The most admired company in America

Once again General Electric was named the most admired company in America by Fortune Magazine. Here's a few highlights about GE taken straight from the article by Geoffrey Colvin.

1. "The company's most important product was not light bulbs or transformers but managerial talent."

2. An ability to change direction unabashedly. "Most people inside GE learn from the past but have a healthy disrespect for history," says CEO Jeff Immelt. "They have an ability to live in the moment and not be burdened by the past, which is extremely important."

3. "GE does one more big thing: develop people, evaluate them, and act on the results."

4. "Most organizations will never establish any kind of intellectual leadership."

5. "The result of GE's seamless, constant reinvention of itself is that while companies are constantly emulating GE, they're frequently a step or more behind, and they know it."

6. "GE, like anywhere else, has a little bit of politics, a little bit of personal stuff and all that," he says, "but compared with all the other organizations I know, it's minimized. It's upfront. You know what you have to do to succeed."