通用高管出走记

    7月20日，通用电气（GE）宣布重组能源业务，对此，分析师并不感到吃惊。正如花旗集团（Citigroup）分析师在给客户的报告中写的那样：“通用电气每18个月左右就会进行一次内部改组，从无例外。就跟时钟一样准。”

    真正让行业观察家们意外的是，公司副主席兼通用电气能源集团（GE Energy）CEO、现年50岁的约翰•克利尼基将离职的消息。丹尼尔•霍兰德在晨星公司（Morningstar）的报告中写道：“令人好奇的是，克利尼基将要离职，而不是内部调动。毕竟，在过去几年公司能源业务的重组过程中，克利尼基发挥了重要作用。一位关键领导人在形势好转的情况下突然离开，肯定会引起许多人的质疑。”

    克利尼基是公司五位高层主管之一，在通用电气人缘极好，颇受尊敬。虽然公司拒绝提供有关克利尼基的联系方式，但《财富》杂志（Fortune）根据克利尼基去年的资料发现，克利尼基负责的业务促使通用电气将重心重新回归工业。通用电气能源业务规模约500亿美元，克利尼基的目标是在十年内将其扩大到1,000亿美元。

    其实，导致能源业务被一分为三（电力与水力、石油与天然气，以及能源管理）的原因很大程度上正是由于克利尼基的宏图大志，同时，这个原因也促使他决定在年底离开公司。在去年十二月份的文章中，《财富》杂志曾报道，通用电气斥资110亿美元，收购能源业务，其中包括向康卡斯特（Comcast）出售一部分公司持有的NBC环球（NBCUniversal）股份所获得的80亿美元。通用电气CEO杰夫•伊梅尔特在上周的收入电话会议上表示：“通过一系列收购，公司能源业务已经非常庞大，也更加复杂。”他补充道，克利尼基负责的业务已经达到相当大的规模，几乎已经成了通用电气公司中的另一家公司。

    据知情人士透露，克利尼基先是与伊梅尔特讨论了随着能源业务扩大所面临的挑战，之后他便提出了离开通用电气的计划。公司为克利尼基提供了其他职位，但却遭到拒绝。

    巴克莱集团（Barclays）分析师斯科特•戴维斯认为：“遇到这样的事情，我们通常都会想到阴谋论。按照阴谋理论，种种迹象均指向一个结果：克利尼基的离职是经过精心设计的。”能源业务拆分后的三个部门将直接接受伊梅尔特领导。分析师认为，通用电气进行部门合并的时候，投资者才更有理由担心，而不是担心公司为了提高透明度对业务进行拆分。

    其实，拆分战略与去年克利尼基接受《财富》杂志采访时所说的话完全一致。他希望下属在运营过程中坚持小公司理念，鼓励快速决策，抛弃大公司的种种束缚。而随着能源业务规模不断扩大，继续执行这一策略也变得更加困难。

    戴维斯表示，如果伊梅尔特出现任何意外情况，克利尼基与通用电气总裁兼全球增长和运营部门CEO约翰•莱斯最有可能直接接替伊梅尔特。克利尼基的离开可能表明，虽然伊梅尔特担任CEO已经超过十年，但他在通用电气的地位依然稳固。猎头公司海德思哲（Heidrick & Struggles）合伙人马克•列文斯顿认为：“很明显，通用电气内部关于业务部门的负责人选正在发生变化。这必然会引发对公司领导人继任计划的讨论。”

    去年，《财富》杂志采访克利尼基时曾询问他是否希望登上最高领导职位，他说道：“我的回答是，希望杰夫（伊梅尔特）能在CEO职位上获得成功。”

    伊梅尔特的前任杰克•韦尔奇担任CEO二十年，在65岁法定年龄退休。伊梅尔特现年56岁，如果同样任职20年，等他退休的时候，克利尼基已经59岁。到那时，克利尼基恐怕已经没有机会参与竞争，毕竟只有六年时间掌管一家市值接近1,500亿美元的公司，留给他的时间并不多。或许，伊梅尔特已经明确表达了自己没有要辞去CEO职务的任何打算，所以克利尼基清楚自己登顶的机会微乎其微。

