The Entrepreneur and Big Business

The current President does not understand the engine of the US economy. It was and still is the entrepreneur. It was Edison and not GE. GE is at best a mere shadow of what Edison did. Edison created the value, and frankly he prospered a bit but no where as much as did GE. GE creates large engines, the basic value element was created by the entrepreneur, not GE.

Edison tried one thing after another, creating many great inventions and so many more dogs. He did so with extreme risk, ups and downs. This is the entrepreneur of the 19th century and we need the same in the 21st century. We do not get that from GE.

I remember when I finished my PhD and a few other degrees, GE wanted to interview me and before that could happen I had to take a test to see how well I would do at designing a refrigerator. Needless to say I did not waste my time on that! The question is who did, and the result is a large company which makes diesel engines. Valuable but frankly even the Chinese can do that. What is new of sustainable value?

It is worth a trip through Edison's Labs, to see how many times he tried something. He was not well educated, yet he had persistence and was dogmatic in his approach. What are we doing to enhance and leverage that entrepreneur. GE perhaps is the last player we should look to emulate, why just look at NBC, and yes they are dumping that dog.