Chapter 16, GE Capital: The Growth Engine Summary and Analysis

In 1978, GE Capital earns $67 million on $5 billion in assets. By 2000, GE Capital earns $5.2 billion and more than $370 billion in assets. Jack credits the phenomenal growth of the business to incredible amounts of intensity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship.

GE Capital's double-digit growth occurs in four distinct stages: 1977--1985, when some of the best people are lured to the business; the second half of the 1980s, when the business is aggressively grown, making GE Capital an "acquisition machine" and in the 1990s, when deal making and a global financial services business is created and the current global franchise expansion brings Six Sigma and digitization to financial services. In the 1970s, the focus was on consumer lending (mortgages and auto leasing). In the 1980s, the focus shifts to stronger growth with tight risk control. When...