Does GE’s innovation strategy need an overhaul?

When GE first announced its Ecomagination marketing campaign to promote all the ways that the company is leveraging innovation throughout each of its core businesses, it looked like a slam dunk. I’ve posted more than a few times about the amazing innovation coming out of GE’s various business units, so I admit that I bought into the whole “innovation” strategy. By combining “innovation” with an environmentally-conscious approach to business, GE hoped to unlock billions of dollars in shareholder value.

Not so fast, though. The company’s stock price hasn’t budged in three years, and that’s making investors VERY impatient. As this week’s cover story in Barron’s points out, GE is stuck in the mud: it’s now or never for the industrial conglomerate, which should be poised for tremendous growth worldwide. What do you think? Does GE need to be patient with its Ecomagination approach — or should it continue to sell off low-margin pieces of the company to the highest bidder until Wall Street finally wakes up to the true value of the underlying business?

[image: Barron’s]