Question:

As a 125-year-old company, General Electric is by definition about as far away from being a
start-up as you could get. However, they are often cited as a successful example of a large
organization employing Lean Start-up. Prepare a case study on this. Acknowledge the technical
papers and other sources from where you get the information.
Answer:
Introduction:
General Electric Company was incorporated in 1876, in Schenectady, New York. Thomas Edison
established Edison General Electric Company in 1878. In 1892, GE was created by merger of
Edison General Electric and Thomas-Houstan Electric Company. GE is a technology, media and
finance service company. GE participate in a wide variety of markets provide products and
services ranging from transmission, generation and distribution of electricity, aircraft jet
automation, railway locomotives, aviation and medical imaging equipment. The operating of
business of company including NBC Universal, Technology Infrastructure, GE capital, GE
Energy Infrastructure and consumer.
Why GE is successful?
The program developed by GE and Eric Ries, employs Lean Start-up principles and other
strategies like the combination of speed and agility of a start-up with the scale and resources of a
large enterprise. Customer-centricity is crucial. GE begins by asking customers questions about
what outcome they are trying to achieve. Then, the team working on an issue comes up with a
hypothesis for a solution, after which the underlying assumptions are tested. Fast Works has been
a success for GE. The process has resulted in shorter product cycles, quicker IT implementation,
and faster customer responses.
Case Study:
When team members returned to their respective business units, their ideas and new ways of
working were squashed. They realised that applying lean start-up would not require training but a
culture shift in the organisation. GE introduce FastWorks to get the success quickly and use of
lean start-up philosophy across GE.
They also some steps:
1. Getting Buy- In from Senior Management:

Because of the structural hierarchy of GE, getting senior stakeholder buy in was critical to the
success of the program. Whatever, recognising the benefits that grassroots employees could bring
by way of testing projects and gathering proof points, they could take these validated learnings as
‘money in the bank’, so to speak, and say “here is the impact, here is the evidence” to obtain real
and ongoing support from senior stakeholders.
2. What about non-tech companies?

“This absolutely works outside of technology and software and GE is a great proof point for
that”, having applied the philosophy in areas such as transportation, energy and finance. It’s not
just about training people “What we learned at Croton Ville early on is that as soon as people
went back to their business, they struggled to use the methodology”, says Semper. “You need to
think more broadly about your organisation and the ability to make sure that behaviours and
culture can support the application of a lean start-up approach.”
Questions to ask:
• • will lean start-up behaviours be permissible and rewarded?

• • does performance management support lean start-up?

• • what are your expectations of your leaders in supporting lean start-up?

• • what competencies do you need to develop?

• • like health and fitness, a holistic approach is required to successfully implement lean
start-up - a personal trainer is pointless if your house is full of high carb, sugary temptations

This belief system was summarised by the following:

• • empower and inspire each other

• • customers determine our success

• • stay lean to go fast

• • learn and adapt to win

• • deliver results in an uncertain world

Result of their steps:

GE reduced time of NPI by two thirds and reduced time to customer validation by 80% in energy
and transportation
Other result:
1. Positive impact on Employee Morale:

Improving employee engagement. Implementing lean start-up means that employees are engaged
on projects that are delivered quicker and actually realise benefits.
2. Funding Process

The Fastworks process has embedded here. The employee finds new idea and the company seek
seed funding to validate their idea.
3. On Regulation:

When we say “it’s impossible for us to implement and it is too risk”. The face is de-risker for lean
start-up. We should mitigate the risk before putting things to the marker but we should try our
level best to complete the task.
4. On Collaboration

Remote teams are a nature of the beast that is GE. The company created Fastworks site where
methodology, proof point, stories, tools are available. Digital tanning also being rolled out to
move of thinking beyond just project team.
5. On Start-ups

On start-up culture, Semper says that GE has learned two fundamental things:
1. Start-ups are extremely purpose driven and have a strong connection to the company

2. Dedicated co-located teams achieve amazing things

She has been exploring ways to replicate these start-up traits within General Electric. The
underlying message is clear - if an organisation the size of GE can implement lean start-up, then
chances that your organisation can too.
Financial Revenue Net Total Price per Employee
Performa in mil. income in assets in share in s
nce: Year US$ mil. US$ mil. US$ US$
2005 136,580 16,720 673,321 22.35
2006 151,568 20,742 696,683 22.43
2007 172,488 22,208 795,683 25.44
2008 181,581 17,335 797,769 19.44
2009 154,438 10,725 781,901 9.96
2010 149,567 11,344 747,793 12.68
2012 146,684 13,641 684,999 16.56
2013 113,245 13,057 656,560 20.32 307,000
2014 117,184 15,233 654,954 22.72 305,000
2015 117,386 −6,145 493,071 24.28 333,000
2016 123,693 8,176 365,183 28.36 295,000
2017 122,092 −6,222 377,945 25.02 313,000