Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! Im Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages ofInc.andFast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you cansign up to get it yourselfevery Monday morning.
Before there was Apple, Medtronic, or Tesla, there was General Electric (GE). Created in 1892 from the combination of Thomas Edisons Edison General Electric and two other competitors, the American conglomerate was once the most powerful, valuable, and inventive company in the world.
At different times during its 130-year run, [GE] had been a leader in technological innovation and entrepreneurial drive, writes Puck cofounder William D. Cohan in his 2022 book Power Failure. The generation and distribution of electricity? GE. The light bulb? GE. The jet engine? GE. The X-ray machine? GE. The worlds first radio broadcast? GE. The first home television sets? GE. The first electric cars? GE.
Cohans book goes on to detail the management misstepsmany related to its GE Capital financial services businessthat ultimately led the once mighty company to split into three public companies specializing in aviation, healthcare, and energy.
The power behind the name
Scott Strazik, CEO of energy spinoff GE Vernova, says he is trying to lead the company by adopting some of the best parts of the GE legacyits ambition and some its best talentwhile embracing the freedoms of being a standalone company. We were very thoughtful about the fact that we needed to have an entrepreneurial edge to everything that we did, he says. That edginess starts with the companys name: Vernova marries ver (short for verdant, or green) with nova, from the Latin word novus, or new. In contrast, the other GE spinoffs, GE HealthCare and GE Aerospace, selected more straightforward names based on the industries they serve. We wanted to choose a name that very clearly said to all of our stakeholders that the world is changing, and we needed to change with it, Strazik says.
One of those stakeholder groups is the community of cleantech and energy transition startups, and Strazik is trying to forge partnerships with them. Last year, GE Vernova launched a joint venture with Montana Technologies, the maker of a system that harvests water from the atmosphere, and it invested in Form Energy, which develops energy storage solutions. The greatest value we add for [Form Energy CEO] Mateo Jaramillo isnt going to be the money we invest, Strazik says. It can be the supply-chain team I had at his factory in West Virginia last week or the commercial leader thats meeting with his commercial team this week to help them understand contracting with a different type of customer than theyre used to.
Leading power’s next gen
Strazik says GE Vernova can help other companies in the energy ecosystem better understand how to build products at scale and how to reach customers effectivelytwo muscles it built as part of the GE empire.
But even the vaunted synergies of being part of a conglomerate, such as the ability to share technology or best practices, couldnt always be optimized given that the divisions had such different customers. And Strazik says that as an independent company he no longer has to compete with other huge divisions for capital.
GE Vernova sits at the intersection of two big trendsthe demand for more electricity globally, much of it coming from AI data centersand the need to diversify and clean up the way energy is produced. GE Vernovas business includes power (gas, hydro, nuclear), wind (onshore and offshore), and software and systems, which include grid storage and power conversion.
We go into that discussion with a responsibility because 25% of the worlds electricity today is powered with our equipment, Strazik says. Whats becoming more pronounced and clear to the world at large is this is going be a game in which all [of the assets in our portfolio] are going to be needed for us to win.
By one measure, Straziks effort to recapture the prowess of GE in its heyday is off to a solid startthe companys stock is up about 150% from its first day of trading nearly a year ago, and in that time, it has outperformed the market and siblings GE Healthcare and GE Aerospace. But as GE Vernova approaches its first anniversary, Strazik seems to believe theres even more the company can do to recapture the entrepreneurial spirit of its former parent. I want to look at different partnering models that we can pursue to provide leverage to Vernova and our shareholders, he says. Were progressing, but I have such ambition for the role Vernova can play in the energy ecosystem that were going to ramp up expectations even further in year two.
How does your team keep entrepreneurial spirit alive?
How has your company worked to retain the entrepreneurial or innovative zeal of your founders or its legacy? Send your responses to me at stephaniemehta@gmail.com. Id love to publish your best answers.
Read more: GE, then and now
3 leadership lessons from General Electrics breakup
The complicated business legacy of Jack Welch
Whats really holding back renewable energy