    通用电气之前的高管一直非常抢手，并且都去了其他《财富》500强（Fortune 500）公司。但即便如此，克利尼基很难找到一家达到GE能源相同规模的公司。如果作为一家独立对公司来看，他领导的能源部门在财富500强中可以排到第50名左右。

    When GE announced on July 20 that it was reorganizing its energy business, analysts weren't particularly surprised. "Seemingly without fail, GE reshuffles its segment mix every 18 months or so," Citigroup analysts wrote in a note to clients. "It is like clockwork."

    What threw industry watchers was the announcement that John Krenicki, 50, vice chairman and CEO of GE Energy, would depart the company. "The more curious element is that Krenicki will be leaving the firm, as opposed to moving around internally given his role in reshaping energy over the past several years," wrote Daniel Holland in a Morningstar note. Barclays added in its report that, "The exit of a key leader near a cycle upturn will likely be questioned by many."

    Krenicki was one of the top five executives in the company, well-liked and respected within GE. The company declined to make Krenicki available, but as Fortune noted in its profile of the energy CEO last year, Krenicki's business was driving GE's refocus on its industrial roots. With energy a nearly $50 billion business for GE, Krenicki had set of a goal of hitting the $100 billion mark in a decade. (See John Krenicki powers up GE)

    It was in part that ambition that led to the break up of Krenicki's business into three units (power and water, oil and gas, and energy management), and his planned departure at the end of the year. In Fortune's December profile, we wrote that GE had recently spent $11 billion on acquisitions in the energy business, including all of the $8 billion it gained selling part of its stake in NBCUniversal to Comcast (CMCSA). "With all the acquisitions, our energy business had become very big and complex," said GE CEO Jeff Immelt on last week's earnings call, adding that Krenicki's business had reached a scale where it had turned into a company within a company.

    A source close to the decision said Krenicki presented the plan to Immelt after the two discussed the challenges that came with the energy operation's size. Krenicki was offered other positions in the company but declined.

    "Normally we get conspiracy theory calls when something like this happens," says Barclays analyst Scott Davis. "This is one where literally every single story we've heard is very consistent: that he engineered himself out of the job."

    The three divisions will report directly to Immelt. Analysts say investors have cause for concern when GE combines divisions, not when it breaks units up to give them more visibility.

    The strategy is consistent with what Krenicki told Fortune last year. He wanted his people to operate with a small business mindset, encourage fast decision making, and leave behind the trappings of a big company--all of which become increasingly harder the bigger the business.

    Davis noted that Krenicki and John Rice, President and CEO of GE Global Growth and Operations, were viewed as immediate successors to Immelt if anything were to happen to him. Krenicki's departure may signal that Immelt, who is more than a decade in as CEO, is deeply entrenched. "This is a clear changing of the guard in terms of who's going to run the business units going forward at GE," says Mark Livingston, partner at executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles. "It clearly opens the succession planning discussion."

    When asked last year if he desired the top spot, Krenicki told Fortune, "The answer to that question is I want Jeff [Immelt] to be successful at that job."

    Immelt's predecessor Jack Welch had a twenty-year tenure, leaving at his mandatory retirement age of 65. If Immelt, who is 56, stays for the same duration, Krenicki would be 59 by the time his boss retires. Krenicki would likely have aged out of the running at that point, as six years at the helm of a nearly $150 billion company doesn't allow for much of a runway. It may have become increasingly clear that Immelt has no plans to go anywhere anytime soon, making it plain that Krenicki's chances at the top job were slim.

    Former GE executives have historically been in high demand and have gone on to run other Fortune 500 companies. Granted, it would be difficult for Krenicki to find an enterprise as big as the one he was running at GE. His energy unit's revenue would have ranked in the 50s of the Fortune 500 if it were a standalone company.