Case 4: General Electric's Corporate Strategy

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

Lincoln comment that labor and management are properly not warring camps;they are parts of one organization in which they must and should coorperate fully and happily has made an easy effort to organize employees in the organization.

Please read Case Study: The Jack Welch Era at General Electric in Chapter 5 and answer questions 1 & 3. Please submit the answers by the end of week #3. At least one page is required.

GE Healthcare is a unit of the wider General Electric Company. It has a global orientation, employing more than 46, 000 staff committed to serving healthcare professionals and patients in over 100 countries. It is headquartered in the United Kingdom (UK)-the first GE business segment outside the United States. It has a turnover of approximately $ 17 billion. The headquarters hosts GE healthcare corporate offices as well as finance, sales, global sourcing departments, X-Ray marketing, manufacturing, design and shipping. The finance and sales departments at the headquarters handle GE Healthcare’s high level decisions, but each modality often has its own similar

In May 2014, Forbes compiled a list of the largest public companies in the world. In order to give a perspective on GE’s size, they ranked seventh overall behind several Chinese companies, JP Morgan Chase, Berkshire Hathaway, and Exxon Mobile, but ranked ahead of Wells Fargo, Royal Dutch Shell, and Apple. GE operates as an American multinational conglomerate. The main lines of business include various energy divisions, technology infrastructure, consumer finance, and consumer and industrial products. GE makes everything from light bulbs to jet engines. They are truly one of the world’s most powerful and recognizable brands. One of their most dominate divisions is their finance division, GE Capital. GE Capital’s division is run like an internal bank. If

Canadian General Electric Co. Limited (CGE) was incorporated in Canada in 1892 at the same time Edison Electric Light Company and Thomson-Houston Electric Light Company merge into General Electric (GE) which continues to the present day as a major international conglomerate. GE is investing in software and analytics, healthcare, energy, lighting and bio-energy systems, and advance manufacturing and enterprise. With each investment, the company strategy to grow and enhance productivity and reduce environmental impact at a global scale becomes apparent. At GE, research and development has been the cornerstone of innovation for over a century. GE has approximately 36,000 technicians that are used to solve some of the world’s toughest problems

Lincoln Electric Company is a manufacturing company, which has been focusing on welding products for the recent 30 years. The company had outstanding brothers leading the company to success. John was a technical genius and he brought the best skills in production and James was good at management and he was working on the employees ' incentives. The company gained its reputation through the world war till present as the welding equipment supplier with higher quality and lower price at the same time. For the production aspect of welding equipment, it is an advanced production line with continuous flow with high flexibility and low idling time.

Also; Citigroup, Inc. another competitor for the GE Company made a total of $64.95 billion in 2011, and when we compare it with GE and SI its earnings where even less in the same year, making General Electric a leader in the industry. With this valuable information GE management can analyze its competitor’s financial statements results and from there they can evaluate their faults and create new ways to increase their annuals earnings and secure their place as one of leading companies in their industry. Another way GE can go forward in the industry is by adapting its services and products to other countries that need them.

This report’s objective is to provide analysis of the leadership challenge that General Electric (GE) is currently facing, and to recommend solutions. The primary problem is determining what kind of candidate is required to replace retiring CEO Jack Welch. This has left GE to question how much does the company want to change policy over the previous era, and where does the company want to be in future?

our appliance product manufacturing will move back from China and Mexico to the U.S. We think we can make more money and serve our customers better. We also think this will make us a better manufacturing company in every corner of the world. But it is only possible because our designers, factory workers, managers and marketers work together. GE is a “We Company.” We are solving problems, tough problems. We are in the seventh year of a clean energy business strategy called ecomagination. Clean energy goes in and out of focus for governments and consumers. But, at GE, we are steadfast in our investing. In 2011, we had $21 billion of clean energy revenue, growing twice as fast as the Company average. Ecomagination drives growth because we are solving problems for our customers. At coal mines, from Pennsylvania to Peru, our water solutions allow customers to operate productively while achieving high environmental standards. We demonstrate every day that, through innovation, we can meet societal needs and do it profitably. We deliver results. That is the ultimate output of a strong culture. Over the next few years, our performance will accelerate. We aim to reward investors by

General Electric, as seen in the equation above, looks at what the world needs, finds a better way to produce that need and does all of this with a relentless drive to invent and build things that matter. And this equation equals a world that will work better. GE takes pride in the over all quality of their products and wants stakeholders to know that they are very customer driven and will put the customer first and foremost. In the GE work equation, they do not reference the teamwork, customer, excellence and other attributes they may have, but they do focus on markets served, citizenship, employees, and their self-concept.

Background Information- General Electric Company, known as GE the world over, is an American-based, multinational corporation headquartered in Connecticut. In 2010, the company reported in excess of $150 billion in revenues, net income of over $12 billion, and almost 300,000 employees. It operates through four basic segments: Energy, Technology Infrastructure, Capital Finance and Consumer and Industrial Production. In 2011, GE was ranked the 6th largest firm in the United States as well as the 14th most profitable. Since its founding by Thomas Edison in 1990, and becoming one of the original 12 companies listed on the Down Jones Industrial Average in 1986, GE has been iconic in its relationship as an American innovator. In fact, GE founded RCA in 1919 to further the use and disbursement of international radio, just one example of their early commitment to innovation (GE Fact Sheet, 2012).

GE was a very successful organization under the immensely charismatic and influential Jack Welch. The period of 1981 to 2001 when he was the CEO saw the company increasing market share rapidly and grew exponentially. This period was a period of increasing environment changes and GE saw Jack Welch as the new CEO. He made a famous speech that the company is a fast growing company is a slow growing economy. We can judge from this that the economy of those days was a very stable one with not many changes in the task environment. There would then be reduced competition and reduced pressure due to changing environments.

At the heart of Immelt’s growth strategy for General Electric’s was the development of new Growth Platforms, which could be either extensions of the existing businesses or entire new commercial areas. Even though Immelts core focus was on organic growth, repositioning to take advantage of the emerging market trends and opportunities would require acquisition. Then once a new Growth Platform was identified, GE would build a leading position in those sectors through small strategic acquisitions and the deployment of its financial, technical and managerial resources.

GE was found by Thomas Edison in 1893. It has around 343,000 employees and operation over 100 countries. The company experienced continuous