A few years ago, PhD candidate Sakaya Mitoh at the Nara Women’s University in Japan made an interesting discovery in her laboratory. She found one of the lab’s captive-raised sea slugs, an Elysia marginata, was mysteriously decapitated.
Scotland Yard and the NCIS team were too busy to answer the call to solve the mystery. Sakaya peered closer into the tank to deduce what being committed this heinous tragedy. Studying the lopped off head, Sakaya noticed that it started moving around the tank and was eating algae. The body with its heart and liver and lungs was laying over in a corner still alive. With the body tossed aside, the head was enjoying a meal.
Sakaya used her microscope to notice the most fascinating aspect. The slug’s decapitation appeared to be self-inflicted. The slug self-amputated its body. It created a break line in its neck where the tissue became softer and, I guess, easier to rip its head away from the body.
I was fascinated when I listened about this scientific experiment. What struck me most about this meaningful discovery was how much it reminded me of GE. Yes, General Electric GE.
Welcome to Swimming in the Flood; a podcast where we develop the resilient leader’s mindset by navigating difficult currents in business. My name is Trent Theroux.
In 1889, Thomas Edison created the Edison General Electric company and quickly acquired several other companies to become large enough to become one of the twelve original companies listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Through the years, General Electric made a sizeable string of acquisitions to grow into a top ten Fortune 500 company for over 25 years.
Some of the big names they acquired included RCA, NBC. Yes, for the 1980s they owned The Cosby Show. GE acquired Universal Pictures, Smith Aerospace, Honeywell, Transamerica Finance, Dillard’s credit card business, Zenon Environmental Business and Baker Hughes. These are just some of the larger acquisitions made over the past thirty years.
GE got bigger and bigger and fatter and fatter. Then came the problems. The company that was known for lightbulbs and washing machines had become a finance company. During the slow growth of the early 1980s, then CEO Jack Welch sought industries with stronger growth potential. GE Capital started during the Great Depression so customers had access to easy capital to purchase washing machines. In the 1980s that changed. GE capital feasted on cheap credit made available because of their impeccable AAA credit rating. Their strong manufacturing base help support the development of their newly burgeoning finance arm. And the revenues began to flow. In 1990, GE Capital generated $18 billion and represented 30% of General Electric’s business. By 2000, it had grown to $66 billion and represented nearly 60% of the business.
Then, the great recession hit and the bottom fell out for GE capital. GE’s stock fell to less than $7 from $42 before the recession. The company lost its sterling AAA credit rating, eventually falling seven levels into the BBB tier and their debt peaked as a half-trillion dollars. This once mighty business was collapsing under its own weight and the parasites eating away at its pillars.
I am now going to give you my unscientific, non-peer reviewed, resilient leader theory on overcoming parasitic influences. Are you ready? Got your pencils out? Here’s it is. Decapitate Yourself. You heard it. Decapitate Yourself.
The theory is simple. Here’s how it works. The sea slug decapitated itself as a defense mechanism against internal parasites. According to Sakaya, the slugs separated their head and bodies in an effort to protect itself from parasites that would eat it alive. In time, the body regenerated, parasite-free and developed stronger than the original body.
We as developing resilient leaders have probably done this to ourselves somewhere in our past. How many times have you been in places where you needed to separate yourself from a toxic environment? My magic mirror shows me that everyone in this audience is nodding their heads.
Toxic environments exist in the workplace, in relationships, in neighborhoods; in politics…you all know that’s true. How often do you remain in those toxic environments? How long do you tolerate the parasites and the cancers that are eating at your body and slowly killing you? As grotesque as it may sound decapitating yourself may be one of the best medicines to eliminate the parasites and develop into a stronger, healthier resilient leader.
When I was in 8th grade, I was different from many other people in my school. First, 8th grade was in high school there. So, I was a 12-year old mixing with up to 19-year olds who probably served time already. Second, I was tall, blonde and polite. Three things that made me stand out at a time in someone’s life when standing out is not desirable. Third, as a constant listener you will know that I have a certain flair in the way I talk. This led me to being labeled as a homosexual and other pejoratives.
The pressure from the taunting and harassing strained the confidence I had in myself before I started the school year. It made me question my own sexual orientation as I started to believe that everyone else was right about me.
The taunting led to kids punching me. Ironically, my tormentors were picking on someone bigger than they were. In a couple of cases, I swung back and hurt my tormentors. Then the next morning, their bigger brothers or cousin would introduce themselves to me and I would need to run away again.
I started skipping school to avoid the confrontations. I would hide out in my basement and wait for my mother to leave for work then I would go upstairs and watch television. It’s silly to think about now. I remember doing my algebra homework while watching The Price Is Right. One morning, after waiting in the basement until the coast was clear, I came upstairs to turn on the TV and my mother returned home. Here I thought my bullies could throw a good punch.
After learning of just how many days I skipped – which was somewhere in the 10 to 12 range – she realized that there was a different problem to resolve. She grabbed me by my collar and dragged me into the Principal’s office for one of her patented one-sided conversations. My mother didn’t like the answers she received and told the Principal that I would be going to a new school the next year. And, my mother being my mother she made me show my algebra notebook to the Principal to prove that I was actually doing work while skipping school.
That was the beginning of my decapitation. My separation from my tormentors and the school that enabled them. I finished my last month at the old school and moved on to La Salle Academy. Starting fresh in an environment where I could grow and develop was exactly why the Elysia marginata decapitates itself. The change to La Salle was paramount in creating the foundation for man and the leader I am today.
Leaving the toxic environments behind us, we can find opportunities for growth, exploration and development. I found growth in the halls of a new school. Many of us can find growth in a new business or a new career. GE is finding growth through decapitation as well.
Since the great recession, GE has sold off major portions of their businesses. They sold NBC to Comcast. They sold a piece of their healthcare business. They are delevering out finance. They’ve recently sold an energy management system business. Heck, GE doesn’t make lightbulbs anymore! The Edison General Electric Company. The company that used to have the slogan. “GE – we bring good things to light.” Yes, the guys that invented lightbulbs is out of the lightbulb business.
The decapitation is nearly complete. GE has shed businesses that it does not consider core to its value. There are still some remnants. What remains are the four industries that it wants to build its future upon; aviation, healthcare, power and renewable energy. Can GE regenerate into a stronger company like the sea slug, or me after my freshman year? Maybe we should stick to the sea slug. How will GE transform. I’ll be sure to call Dr. Sakaya Mitoh to do some research.
Folks, thank you for listening to Swimming in the Flood. Resilient leaders face challenging currents and it is tough navigating, but with one tack or another, we can get there together