Strategic Leadership: Analyzing GE's Mission and Vision Statements

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of General Electric (GE), focusing on its mission, vision, and leadership styles. The assignment begins with an executive summary outlining the study's purpose: to understand the strategic management process, specifically the development of mission and vision statements. The report examines GE's unconventional approach, which relies on a tagline rather than formal statements, and assesses the alignment of leadership with the company's goals. The introduction provides background information on GE, a multinational conglomerate, and discusses the importance of mission and vision statements in guiding organizational strategy. The core of the report evaluates the congruency between GE's tagline, "imagination at work," and its actions, particularly its emphasis on innovation. The report then describes how GE lives up to its mission through technological advancements, research and development, and a culture that promotes creativity. The analysis also explores the transformational leadership style encouraged within GE, highlighting the role of leaders in fostering innovation and adapting to market changes. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings, emphasizing the alignment between GE's mission, vision, and leadership in achieving its business objectives. References are provided at the end of the report.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Executive Summary
The purpose of the assignment is to understand the first step of strategic management of an
organisation that is determining the mission and vision statement of an organisation. In order to
conduct the study General Electric has been chosen. It has been observed that the company does
not have concrete statement yet it has a tag line and the decisions of the management are taken
on the basis of this tag line. The leadership style associated with the company is also aligned
with the mission and vision of the company.

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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
1.1 About the organisation...........................................................................................................3
1.2 Mission and vision statement...............................................................................................4
2. Evaluation of the congruency of GE’s mission and vision statement.........................................4
3. Description of the organisation living up to the mission.............................................................5
4. Leadership in General Electric....................................................................................................6
5. Conclusion...................................................................................................................................7
Reference list:..................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Any organisations run on the basis of the values and principles of the leader who is
associated with the company. These philosophies help the management of the organisation
formulate the policies and take decisions. Leadership is the quality in an individual that can lead
a group of people towards a common goal by not only instructing but also participating in the
process; any successful organisation in the world has one or more dynamic leaders whose
qualities help in the achievement of the objectives of the organisation. In order to run a business
organisation employee strategic management decisions which starts with the mission and vision
statements as well as formulating the objectives of the business. The mission statement provides
an idea of what the company stands for and offers the customers. On the other hand, the vision
statement states what the company aspires to be in the future. In this assignment the mission and
vision statement of General Electric is going to be analyzed aligning the leaders the company
had in the past and in the present to live up to the mission and vision statements of the company.
1.1 About the organisation
Established in the year 1892, General Electric is a multinational conglomerate that has its
headquarters in headquarters in Boston, United States. The company operates in a number of
industries and has a large array of products and services in the energy supply, aircraft engines,
power generation, and oil and gas production equipment to medical imaging, financing and
industrial products, healthcare, electronics, transportation, aviation, power and also capital etc.
Leadership in the organisation plays a prominent role in the success of achieving the objectives.

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1.2 Mission and vision statement
General Electric does not have a particular mission and vision statements; the company
has a tag line which the management abides by with all the resource and strategies.
The tag line of the company is “imagination at work” and the company states it as the
mission of the organisation as the company is committed to offer the people with innovative
solution to various problems (Ge.com, 2018).
The vision of the company is to innovate and be one of the leading organisation in which
ever industry they are operating (Ge.com, 2018).
2. Evaluation of the congruency of GE’s mission and vision statement
General Electric is an organisation that focuses on the innovation of the products and
services keeping in mind the needs and requirement dynamics of the customers. The mission of
the company is to bring in imagination in the work, which can be explained to have a broad
perspective towards the products and services (Babnik et al., 2014). The culture and the value
that drives the company are based on innovation which is targeted towards solving the problems
that the customers come across. In the annual report of 2017, it has been stated that the company
takes risk in the operation of the business as they focus on developing breakthrough technologies
which can be used as a benchmark in the industry (Ge.com, 2018). This is aligned with the vision
statement of the company which also state that with the help of innovation not only in the
product but also in the process of the company. Over the years of operation General Electronic
has been inspiring other companies with their innovations and technology; this is also one of the
strategies of the company to maintain competitive advantage over the other companies in the

