The Hub: Redefining HQ for A Digital Age

GE is moving its headquarters to Boston. Our true task, however, is not merely to relocate the corporate offices. It’s to use the physical shift as a catalyst for far greater cultural change – to set innovation free across the company and beyond it.

Historically, corporate headquarters was a giant bureau drawer, a “temple for reviews,” and only named as the headquarters due to size or the number of executives located there. As Silicon Valley giants emerged they turned their headquarters into more inclusive mini-cities. But what too many of them still lack is a reason for being, one that amplifies rather than stifles innovation. The whole headquarters model needs to be transformed, if not upended.

That’s why we think of HQ in terms of IQ, a place that serves as an accelerator of knowledge for the entire business. Location and size take a back seat to the flow of information from and to the business units where it’s likely to drive outcomes.

Our new idea for headquarters has evolved as GE experiences the most consequential transformation in its history. We’re fostering an entrepreneurial mindset and close collaboration with customers to achieve faster results. We’re creating common yet differentiated platforms to rapidly share advanced technologies, materials, software, analytics, commercialization, and business-model best practices across the enterprise. We’re driving progress outside of our walls, investing in growth ideas that build businesses. We’re even developing partnerships that transcend the usual constraints of space and time, hosting Open Innovation challenges to tackle tough problems with novel solutions from all over the world.

We applied the same dynamics to help us reimagine our headquarters. While GE now operates in 180 countries, we know that staying relevant in today’s interconnected world is not a function of hierarchy or geography, but immediacy. It’s not about what you control vertically, but how you connect horizontally – the culture you shape, and the outcomes you drive.

We will design our new headquarters to be the hub for our businesses, where we can simplify and intensify the impact of the GE Store — our practice of sharing ideas and leveraging scale. To cross-pollinate knowledge across our various businesses and locations, headquarters must be the beating heart of our organization, where it is continually pumping an exchange of information, diversity of experiences and talent. We will work differently, connected by technology in ways we have not been connected before. We will evaluate all of the processes, reviews and systems traditionally housed at HQ. We will question everything and be open to trying new things. We will learn quickly from our failures and adapt.

Boston, to us, is the right ecosystem for these aspirations and for our purpose as a digital industrial company. Beyond its geography, Boston has always embodied technology, ideas and the spirit of invention. The city is surrounded by world-renowned academic institutions, investors and a vibrant business community. Many of our industry-leading customers are here, and 40% of the Massachusetts workforce is employed in the innovation economy.

Even as we set out to change the world with our businesses and redefine the idea of headquarters, we believe we can help contribute to a stronger community here in Boston. Our new headquarters will allow us to work closely with startups and our customers, provide opportunities for students to experience GE technology firsthand and open public space to showcase the history of GE technology — everything from LED lights and smart sensors to a GE90 jet engine, the world’s largest and most powerful jet engine ever built.

Headquarters will carve out an important and distinct identity, yet will remain an integral component of the whole, an engine — something we know a bit about. For us, moving to Boston is not just a shift in location; it is a shift in our mindset. It is an endeavor to meet our future, now.