GE's change of plan: Flannery gets up after a year as CEO

Turning a big ship takes time, but GE has lost confidence in his captain.

The board on Monday dismissed John Flannery's CEO and replaced him with Lawrence Culp, the former CEO of Danaher Corporation, a technology-manufacturing conglomerate. The termination put an end to Flannery's efforts to modernize GE after only one year in office.

Shares of the company jumped 15% after the announcement Monday morning, before falling back from the rise.

GE's empire encompasses electric power, transportation, aviation and healthcare. The century-old company has been striving to reposition itself as a "digital-industrial" center.

This effort is complicated by ongoing market changes. The growth of wind and solar power plants has reduced global demand for thermal power plants; As one of the world's largest manufacturers and repairers of turbines for power generation, GE has been hit hard by this trend.

The growth of the company's recently re-invented energy storage, renewable energy production and digital network business has not been a substitute for conventional energy revenues.

With most GE divisions in line with expectations, GE Power's setbacks will weigh on the company's free cash flow and earnings per share this year, GE said in a statement.

The company also announced that Energy could take a "goodwill impairment charge" of $ 23 billion, a mechanism by which companies settle differences between the actual value of assets and the premium paid to acquire them.

Flannery's main task when he took the reins in August 2017 was to streamline the corporate empire and put it in place to maintain financial health.

Prior to becoming CEO of long-time CEO Jeff Immelt, Flannery led GE Healthcare and served in GE Equity, GE Capital and the company's operations in India. While leading the business development at GE Corporate, he led the acquisition of Alstom 's energy business, which doubled GE' s installed base and strengthened its portfolio. 39, renewable energies.

He has been familiar with many of GE's flagship operating units, but that would not be enough. Flannery cut the dividend of the blue-chip stock by half last year.

As September drew closer, board members were frustrated by what they saw as a "slow pace of change," CNBC reported.

Flannery's short term contrasted with Immelt's 16 years ahead of him. Culp, the new CEO, led Danaher for 14 years until 2014.

In his statement, GE commended him for the fivefold increase in market capitalization and revenues of Danaher.

"During his tenure, he led the extremely successful transformation of the company, which went from an industrial manufacturer to a leading science and technology company," the statement said.

GE has accompanied the drama plot in the meeting rooms of two other news: GE Power will supply a new gas plant in Bangladesh and GE's HA turbine technology will appear in two Power "Top Gas Projects for 2018." from the magazine

This publishing honor in the industry can provide a bit of comfort as GE Power employees envision a tumultuous future.