Alternative Strategy : Decision Making Strategy

The driving factors for a success or failure of implementing Six Sigma is largely dependent on the inputs set forth at the conception and duration of the integration. This whitepaper will compare and contrast these critical inputs for a successful deployment. In order to accomplish this five various companies: GE Electric, W.R. Grace, Royal Chemicals, Diversified Paper and Lemforder. Some of these organizations had very successful results while others failed to reach their full potential. What is clear is the similarities of those that succeed and those that failed.

Analyzing GE’s corporate-level strategy from 2001 – present with Jeff Immelt as CEO, GE focuses on the growth and development platforms. Technology is the key driving force for GE’s future and growth. Advancements in industries such as energy, health and aviation fueled demand for cleaner and more efficient energy production. GE identified new markets with potential high-growth that offered attractive returns through strategic mergers and acquisitions. As CEO, Jeff Immelt established a process for identifying projects that offered attractive growth potential which were then nurtured and treated as special projects or initiatives that were not subject to strict budget constraints. Immelt introduced GE’s three strategic imperatives as: (1) sustaining its strong business model, (2) strengthening the business portfolio, and (3) driving its growth initiatives. www.ge.com

Processual approach: Strategy is produced in an incremental fashion, as a 'pattern in a stream of decisions'. Fuzzy approach: Companies sometimes adopt an incremental approach to change. What's different between these two approach?

Of all the Athenian leaders during the time of the Sicily invasion, Nicias possessed the clearest vision and a demonstrated ability to think

The purpose of this Case Study Analysis is to implement the knowledge that was gained during the course MBA 555 Business strategy. In the first part of the analysis will be described the history of the company, its products, the key success factors and the changes that were

In order to help leaders embrace this philosophy, all GE managers spend time at a place called the Croton-on-Hudson campus, or, Crotonville, for short. At Crotonville, the extensive training program is infused with informality, a key element put in place by Welch, that sets the pace for instilling the culture (Byrne, 1998). Each member of the organization’s management team is indoctrinated into the company’s culture. It is on the Crotonville campus that GE leaders are taught that everyone must do whatever it takes to produce. “…employing 340,000 worldwide does what it has always done best – cultivating strong leaders before they step into the spotlight. Succession planning is a key part

There are various schools of strategy that have been vigorously debated on and after a consolidated effort; three schools of strategy were produced. They are the planning school, the positional school, and the resource based school of strategy (Ritson, 2013). All these strategies will be described with examples to buttress each.

At the beginning of the 1980s General Electric, the big USA electronics company determined a goal of increasing its market share. This aim was achieved by acquiring Radio Corporation of America and advanced satellites divisions and disposing of its consumer electronics divisions. This was General Electric’s effective strategic planning that helped to increase the annual income. These are the GE strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that still form the basis of strategic planning. The developed GE culture is its strength as well as human resources. The competition is great that is why the competitive advantage is the strength too. Technology is an essential part of any business and its usage presents great opportunities to GE Company.

GE is committed to focusing on long-term opportunities. The company has a philosophy of only concentrating on markets that it can dominate as GE positions itself to be a leader. The reason

The company has blasted off from the beginning, and that can only happen with a strong staff to support the company from the inside out. Currently, GE has it’s headquarters in Fairfield, Connecticut. Jeff Immelt is the current CEO, and has held that position since 2001. Immelt has been involved in the company much longer than that, though. He’s held positions in GE’s Plastics, Appliances,and Healthcare divisions since 1982. However, his power has a negative side to go along with the positive. GE’s stock has gone down nearly 60% since 2001, when Immelt become the CEO. This dramatic change can be blamed on fluctuations in the economy, but that’s not where it stops. General Electric has lost 19,000 employees, and also closed 31 plants in America. Immelt has been criticized for all of this, and even especially so because he was the chairman on President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. The company has 18 other corporate executives, to head fields like Financial Planning, Investor Communications, and Global Research. Their 19 business executives head the different departments of GE: Lighting, Transportation, Asset Management, Power and Water, Oil and Gas, International Capital, Retail Finance, Aviation, Energy Management, GE:Africa, GE:Greater China, GE:America, Healthcare, Home & Business Solutions, and Real Estate and Capital

Analysis - GE has likely been so successful over the years because of its ability to foresee major trends and capitalize upon them. In the 1960s, for instance, GE was one of the eight major computer companies. Even recently, since 1986, GE has continued to acquire several organizations; portions of NBC, wind manufacturing, universe pictures, aerospace industries, international firms, software and hardware manufacturing, even oil companies abroad. The company culture describes itself as not one company, but many each unit a vast and complex enterprise in and of itself, with a corporate

The end result was a toolkit of key techniques and identification of core characteristics that made these companies successful. For example, process efficiency, customer satisfaction as their Key Performance Indicator (KPI), well-developed supplier relationships, and consistent innovation of high quality products and manufacturing efficiencies with little to none unused capacities were all discovered as “ingredients to success”. A new training program emerged which helped managers see the error of existing measurement practices. Managers were further trained to look at larger-scale opportunities for improvement, and broaden their vision of what success actually looked like. Welch continued to subtly injecting his ideas about globalizing business units within GE. He looked for opportunities within each business unit to not only increase success levels within United States markets, but to benchmark GE against competitors on the world stage. To prove his steadfastness, Welch hired Paolo Fresco, a proven negotiator, to head the International Operations position. GE took advantage of global economic downturns in countries like Mexico and Japan to increase their acquisitions, doubling revenue from international operations within the first five years. Welch dug even deeper into the fabric of GE with an initiative focused on locating and developing leadership at all levels of the company. GE employees were being developed, evaluated and

In 1990’s Jack Welch launched Six Sigma in GE in a big way. He implemented Six Sigma in all areas and ensured that the entire organization participates in the initiative. He changed the performance incentives and made them based on individual’s ability and enthusiasm to take part in Six Sigma initiatives. He transformed GE to a state where Six Sigma had become the culture of the organization and not just a methodology for brining organization-wide improvements.

The above four were the main reasons for the company to put together a set of processes which would formally combine SCM and six sigma, by training and developing supply chain people become capable of leading innovations. Over the last years of implementation, SCM six sigma became a unique and useful component of Samsung’s strategy for systematic and continuous improvement of its SCM

The pattern of management development at GE reflects the pattern suggested by management theory. Management theories are a guide that managers use to efficiently and effectively manage an organization (Ricky,32). In order to create and sustain competitive advantage GE has used strategic management to stay ahead of the game. GE made decisions based on what’s best for the whole organization and placed an importance on including multiple stakeholders in the decision making process. GE implemented a technique called “Blue Books” which governed a manager’s every move (Ricky,54). Blue books were similar to the theory of administrative management in which theorists such as Fayol, Weber, and Barnard focused on management processes and principles of the entire organization (Ricky,40). GE also implemented a pension and profit sharing plan that came from the human relations movement. Elton mayo and his group of researchers conducted a series of experiments on worker productivity and found a link between employee satisfaction and workplace productivity. Lastly, GE used management science to create more customer value at a lower risk which came from the quantitative management perspective (Ricky,55).