| General Electric -Talent Machine | | Human Resources |
General Electric (GE) is a true global company with presence in more than 100 countries. Clearly, with a workforce of more than 320’000 employees, GE also has to have proper human resources processes established. Its dynamic Business Operation Model and sophisticated and evolved human resources strategy are results of the steady growth over more than 130 years of corporate history. Since its incorporation in 1878, many CEOs have shaped the company’s products, people and processes – few very intensive and a bit less.
GE’s Human Resources Strategy and Talent Machine:
The word GE evokes the thoughts of People Focus, Performance Oriented growth.Leadership and Talent
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The business model of GE eventually went through a period of decentralization in 1950s, where the transfer of power went to over one hundred different departments. As a result, there were massive management tasks (such as budgeting, forecasting) that GE managers were responsible for. As a result of this need for greater management focus, HR developed better internal management development programs, such as Session C, which focused on identifying management interests and career development for existing managers.
In the 1960s, GE grew its business across a variety of industries, such as nuclear power, computers, and plastics. As a result of their increased breadth, GE decided to change its business model to incorporate better strategic planning. Notably, the company added an additional layer of organization called “the sector,” which made it easier for managers to track employees, as well as prepare for CEO succession plans. This was also the time period during which the Executive Management Services HR team was established, to keep an eye on the top 2% of employees of GE.
As we move to the 1980s, GE was led by the ‘legendary’ Jack Welsh, who made it clear that he wanted every one of GE’s business to become in the top 1 or 2 ranking of their respective industries or close the business. Even though he focused on cutting costs, he still made it a top priority to continue to develop managers within
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
Organizational change in any company is difficult but for a company as large as GE such change most be extremely menacing; which is why, I am surprised I have never heard of this before! This sounds like a technique that should be taking corporate America by storm since everyone is trying to be more innovative and competitive in regards to price and quality. By creating a quick and empowering process that delivers success it sounds like cure-all to corporate fat, however the article uses a lot of adjectives to describe GE’s success with its workout routine and not a lot of numbers. Which is why I want to research this technique further and find some empirical data to back this technique. Now a potential reason for the lack of logistical backing
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
* Technical Leadership – Immelt identified technology as a key driver of GE’s future growth and emphasized the need to speed up the diffusion of new technologies within GE and turn the corporate R&D into an intellectual house.
One way that GE ensures leaders play an active role in governance is by conducting regular annual review periods for key operating functions within the Company, including compliance, environment, health & safety, and people development. This allows GE to create a cycle of continuous improvement at the senior level and incorporate evolving best practices. These sessions provide a vital system of accountability and allow topical focus as needed through the year. They create a singular point of focus to surface any issues, review performance and disseminate new information.
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?
General Electric is a well-known company in many regions of the world, but what people aren’t particularly aware of are the steps that General Electric has taken to get to where it is at today. When I think of General Electric the first thing that comes to mind is the role that the company plays in the production of household appliances, but General Electric is a much bigger contributor to people’s lives than is most people realize. People aren’t familiar with the internal business decisions that General Electric makes to ensure that the company continues to grow and run as smoothly as possible, allowing the company to continue to provide people with the services that they have grown to recognize as being a trademark of General Electric.
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 under Jack Welch was the most profitable company of its time, but was the wealth it created socially responsible? Was GE looking at different ways to avoided harm to, protect and enhanced
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
GE has been able to build such a strong and loyal customer base by meeting each of the six variables described by Robbins. Variable one, type of employee, is met through GE's efforts to provide a diverse work environment. In fact, GE was named among the top 40 best companies for diversity by Black Enterprise Magazine (Employees, 2007). Variables two and three, low formalization and extension of low formalization, is met through GE's efforts to provide employees the freedom to become closer to their customers while finding new operational efficiencies and ways to work toward customer service (Leadership, 2007). Variable four, good listening skills, is
GE’s strategy in the period when Jack Welch was the CEO (1981-2001) was mainly focused on performance and efficiency. The improvements of these factors had been achieved through organizational restructuring, elimination of several layers of management and a large number of jobs. Moreover, a major restructure of GE’s business portfolio was undertaken, focusing on sectors with promising growth potential. This led to divestments, series of acquisitions and the emphasizing of GE’s technology business especially in the power segment and finance division. A big part of the strategy planning involved the annual budget, the development of initiatives focused on improving performance and speed, and enhancing the competitiveness among
A rapidly changing business environment due to technological changes and the impacts of globalization has resulted in shift of human resources paradigms (Khan, 1997). In every organization
Within this new business environment that GE was facing, customers needs, wants and expectations of what products can offer them is forever changing. Immelt saw and understood this from the amount of time spent with customers, and implemented this idea within GE through the IT
Jack Welch’s vision of what GE was possible of gave the company a vision for twenty years while he was the CEO and chairman. He states, “leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it.” (Winning, pg 67) He not only allowed for employees to stretch, but demanded it. In teaching workers to stretch Welch knew that workers “may fail. In fact, they probably will fail. But stretching, and stretching the business, is going to improve performance results.” (Jack Welch on Leadership, pg 105) He also states that “only by setting the performance bar high did it become possible to discover people’s capabilities.” Jack Welch’s emphasis on candor and breaking the bureaucracy of modern business separated him from his contemporaries. He excited others of the possibility of being the biggest and best company in the world and rewarding his best employees that shared the values of GE. According to FORTUNE Editorial Director Geoffrey Colvin In "The Ultimate Manager, Welch leads the annals of management history not for anticipating the new world's changes ahead, but for acting on them: "His great achievement is that having seen it, he faced up to the huge, painful changes it demanded, and made them faster and more emphatically than anyone else in business. He led managers into this new world, which we still inhabit, and just as important, he showed business