Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Making a great company even greater

by Robert T.

The year is 1992. The event is the merger of Martin Marietta and GE Aerospace. It is one of the first transactions that set the course to make a great company even greater. Norm and Jack do the heavy lifting and sequester a small group of executives in a suite of offices in the GE building to make it happen. It does not take long. When it closes, every one of the key executives knows his or her new job. Norm makes certain it is not a game of winners and losers. He also makes certain than the combined companies are more cost-effective than either one was before the transaction. There are no casual Fridays at headquarters and no answering machines. That is poor face to the customer. What else would you expect from Norm?