G.E. Research Returns to Roots. A team of researchers for G.E. are hoping to usher in an era of cheap, clean-burning lights, batteries, solar cells and the beginning of plastic-based electronics. By Claudia H. Deutsch. [New York Times: Science]
For G.E., that change is nearly as radical as the science being pursued. John F. Welch Jr., Mr. Immelt's predecessor, spent two decades pushing the Niskayuna lab to churn out profitable products. Now Mr. Immelt is letting it return to the mission that Charles P. Steinmetz, a G.E. engineer who set up the lab, laid forth more than 100 years ago.
"Steinmetz did not want this lab to worry about next quarter's product," said Scott C. Donnelly, senior vice president for research. "He wanted it to work on the next big idea, even as G.E.'s businesses were refining the last one."
A sign that myopia -- which was not ever what built great companies -- may finally start going out of fashion on Wall Street?
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