美国国家公共电台 NPR GE Struggles To Show It Still Has Magic Touch

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

General Electric is one of the most storied corporations in American history co-founded by Thomas Edison and redefined by legendary¹ CEO Jack² Welch. For more than a century, GE's products, from dishwashers to MRI machines, changed the way Americans live. But now the company is struggling. Its stock price is down more than 40 percent this year. As North Country Public Radio's Brian Mann reports, the company's current leadership says GE has to reinvent itself fast.

BRIAN MANN, BYLINE³: A couple of weeks ago when GE's new CEO John Flannery spoke⁴ to investors⁵, he acknowledged things are bad.

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JOHN FLANNERY: I have to admit I'd say the first 100 days didn't go maybe exactly the way I was expecting.

MANN: Flannery concluded that tweaks weren't enough. The company he said has to rethink its identity.

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FLANNERY: I was forced to confront a lot of other sort of deeper questions about the company. Why do we exist? How do we impact the world for the next hundred years the same way we have for the last hundred years?

MANN: To get a sense for just how shocking the decline at GE is, I drove to Schenectady in upstate New York, headquarters of the company's power and energy division. Five thousand employees live and work here. And it's a place where magic used to happen.

BILL BUELL: Right down here on the left is where Ernst Alexanderson lived. He did the first television broadcast anywhere in the U.S. from his home right here.

MANN: Bill Buell is a local newspaperman who has written for years about GE and the company's history. It started in the 1990s when Thomas Edison built laboratories and factories here. For more than a century, GE seemed unstoppable.

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UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Yes, sir. If you want real entertainment, the best place to find it is in front of a General Electric black-daylight, big-as-life television set.

MANN: GE built everything from TVs and dishwashers to jet engines and power grids⁶ - stuff that reshaped American life.

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UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing) We bring good things to life.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: At GE...

MANN: Bill George is former CEO of Medtronic and teaches at Harvard Business School. Speaking via Skype, he said GE helped invent America's corporate⁷ culture.

BILL GEORGE: Throughout my lifetime, GE has been a leader in coming out with new ideas, new organization structures and has always been five to 10 years ahead of everyone else. So all the rest of the corporations look to them who are setting the standards.

MANN: But the last decade, that gloried history unraveled. Bold new products stopped appearing. The company was hit hard by the financial crisis and whole divisions including the broadcast network NBC were sold off. In the past year, as the stock market soared, GE's stock plummeted⁸. And last month, Flannery was forced to slash⁹ the company's dividends¹⁰ by 50 percent.

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FLANNERY: We understand this is an extremely painful action for our shareholders¹¹, our owners.

MANN: Flannery's plan for reinventing GE mostly involves simplifying. He says the company will sell off $20 billion in assets including the lighting¹² division, which means Thomas Edison's company will no longer make lightbulbs. GE will now focus on three major product lines - energy, aviation and medical technology. But so far a lot of analysts¹³ like Bill George at Harvard say they're not impressed.

GEORGE: GE could become a typical industrial company and perform reasonably well. But that's not the GE we knew.

MANN: It's not that people doubt GE can still make and sell good products. This is one of the biggest corporations in the world with nearly 300,000 employees. But George says investors once looked to GE for something bigger, more exciting. During his call with analysts, John Flannery basically asked them to withhold¹⁴ judgment¹⁵, to give GE one more shot.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

FLANNERY: So it's a heavy lift. But I think for our teams, this is the opportunity, really, of a lifetime to reinvent an iconic company.

MANN: Bill Buell, the newspaperman in Schenectady, agrees there's a lot at stake, not least for places like his hometown. In the 1980s, GE employed more than 25,000 people here. But the city has already been hit by wave after wave of layoffs¹⁶. And he says people are afraid it's happening again.

BUELL: And I know right now they're worried about people losing their jobs. That's a pretty sad story. Hopefully, it won't get any worse than it is.

MANN: GE's Flannery says part of its reorganization involves cutting $2 billion in annual operating costs with much of that savings¹⁷ stripped out of the company's power and energy division headquartered right here. Brian Mann, NPR News.

1 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

2 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

6 grids   

n.格子( grid的名词复数 )；地图上的坐标方格；（输电线路、天然气管道等的）系统网络；（汽车比赛）赛车起跑线

参考例句：

• Typical framed structures are beams, grids, plane and space frames or trusses. 典型构架结构为梁、格栅、平面的和空间的框架或桁架。 来自辞典例句
• The machines deliver trimmed grids for use or stock. 这种机器铸出修整过的板栅，以供使用或储存。 来自辞典例句

7 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

8 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

10 dividends   

红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金

参考例句：

• Nothing pays richer dividends than magnanimity. 没有什么比宽宏大量更能得到厚报。
• Their decision five years ago to computerise the company is now paying dividends. 五年前他们作出的使公司电脑化的决定现在正产生出效益。

11 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

12 lighting   

n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光

参考例句：

• The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
• The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。

13 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

14 withhold   

v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡

参考例句：

• It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
• I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。

15 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

16 layoffs   

临时解雇( layoff的名词复数 )； 停工，停止活动

参考例句：

• Textile companies announced 2000 fresh layoffs last week. 各纺织公司上周宣布再次裁员两千人。
• Stock prices broke when the firm suddenly announced layoffs. 当公司突然宣布裁员时，股票价格便大跌

17 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。