GENERAL ELECTRIC

Change and Continuity in Contemporary Business

Abstract

In past, there have been numerous eminent leaders who in true terms shifted the fortune of their firms. Jack Welch is one of those legendary leaders. General Electric is one of the America's leading organisations. The reason why the world reveres it to be the leading firm is due to the dynamic leader Jack Welch. Welch had this dynamic charisma associated with his personality and mental approach. He possessed this incessant vigour of constantly changing and staying ten steps ahead of his competition with respect to management functions. It was the approach and leadership processes of Jack Welch that GE earned this renowned and respectable position in the corporate world. There are numerous factors via which GE was able to attain the untarnished reputation. These include some of the drastic changes and restructuring in the management and organisational structure. This paper presents a critical analysis on the various change strategies designed and implemented by Jack in General Electric, along with their pros and cons. Moreover, a personal reflection and recommendations are presented on the changes that I would make, if I were to succeed Jack Welch.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Analysis of the Change Strategies2

The Restructuring Strategy-Fix, Sell or Close2

Work Out and Best Practises3

360 Degree Feedback Process4

Boundary less Divisions and Behaviours4

Shift from Industrial Goods to Service Industry6

Implementation of Six Sigma6

'A' Players with 4 'E's'7

Future Strategies for General Electric8

Conclusion10

References11

Change and Continuity in Contemporary Business

Introduction

General electric Co (GE), incorporated in 1892, is a publicly-held company. It is one of the largest and most diverse companies in the world, offering products and services ranging from media and technology, to finance, aerospace components and consumer products. The company reports its operations in several business segments. These include Energy Infrastructure, Technology Infrastructure, NBC Universal, GE Capital and Home & Business Solutions (Bracken & Summers, 2001, p. 3-20). The company operates in over 120 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and North America. Consumer appliances are manufactured and sold as part of the GE Home & Business Solutions segment. The Home & Business Solutions segment generates approximately five percent of overall revenues of GE. The company is the manufacturer of numerous and different product lines, including GE Monogram, GE Profile and GE Hotpoint.

Jack Welch began his career at General Electric in 1969. In 1972 he was elected as the Vice President and by the time he took the reins as CEO in 1981 until his retirement in 2002, he was only the eighth CEO in the 121-year history of the corporation. His leadership style has made General electric as one of the most successful organizations of the United States (O'Boyle, 1999, p. 415). Much of its success has been attributed to the ability to create an agile system, to maintain a focus on results, allowing managers to develop ideas, to encourage its people to take risks without the fear of punishment, to control costs, eliminating bureaucracy and waste and to create a new organizational culture which is shared and by all ...