It's ugly, isn't it? But nobody has yet criticized Flannery because he has ostentatiously cut costs and promised to bring GE back. His first year has been an implicit rebuke of Immelt's tenure. Trian, which amazingly has been spared criticism, now has a representative on the board. There's been some rumbling about breaking up the company, but it is hard to believe that a GE lifer like Flannery would really go down that road.
The stock is now around $13.50, down from $30 when he took over. Let's suppose that it doubles over the next year. (It won't, but just suppose.) That would make it a $27 stock. Would that mean that Flannery did a good job reviving the stock? Or would it mean that he remains an underperformer because the stock is still lower than when Immelt left? If it's the latter, then maybe then he'll understand what it was like to be Jeff Immelt.
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