General Electric Company

I. Introduction, Meet GE

General Electric or GE is a multifarious technology and financial services company; operating through energy, technology infrastructure, capital finance, as well as, consumer and industrial. The company was instituted in 1892, via the merger of Edison Electric Company and Thompson-Houston Electric Company. It has stomached the economic roller coaster for more than one hundred-thirty years, fruitfully. By looking at what the world needs with belief in a better way and having relentless drive to invent and build things that matter, GE has and is creating a world that works better. General Electric is a top ranking company among the Fortune 500. It was one of the initial twelve companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average when it was instituted back in 1896, but it is the only company that still remains listed to this day.

II. Overall Strategy & Approaches to Attain Success
Earlier this month, at GE’s conference in San Francisco, the company concentrated on omitting the plans to dominate the “industrial internet”. They are already constructing advanced digital devices into their machines. The purpose for this is to receive data that, in turn, will help them provide a better digital experience for the consumers that use those products. Instead of buying out companies to achieve this, GE is talent scouting. “We are better off acquiring people than companies”, said CEO, Jeff Immelt. Although we have numerous engineers, they just are not the right kind for this particular job he commented. GE is going straight to the source, the entrepreneurs and software engineers. They hope to enlist people interested in resolving the BIG problems, like in healthcare and energy. General Electric is not interested in small scale involvement with this; they are looking to make it an essential product feature.

III. Value Proposition

GE’s value proposition, consists of defining markets and conceiving products, as well as, allowing the company to “Create Shared Value”; a set of business policies and practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates.

IV. Event(s) that Impact

GE just faced an uncommon and discouraging situation. They had to recall 1.3 million dishwashers, due to faulty electrical system, they were a fire hazard. This is the likely source of the poor performance GE has encountered in the consumer appliance business and why their operation margins in this field are tumbling down.

V. SWOT Analysis

Strengths
* A Strong Workforce – Continuous effort applied towards innovating products and services; leading to higher profits * Strong Brand Name – Increase margins by giving companies the ability to charge top dollar; consumers relate good quality products and services to BIG names. Weakness

* Conglomerate Expansion – Unable to focus, hardships managing to unrelated companies equally; stocks from this type of structure are penalized by the stock market Opportunity
* Nuclear Expansion – The world needs a cleaner source of power, this knowledge could ignite a insurgency in the use of nuclear power Threats
* High Gas Prices – A rise in oil prices causes the airline industry to lose money, slowing their spending as well; aircraft engine makers then suffer from the lack of new planes being purchased with their engines

VI. Impression of Management Style
GE is revamping their management style, by expanding the minds of their upper managers. They are now moving them around in order to broaden their knowledge; this allows the managers to have an opportunity to expand their awareness of all aspects of GE’s diverse range of businesses. I think this is great, it proves that GE is really looking toward the future. Having one person that proficient at one thing is great but, having ten that are proficient in ten things is even better. Like they say, “Two heads are better than one”.

VII. The Future & Ways to be More Effective
The future of GE is, in my opinion, is most likely to prosper. Their history is full of innovations that have built, powered, moved, and cured the world. Of course they will most likely hit a few bumps along the way but, as long as they continue to effectively meet the needs of the consumers vigorously, they will remain a Fortune 500 Company. Even for a company with such a long lifespan, such as GE, there are always ways to be more effective. With their belief to improve the world and the way it works, I feel they are engrained with an on-going motivation to succeed.

VIII. Changes that should be Implemented
After researching for this paper, I am left with no changes to recommend. GE has not withstood the test of time without having to reestablishing their ideas and actions. They have obviously adapted their thoughts to meet the needs of the ever changing times. I can only recommend that they continue to focus on the clean energy trend. The process of replacing oil with natural gas will be a long one with long lasting profits to match. So, developing and acquiring natural gas would almost certainly offer them another century to ponder over.

XI. References

Bazil, M. (2012, August 19). Strategic Moves That could See General Electric
Increase its Growth. Retrieved from The Motley Fool: http://beta.fool.com/muhammadbazil/2012/08/19/strategic-moves-could-see-general-electric-increas/9544/ Chandler, D. (2012, March 7). Electrical Marketing’s LIVEWIRE. Retrieved from Electrical Marketing:The News You Need. When You Need It.: http://livewire.electricalmarketing.com/2012/03/07/a-wsj-look-at-changes-in-management-style-at-ge/ customwritingtips.com. (2012, February 3). CustomWritingtips. Retrieved from General Electric Case Study Analysis : http://customwritingtips.com/component/k2/item/6312-general-electric-case-study-analysis.html General Electric. (2012, November 26). New “Industrial Internet” Report From GE Finds That Combination of Networks and Machines Could Add $10 to $15 Trillion to Global GDP. Retrieved from GE Imagination at work: http://www.ge.com/ Kucharvy, T. (2011, April 3). GE’s Ecomagination: From Marketing Campaign to Business Commitment. Retrieved from The Future of U.S. Knowledge Work in a Global Economy/ Author’s Blog: http://beyond-it-inc.com/GKEblog/general-electric-ecomagination-strategy.html Larsen, R. S. (2012, February 24). Governance-Letter from Presiding Directorto Shareholders. Retrieved from GE 2011 Annual Report: http://www.ge.com/ar2011/#!section=governance Nisen, M. (2012, December 6). GE’s New Strategy Involves Poaching Tons Of Silicon Valley Engineers. Retrieved from Business Insider War Room: http://www.businessinsider.com/ge-is-trying-to-poach-silicon-valley-engineers-2012-12 wikiwealth. (2012). wikiwealth-Collaborative Research. Retrieved from General Electric (GE) SWOT Analysis: http://www.wikiwealth.com/swot-analysis:ge