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1/ This is such an interesting read, and GE is such a fascinating company. Definitely a caution tale for someone like Andy Jassy taking over one of the world's most valuable companies among similar accolades to Immelt's rise to CEO of GE. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/business/jeff-immelt-general-electric-corner-office.html?searchResultPosition=1
2/ Back in 2009-2010 GE got super interested in charging infrastructure, and at the time Better Place was one of the hot Silicon Valley companies working on EVs.
We ended up working together, but how we did so was to me one of the craziest processes of corporate mismanagement.
We ended up working together, but how we did so was to me one of the craziest processes of corporate mismanagement.
3/ I've thought about it a lot. So here's the story.
It's 2009, the car companies are bankrupt, and the Obama administration is pushing a transition to a clean energy future. GM comes out with the Volt and Tesla launches the Roadster. Something is happening and GE notices.
It's 2009, the car companies are bankrupt, and the Obama administration is pushing a transition to a clean energy future. GM comes out with the Volt and Tesla launches the Roadster. Something is happening and GE notices.
4/ At GE HQ, they looked at charging infrastructure and it "feels like a GE product" to them, because it's electric, it's omnipresent, there's a big market, it's infrastructure, it's also a consumer appliance - in a nutshell, something Thomas Edison might be working on today.
5/ So they decide to explore. They reach out to some startups, including Better Place, to learn more.
We had developed this pretty slick (but I'm biased) "Charge Spot" - we had street versions and home garage versions, indoor and outdoor, and they were all developed and real.
We had developed this pretty slick (but I'm biased) "Charge Spot" - we had street versions and home garage versions, indoor and outdoor, and they were all developed and real.
6/ So we start having partnership conversations and I took on a Tech Partnerships role because I could translate between the product team in Israel and business teams in the US at GE. I thought, we'd have three or four meetings, make a plan, and move on.
7/ What followed was CRAZY. For nine months there was all-out war at GE about what a charge spot is and whose P&L it falls under.
GE Appliances said that it was, obviously, a consumer appliance. It needed a 1-800 number and would be installed in a house, so it's theirs.
GE Appliances said that it was, obviously, a consumer appliance. It needed a 1-800 number and would be installed in a house, so it's theirs.
8/ GE Digital Energy said, well, clearly, it's part of the smart grid so we should own it and manage it, utilities care.
GE Industrial Solutions builds things like utility transistors and said, wait a sec, you're going to build these things in parking garages, that's what we do.
GE Industrial Solutions builds things like utility transistors and said, wait a sec, you're going to build these things in parking garages, that's what we do.
9/ We spent NINE MONTHS flying around the world having this discussion. I personally went to Atlanta, Tel Aviv, Connecticut, New York City, Beijing, Tokyo, I think there were meetings I didn't go to in Belgium and Barcelona and Louisville.
To decide, who owns charge spots?
To decide, who owns charge spots?
10/ Finally, word came from on high (I think Beth Comstock who was CMO made the call...major props to her for just making a decision) that it is part of GE Industrial Solutions. And the team then quickly created the GE WattStation. https://www.dezeen.com/2010/07/14/ge-wattstation-by-fuseproject/
11/ But the amount of resources, flight tickets, hotel nights, slides, presentations, etc. spent on deciding WHERE it would live was probably higher than on WHAT it would be or WHO would buy it. It was political infighting, analysis paralysis, and corporate excess to the extreme.
12/ I think about this experience a lot.
Making any decision is often as important as making the right decision, especially when, as Jeff Bezos says, it's not a "one way" door. I bet all those parts of GE could make a wall plug that worked. It basically didn't matter, at all.
Making any decision is often as important as making the right decision, especially when, as Jeff Bezos says, it's not a "one way" door. I bet all those parts of GE could make a wall plug that worked. It basically didn't matter, at all.
