Learning from GE’s Stumbles
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HBR IdeaCast
ROGER MARTIN: Yeah, well I mean, I think a bunch of these things are kind of known facts that in retrospect I would argue that GE got far over-diversified and so, I do think that Jeff Immelt inherited a broad, messy portfolio that was turbocharged with an unsustainable GE Capital, and so he had a real challenge and I haven’t worked for GE. SARAH GREEN CARMICHAEL: So, I’m curious to hear more about that problem with the M&A masquerading as strategy as you put it in your HBR article, because we are seeing a ton of mergers all over the business newspapers these days and I’m curious to know why do you think that’s happening and is GE the only company that is making this mistake of thinking that a merger is that kind of a strategy?