General Electric is one of the oldest and largest corporations in the world incorporated in New York and headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut. GE subsidiaries, namely GE Aviation, GE Capital, GE Energy, GE Global Research, GE Healthcare, GE Home & Business Solutions, GE Oil & Gas, GE Power & Water, GE Transportation successfully operate worldwide bringing glory to the most diversified enterprise in the world, General Electric.

The corporation produces many types of equipment, including locomotives, power plants (nuclear reactors included), gas turbines, aircraft engines, medical equipment, household appliances and lighting equipment, plastics and sealants. In 2014 the number of GE workers and managers was 307,000 people.

In 2011 the company ranked third among the largest public companies in the Forbes list and the world's largest non-financial multinational company, as well as a major media conglomerate. Since 1896 General Electric has remained the only out of the 12 original companies listed on the Dow Jones index, although with a few interruptions (September 1898 - April 1899; April 1901 – November 1907).

General Electric was formed in the result of merger of two companies, Edison Electric Light Company, founded in 1878 by a famous inventor Thomas Edison, and Thomson-Houston Electric Company, its direct competitor. That merger and the subsequent rapid growth of the company in all directions happened due to the need to promote the most promising invention of Edison – a light bulb. Edison was dreaming of the time when a light bulb would be in every home and America would finally stop using gas lighting. However, in order to compete with gas, it was necessary, firstly, to reduce to a minimum the cost of light bulbs, and secondly, a single network was required to produce and sell electric current and all related products: AC generators, cables, electric meters. For a while both companies just bought up all the companies they needed, until it became clear that all the patents required to create a unified network of production and supply of electricity, were in the possession of two rivals. Both of them preferred cooperation. Thus, in April 1892 General Electric Company was formed, from this date on the story of the world’s famous corporation began.

The subsequent history of GE is the history of new technological victories and expansion of integrated productions through mergers and diversification. The following is far from being a complete list of inventions and industrial developments, creating pride of the company: tungsten filament for lamps (1910), domestic refrigerator (1925), broadcasting station and transmission of television programs (1928), creating chemistry of silicones (1940); the first jet engine (1942), serial production of automatic washing machine (1947), artificial diamonds (1955), nuclear power plant (1957).

Although General Electric is an industrial giant producing equipment, aircraft engines, plastics, broadcasting the Olympic Games through its channel NBC, trading via the Internet to a billion dollars a year, this company is created not by technologies but by managers-engineers who went into power.

One of them is the most famous Cchairman of GE Board of Directors Jack Welch, who at the age of 25 started to work for GE Plastics. At that time (1960s) it was a small department which under Welch’ head turned into a multibillion-dollar business. In 1968 he became the youngest top-manager in GE when he was appointed as head of GE Plastics. In 1972 he became Vice-president of the company, and in 1981 at the decision of Shareholders' Meeting Jack Welch was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Nowadays Chairman of Board of Directors and CEO in GE is Jeffrey R. Immelt.