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industry. Therefore it can be said that the mission statement of the company is aligned with the
vision of the company which not only helps the company to have a clear focus and achieve the
objectives. General electric is an organisation that focuses on the innovation and creativity of the
people in order to gain competitive advantage as well as providing the customers with their
needs and requirements (Ge.com, 2018).
3. Description of the organisation living up to the mission
As is mentioned above the mission of the company is to live up to their tag line which is
“imagination at work”. The technology that the company innovates helps in solving some of the
toughest problems, GE over the years have provided the customers with new industrial
paradigms like additive manufacturing, software and analytics. In order to align the business
decisions with the mission the company focuses on the development and improvement among
the leaders of the company (Ge.com, 2018). The culture of the organisation also drives the
mission of the company as it ensures honesty and accountability among the team of the company
which delivers the solutions to the problems that the people are facing. Some of the innovations
that the GE has presented the customers are: first jet engine in the U.S., pioneered the LED, and
designed the first MRI scanner for the brain etc (Rajasekar, 2013). Depending on the industry the
company invests a large amount of money in the research and development of the segment
allowing the people associated with the segment to be creative and innovating. The company is
committed towards building the new heights of innovation and productivity to the end
customers at the same time provides the company a platform to with the help of digital
applications. One of the recent innovations that the company has come up with is the FlightPulse
application which enables the pilots to see their own operational flight data and check their own
performance and all these facilities are available through the application that they can employee

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with any smart device. The application is built completely on the Predix platform for the
industrial IoT making it one of a kind (Ge.com, 2018). In the official website of the company
there is a dedicated section to global research that documents the innovation that the company
undertakes or is planning to implement in order to improve the future. The company believes in
transformational innovation in the four following categories: Artifical intelligence, Additive
manufacturing, Silicon carbide, Edge controls (Geglobalresearch.com, 2018). The company
employees people who can match up to the mission of the organisation in implementing
imagination in the work and develop products and services for the consumers. The focus of the
company is to develop the resource and capabilities of the company into the digital-industrial
future. Thus the mentioned aspects of the organisation prove that GE has been aligning the
strategic management decisions with the mission of the company (Geglobalresearch.com, 2018).
4. Leadership in General Electric
The company focuses on developing the leadership qualities among the people in the
organisation so that they can continue the lineage of encouraging creativity and innovation in the
process of business. The leadership style that has been encouraged in the company is
transformational in nature, as the company is always looking forwards to change and
development. The organization has appointed a new CEO John L. Flannery, who has been
associated with the company for more than 20 years. The company was going through a downfall
in the revenue and the returns. The company encourages leadership in the organisation that is
aligned with the mission and vision of GE (Ge.com, 2018).

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5. Conclusion
It can be concluded form the above discussion that the company is focused on serving the
customers and becoming a market leader with the products and service array. The company has
incorporated innovation and creativity in the process of business operation in order to provide the
consumers with solutions of problems. The mission and vision statements are aligned with the
thread of creativity and innovation implementation in the business. The leaders of the
organization are also transformational in their style which balances the mission and vision
statement proving the management a platform to achieve the objectives of the business.

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Reference list:
Babnik, K., Breznik, K., Dermol, V., & Trunk Širca, N. (2014). The mission statement:
organisational culture perspective. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 114(4), 612-
627.
Ge.com. (2018). GE Annual Report 2017 - Financial Peformance | GE.com. Retrieved from
https://www.ge.com/investor-relations/ar2017/ceo-letter
Ge.com. (2018). John L. Flannery| Ge.com. Retrieved from
https://www.ge.com/about-us/leadership/profiles/john-l-flannery
Geglobalresearch.com. (2018). About Us | geglobalresearch.com. Retrieved from
https://www.geglobalresearch.com/
Rajasekar, J. (2013). A comparative analysis of mission statement content and
readability. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 14(6), 131-147.