Begun in 1876 by Thomas

¶ … begun in 1876 by Thomas Alva Edison, the inventor of over 1,000 advances including the most important incandescent light bulb, The General Electric Company has made technological developments that have benefited individuals throughout the world. Today the company continues as one of the largest and most successful global organizations.

Several of Edison's early product offerings are in fact still part of GE today, including lighting, transportation, industrial products, power transmission and medical equipment. The company also continues to be broken down into specific business components. The first GE Appliances electric fans were produced at the Ft. Wayne electric works as early as the 1890s, while a full line of heating and cooking devices were developed in 1907. GE Aircraft Engines, the division's name only since 1987, actually began its story in 1917 when the U.S. government began its search for a company to develop the first airplane engine "booster" for the fledgling American aviation industry. Thomas Edison's experiments with plastic filaments for light bulbs in 1893 led to the first GE Plastics department, created in 1930.

On June 23, 2005, GE announced reorganization of its 11 businesses into six industry-focused businesses effective July 5, 2005. The six businesses are GE Infrastructure, GE Industrial, GE Commercial Financial Services, GE NBC Universal, GE Healthcare and GE Consumer Finance.

GE is the only stock of the original 12 in the 1896 Dow Jones Industrial Average that is still in the average today. The stock was first offered on April 15, 1892, when 1,000 shares of $100 par value were sold for $100 per share.

Jeffrey R. Immelt, 49, is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer. He replaced Jack Welch and became the 9th Chairman in GE's 126-year history on September 7, 2001. Previously, Immelt served as President and Chairman-elect of GE from November 2000. From 1997 to 2000, he was President and CEO of GE Medical Systems, which is today a $12 billion leader in the healthcare industry.

The 14 Board of Directors is a very diverse group, with both cultural and business differences. There are three women and men and women representing the African-American, Chinese-American and Hispanic minorities. The CEOs who run the major businesses, also cover a variety of backgrounds and interests.

GE is a very competitive company on a global basis. Its major competitors, that have similar businesses as General Electric, include Phillips, Toshiba, Hitachi, ABB, Siemens, Electrolux and Mitsubishi. GE keeps up its competitive edge by regularly developing Joint Ventures and acquiring other companies. Because GE is such a huge organization, it sells and distributes its products and services through every possible means. Also, since it has both consumer and business-to-business goods, it has an extensive distribution system worldwide. The businesses it sells to include hospitals, governments, manufacturers, other GE affiliates, pharmaceuticals and research installations.

Once again, since GE is such a sizeable organization, it is impacted by any major socio-economic change that occurs worldwide. For example, this year the company would have been affected by the weather disasters, energy changes, the War in Iraq, economic fluctuations and political changes and, from an employee standpoint, anything that would influence the well-being of their personnel.

Financially GE is a very strong company. GE has paid a dividend each quarter for over one hundred years. In addition, GE's dividends have been raised for 29 consecutive years. Recently, some of its financial honors include: In Fortune Magazine's 2005 "Global Most Admired Companies" list, GE ranked first overall; In Fortune Magazine's 2005 "America's Most Admired Companies" list, GE ranked second overall; GE was ranked first in the Financial Times' 2004 "World's Most Respected Companies Survey" for the seventh consecutive year since the Survey's inception in 1998; GE was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index as one of the world's leaders in environmental, social and economic programs. In March 2005, it received the highest corporate governance rating of 10.0 from Governance Metrics International.

When doing a search of GE lawsuits, it appears that the company does have some legal problems in areas of pollution as well as product recalls. A lawsuit of interest, especially since GE prides itself on its diversity is the following: Marcel T. Thomas, the chief executive of GE Aviation Materials was promoted three times since joining the company in 2001. This year, despite a big increase in his unit's sales and profits, he received a low rating and a negligible compensation increase. Thomas is black, and he believes that his treatment is a result of racial discrimination. On May 17, he sued G.E. He is seeking to have the suit certified as a class action. Both sides are marshaling their arguments. The suit offers an example of how people can look at the same numbers and draw opposing conclusions. It shows that no matter how race-neutral its policies, no company can be certain that it has rooted out racism.