certainty of the company’s competitive edge. The portfolio of the SBU; oilfield services, oilfield equipment, turbomachinery, and process & digital solutions were reviewed using the Boston consulting group (BCG) matrix while the Ansoff matrix was employed to analyze and predict the company for sustainable future growth and divestment. In 2017, the synergy between these SBU and Baker Hughes to deliver a full-stream integrated oilfield portfolio revealed a strong and enhanced competitive advantage of the SBU across the global oil and gas industry, however, the analysis of the company shows that the SBU still experiences underperformance in the stock market.

General Electric's Proposed Acquisition of Honeywell

On March 1, 2001, Jessica Gallinelli, managing director of Bancroft Capital Management, heard surprising and somewhat disturbing news about the proposed bid by General Electric Company (GE) for Honeywell International Inc. Despite recent public assurances about the deal from GE's chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), John F. “Jack” Welch Jr., the antitrust regulatory authority of the European Commission (EC) announced it had initiated a review of the proposed merger. Gallinelli, whose fund owned a large stake in Honeywell, considered this major development and wondered whether Bancroft should alter its investment. Immediately, Gallinelli instructed her associate to provide background material on the merger, an assessment of the probability the merger would be approved by antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe, and valuation analyses to assist Gallinelli in assessing Bancroft's investment in Honeywell. She would need to decide quickly whether to hold or sell her fund's 10 million shares in Honeywell and short position of 10 million shares in GE. As a risk arbitrageur, she thought prices would respond rapidly to the EC's announcement. She remembered Jack Welch's confidence of five months earlier that this was the “cleanest deal you'll ever see,” and she wondered whether that was still the case.

The contributions of Albert W. Hull to X-ray powder diffraction at one hundred years of his landmark publication

One hundred years ago X-ray powder diffraction, one of the premier techniques used in the characterization of materials, was invented. Its origins can be traced to two landmark contributions presented to the scientific community in 1916. They are the better known and celebrated work carried out by Paul Scherrer under the guidance of Peter W. Debye, at the University of Göttingen, Germany, and the lesser known work of Albert W. Hull performed at the Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company, Schenectady, NY, USA. The great contributions of Scherrer and Debye have been prominently recognized. They are presented in many textbooks and in technical and scientific articles published in the area of characterization of materials using powder diffraction techniques. The camera designed by them, later called “the Debye–Scherrer camera”, was used extensively for many years and the experimental setup (“the Debye–Scherrer geometry”) is still used today. On the other hand, the work performed by Hull has not been adequately appreciated and remembered. In this communication, an account of his contributions to X-ray powder diffraction and to crystallography is presented at 100 years of his landmark publication, which appeared in the first issue of Physical Review of 1917.

A note on the aphorism “there is nothing as practical as a good theory”

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider one inaccuracy in the written record of our discipline. That is, how the aphorism “There is nothing as practical as a good theory” came to be regarded as Kurt Lewin’s signature saying. Design/methodology/approach Primary and secondary sources were used in the research. Findings By tracing the history of the above-captioned aphorism back through its use by the General Electric Company in the 1920s to Friedrich W. Dörpfeld’s 1873 book Grundlinien einer Theorie des Lehrplans, zunächst der Volks- und Mittelschule, it can confidently be concluded that it did not originate with Lewin. Practical Implications Those who study history soon become aware that inaccuracies in the written record are commonplace. Indeed, assuring historical accuracy has been a challenge confronted by historians for centuries. Originality/value The widespread acceptance of Lewin as the originator of the referenced aphorism underscores the observation that received knowledge is often wrong. It also provides one more illustration that, whatever their origin, once errors of attribution appear in print, they become diffused and amplified, taking on a life of their own as they are transmitted from generation to generation.

Improved Generating Reliability of Mature Technology Gas Turbines for Supplying Critical Industrial and Commercial Loads for General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL)

Contractors can add value for their clients when they effectively manage operating risks within their areas of core competence. General Electric Company of Libya (GECOL) had operated its mature gas turbine generating plants at maximum output with severely constrained maintenance budgets for years. GECOL prolonged operation of many of its facilities supplying critical industrial and commercial loads until material failures shut them down. In addition, facilities under construction suffered from a lack of technical due diligence and quality assurance scrutiny. This paper covers the loss-of-load risk management techniques recommended following a Willbros assessment of GECOL’s major combustion turbine generating facilities. The assessment was completed immediately prior to the recent regime change and resulted in recommended strategies for managing new construction and outage work under existing maintenance budget constraints. Plants assessed included Zawia, Khoms, Tripoli South, Western Mountain, Benghazi North and Zewitena.