Scott Van Voorhis

Many of us have been living in a happy little bubble when it comes to General Electric and its headquarters move to Boston. The decision of one of the world’s top companies to relocate has been one the biggest local stories of the past few years, and not just on the business pages. And until now, the story has been one of local civic pride, another sign of Boston and its environs taking its rightful place among the world’s top cities.

But all bubbles burst at some point, and GE’s burst in somewhat spectacular fashion with the announcement on June 12 that transformative and embattled CEO Jeff Immelt would be stepping down after 16 years.

The story came as a shock locally. After all, GE broke ground on its new, $200 million headquarters in the Seaport just a little over a month before, with Immelt practically a candidate for civic sainthood for his role in moving the industrial giant to Boston

Yet a flood of stories over the last two weeks in the national media have painted a much different picture of Immelt and the considerable challenges facing GE.

“A Stagnant General Electric Will Replace the C.E.O. Who Transformed It,” The New York Times proclaimed in a relatively restrained headline compared to other takes on Immelt’s departure in the national business press.

CNBC offered up a scathing “Jeff Immelt’s tenure at GE was an ‘unmitigated disaster for shareholders,’ analyst says,” while a column by a Forbes contributor offered this stink bomb/parting shot: “As Immelt Leaves GE, Investors And Employees Have Little To Cheer.”

Immelt “inherited what may well have been the most successful company on earth,” writes Adam Hartung, a Forbes contributor, in a column. “He leaves behind a far weaker company that may not survive.”

High-Tech Makeover

That’s a bit overblown – GE didn’t come to Boston to die. In fact, there’s evidence that the deal is already paying off, with GE pledging $50 million to local philanthropies and at work with local health care giant Partners on a big deal.

One reason for Wall Street’s wrath has been the sluggish performance of GE’s stock, especially compared to the giant’s strong growth in the 1980s and 1990s under superstar CEO Jack Welch.

Immelt took the company Welch built and has transformed it, though whether for good or ill depends on who you talk to. Immelt sold off GE Capital, the finance empire that was highly lucrative until the Great Recession. He also shed the company’s appliance division and media company NBC/Universal to boot.

Rather, Immelt set his sights on a high-tech makeover of GE, with the move to Boston, a major tech hub arguably second only to Silicon Valley, part of his push to create a “digital industry company” that would be in the top ranks of software firms.

But you don’t have to buy into the idea of GE as some doomed, increasingly anachronistic conglomerate to wonder if there should have been a bit more skepticism locally about the giant company’s headquarters move to Boston.

Jobs And Prosperity For All

There clearly are some significant clouds on GE’s horizon. Activist shareholder firm Trian bought a $2 billion stake in GE two years ago and has been pressuring it to sell off parts of the business and cut costs.

Meanwhile, state taxpayers are on the hook for the $125 million relocation package that helped lure GE from its suburban Connecticut abode, while Boston has offered up $25 million in property tax breaks. Those tax breaks are no small potatoes and were granted with the idea that GE’s new Seaport headquarters will act as an economic engine for the Boston area.

However, our civic and business leaders – and our local media as well – have seemed genuinely thrilled and frankly a bit star-struck by the GE courtship and the prospect of landing such a big corporate fish.

And few, if any, have been stepping back and asking the hard questions of just what was going on behind the scenes at GE that would lead to such a big change. That needs to change now if we want to preserve our civic self-respect.

The story line locally for too long has been along the lines of “awesome company meets awesome city and plans a world-class future together with jobs and prosperity for all.” But the reality is clearly significantly different. What we are really talking about is a powerful but embattled conglomerate looking to shake things up with a radical headquarters move.

And a lot hinges now on whether this gambit by GE’s now-departed CEO will work.