Competitive Strategy and Innovation: Electronics

Running head: COMPETITIVE STRATEGY AND INNOVATION
Competitive strategy and Innovation: General Electronics
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COMPETITIVE STRATEGY AND INNOVATION
Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
About the company......................................................................................................................2
Mission and vision.......................................................................................................................2
Jeff Immelt as the CEO and chairman of GE..............................................................................3
Alignment of the strategies with the requirements of the 21st century business environment.......5
Aims and objectives of the company in the 21st century.............................................................5
Changes to implement the strategy..................................................................................................8
Alternative strategies should GE consider.....................................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
Reference list:................................................................................................................................14
Appendix 1:...................................................................................................................................16
Appendix 2:...................................................................................................................................17
Appendix 3:...................................................................................................................................18
Appendix 4:...................................................................................................................................19
Appendix 5:...................................................................................................................................20

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Introduction
About the company
General Electric or popularly known as GE is a multinational conglomerate corporation
that was established in the year 1892. Over the years of operation the company has gained
goodwill and reputation from the stakeholders. The products and services that are offered by the
company are varied including some of the sectors like: energy supply, aircraft engines, power
generation, and oil and gas production equipment to medical imaging, financing and industrial
products. The customers of the organization are as widespread as 180 countries. The company
has been awarded as the fourth largest international company by Forbes in the year 2012
(Bolman and Deal 2017). The industries that the company operates in are: healthcare,
electronics, transportation, aviation, power and also capital. The company has shed the mantel of
the traditional business model and has recently adopted the model of triple bottom line, which
has enabled the company develop a sustainable business model (Ge.com 2017).
Mission and vision
The company encourages innovation as the tagline reads “imagination at work”. The
vision of the company is to offer the consumers with product and services that ensures integrity
and compliance. The company works on the motto of the best elements of speed, scale and
flexibility as stated by former chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.

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Core competencies of the organisation
 The organisation incorporates the strategies that are most pertinent to the
immediate future and growth of the organisation
 The organisation has been successful in adapting to the dynamics of the industry
and the market that it operates in
 The leaders and the human resource of the organisation are one of the major
competencies of the organisation
 Traditions and legacies in the organisation are still carried forward
Competition
Owing to the various business portfolio of the organisation, the competition of the
company is also distributed. Siemens is regarded as one of the biggest competitors of the
organisation.
Changes redirected by Jeff Immelt
Under the leadership of Jeff Immelt the organisation has flourished to achieve new
heights. Since 2001 Jeffrey R. Immelt has served as the chairman and CEO of general
electronics. Integrity and creativity has always been the undertone of the business and leadership
styles that is encouraged by General Electric. These operations of the company are handled by
the leaders and managers present in the business who are regarded to be one of world’s best
leaders. Chief Executive Officer, General Manager, General Council, and Vice President form
the management structure of the company. According to Jeff Immelt, general electric is a

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“connected industrial company”. Jeff Immelt redirected the ways of the company by following
the dynamic of the business environment. Before being the chairman and CEO of the company
Jeff was heading the GE Appliances, GE Plastics, and GE Medical Systems. He gained goodwill
and earned good reputation for the company by focusing on customer services and development
of innovative and new technologies. The strategy that has been implemented by Immelt is a
combination of innovation, increased productivity and customer service (Hill et al. 2014).
One of the main features that are observed in the leadership style of Jeff is motivation of
the employees. He closely worked with the employee and worked hard to understand the
challenges and grievances faced by him. He had a friendlier approach towards leadership. His
style of leadership can be defined as a transactional and transformational leadership. He believes
that the employees are the backbone of the organization and the management has to work with
the staff and not ahead of the staff. With the help of motivational tactics he used a lot of effort to
understand and help the employees to develop commitment towards the company. As the
approach of leadership of Immelt is very different form the CEO and chairman before him, he
quickly gained popularity among the employees of GE. He has been described as the “man-of-
the-people” as he has the ability to understand and think from the perspective of the person
(Mihalache et al. 2014). This has made him approachable for a person who is in the highest
management to a person working on the ground level. In order to maintain the stability in the
new millennium the varied portfolio of businesses of GE was regarded as a way to stabilize the
business cycle. Immelt has highlighted the merits of a portfolio of businesses which curved the
instability of individual businesses. In other words the diverse portfolio helped in filling for the
gaps of the businesses that was in trouble (Bolman and Deal 2017). He promoted diversity and
emphasized the importance, in the annual report of 2014. Healthcare, under his guidance

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received a major product development and geographical expansion. Energy is the oldest portfolio
in the business and one of the major changes that have taken place in this segment under the
leadership of Immelt was alternative energy. There were also significant changes in the
broadcasting and communication department along with development in the technological
infrastructure (Eden and Ackermann 2013).