GE Reports

Replacing the incandescent light bulb is no joke. Commercialized by Thomas Edison more than a century ago, the light bulb ranks with the printing press, electricity, and penicillin as one of the great inventions that changed the world. But its huge success also became a weakness. Lighting now represents as [...]

The Global Innovation Barometer, which GE brought to Davos this week, confirmed that crowdsourcing and collaboration have become potent tools for stimulating new ideas. GE ought to know. Its $100 million healthymagination challenge, which seeks to advance early breast cancer diagnostic technology, netted over 500 ideas submitted by thousands of [...]

Despite the fresh coat of snow, the mood at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos has been gloomy. Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, forecasts of anemic global economic growth and geopolitical instability loom large as world leaders gather to discuss “the great transformation” afoot in the [...]

Grand Ridge, Illinois, population 550, is a small village in the Corn Belt flatlands stretching south and west of Chicago. The weather in Grand Ridge swings just outside of the American average. Winters are windy and mostly overcast, while the summer months tend to be calmer and sunnier.

Sunny side [...]

Don Quixote in his madness tilted at windmills but wind turbines also exhibit their own kind of capricious behavior. In a wind gust they spin away, churning kilowatts of electricity. But in a breeze they turn slowly, eking out a fraction of that output. If you sent such variable power [...]

General Electric reported fourth quarter financial results this morning. One number that jumped out was the staggering size of the company’s backlog: $200 billion in orders and commitments, the largest in GE history.
What are some of the products in high demand? Start with GE Aviation. The world’s largest and most [...]

Fluid partnerships and collaborations, rather than insular corporate research, are becoming the lifeblood of innovation. This trend was confirmed yesterday by the results of GE’s second annual Global Innovation Barometer. However, the barometer, which surveyed nearly 3,000 U.S. and foreign executives on innovation, also found a “partnership paradox.” While the [...]