GE plans to slash its LED lighting business, Demand Lighting plans to expand.

General Electric plans to downsize its business by focusing just on a few key sectors. It will narrow its focus on the most profitable divisions such as aviation, healthcare and energy, and will pull down transportation, industrial, and even its lighting businesses.

Over the past few years Demand Lighting has seen significant success - all due to our customers, employees and "nimbleness". I remember four years ago, I was presenting to a school board on a major project. Two very large big box lighting companies and Demand Lighting were asked to bid on a major million dollar project. During the presentation one of the big box companies stated that “yes” Demand Lighting has a quality product, but they have not been around long, so you need to focus on the big box longevity and not only the quality of the product and service they will bring. When I started to present our bid one of the members asked me “your competitor has been around for almost 100 years – why should we do business with a company that only has a few years under its belt?” I answered “good question-- but I remember a few years ago I had my savings with a company called Lehman Brother who was in business for 158 years and they filed bankruptcy after a few weeks of drastic losses. I wished I had my money in a quality start up finance company rather than a large global financial service company who thought they were too big to fail, I might still have my money now.”

I tell this story because companies forget that the day to day quality product & service, the day to day relationship building and the day today customers service is what your company needs to focus on. Not just your bottom line.

Looking only at the bottom line, General Electric lighting business registered a consolidated revenue of US$ 33.5 billion in 3Q17, up 14%. EPS slid by 9% to US$ 0.29. The company declined drastically after the announcement was made. GE also slashed its quarterly dividend to 12 cents, which, it believes, will save it US$ 4 billion a year. GE still made money in the lighting business, just not enough. Perhaps in large part due to its size and lack of focus.