Ge: The Immelt InitativeEssay Preview: Ge: The Immelt InitativeReport this essayGeneral Electric was formed in 1892 by merging a few of the biggest electric companies at the time. In 1876, Thomas Edison, (one of the founders of General Electric) opened a new laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. Out of the laboratory came arguably the most famous invention of all–a practical incandescent electric lamp. General Electric expanded business by creating a division of their company soley for lighting. They then later became one of the top producers of computers. Some argue that they took this route because their company used more computers than any other company in the world. They later sold their computer division and reacquired RCA, who owns the NBC television network. While purchasing and selling, General Electric was able to become the third largest media conglomerate in the world. The company is composed by a number of subsections that could be Fortune 500 companies from a stand alone situation. This boosts GEs image as well as customer loyalty.
From a development point of view, GE has been buying and selling businesses as if they were financial securities. This is ironic since over half of the companys revenue is earned through financial services. GEs diversification provides the company with a degree of protection against poor performance in any one market, industry, or business category. They also have a large international presence, which helps compete with companies around the world. Strategic growth strategies for a giant of this nature takes a well-seasoned manager that has been in the business for some time. Since General Electric consumes so much market space, the leaders of the company must have a very diverse knowledge base.
Growth of the GE brand
A big part of the reason for GE’s success so far may be its brand. If you’re a company that takes its brand very seriously, it will often benefit from a healthy and profitable sales and marketing strategy. This year, the company launched Blueprints, which was a mobile app and had some of the same features as the GE brand. However, this feature wasn’t available for all the markets it launched. One company had a big push into developing a smartphone app and another was taking the approach of releasing a mobile application with the GE name (GPS). Despite this, the big success of Blueprints led to a strong push for GE and its company to create its own mobile app business. By this, it had a solid lead and was looking to expand in that same space. GE is known for its mobile app business, which is much broader than the GE brands. In 2013, the G.E.G. launched Smart, which is more than a bit bigger than a GE game. Smart allows for quick feedback. It is about finding and targeting the right fit with your company. While Smart has a core audience of customers, that is limited by the company’s number of active Google Plus subscribers. Not all of the customers participate yet in an integrated approach to marketing, which is why Smart is considered to be a good choice for small retail companies, but will become a more important factor in choosing a larger business. It will be interesting to see which market emerges as GE’s most market driven brand.
Global positioning
In the U.S., the GE business is recognized as one of the most important business markets in the world through their presence at leading global events, from World Economic Forum to the Summit of the World Economic Forum. They are listed on the Fortune 500 list of the world’s top 30 global companies by gross domestic product (GDP). A global positioning position is also defined by the world’s most prestigious corporate education program. As the ranking has grown stronger, the G.E.G. has started to gain greater recognition which will help attract and retain key players within their respective sectors. Additionally for the next three years, GE will be able to further expand its brand.
Global trends
Despite some of its strong global positions, GE also has a long history of operating within a global context. For example, if GE is to succeed in its global goals, they need to take a step like the expansion of localizing a company, growing its network, developing new products and new markets, developing markets through international development partnerships, and expanding by investing in its strategic and international brands. Despite the dominance of the GE brand now, there are still many questions looming over their future as the company continues its focus on expanding the company’s footprint in the U.S., Europe and Asia
General Electric: Strength and WeaknessesGeneral Electric is a company that builds everything from light bulbs to power plants and straddles markets such as prime-time TV and commercial finance. So it wouldnt be wrong when one of their corporate managers attempts to generate the companys strengths and weaknesses, but his or her results may seem to span across several areas. General Electric may be acknowledged by the companys well-built strengths such as its rich history (Thomas Edison opening a new laboratory in America in 1876) and brand name recognition (being one of the original 12 companies listed on the newly formed Dow-Jones-Industrial Average and still remaining there after 111 years), but weaknesses still come in to play.
Somewhere in between the one and the other, General Electric’s history can have the reverse effect.
In the past, the companys had been very successful in their efforts to compete on a competitive level—with a number of successful operations on the U.S.-International market (The New Energy Alliance, for example) and in their international market (the global financial market (FinTech)) where their share of the market share is often held by a small percentage of corporate and governmental executives. However, by the late 1970s, many governments started to realize the futility of those strategies and, in the process, took steps that left the companys with limited strength and no market share at all.
With these changes, the companys eventually made their own choices, like they did in the past—as well as the companies of their time. The companys now have an abundance of potential while also being a very strong industry. And while companies of every type may have a different outlook on a given product, there will always be companies that are a little bit different from the companys at many different points in time.
Let’s take a look: When are the companys to hold the market share from the previous time?
General Electric has had little success in changing the underlying market share since the 1930s. The company was once once dominant in a number of industries, from small electronics to automotive. But in the late 1970s and 1980s, as GE began producing and operating the Model S, the company suffered significantly in price and cost, and now that the Model S is starting to hit the market, the company has no strong idea whether it will survive or not.
According to company press releases following the purchase of General Electric, it’s estimated that the average customer will pay at least $19,000 in monthly shipping costs just for the Model S, while the average store credit costs $3,000. Meanwhile, the company had also been criticized for being overly focused on a single product: automobiles. As for the Model S, General Electric has shown the Model S to still be relatively inexpensive and reliable despite the company’s performance in several areas, like new engine technology and low-level costs like high-end electronics.
It’s also not clear how this will play out in the future, though many companies have already seen their profitability fall in recent years. For example, BMW has been able to expand to a wide variety of markets, but a lack of market share means that they’ve had to work longer hours for what is perceived to be very little profit. In 2009, at least 1.2 billion units of BMW’s Model S were sold in the U.S., up 20% from the prior year. Sales of the automaker’s new $150,000, BMW i3 sedan fell 7% in the first 12 months from the same period a year earlier.
There are many other
StrengthsWell developed R and D skills (cleaner technologies)Ecomagination” is a play on the companys “Imagination at Work” slogan. Ecomagination, a business strategy based on providing more environmentally friendly products to the companys customers, has won GE a good deal of acclaim. G.E. also doubled research and development spending on cleaner technologies. On May 10, 2005, seeking to be seen as “green,” GE became one of only a few business titans to call for broad action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that many scientists say lead to global warming.
Broad product lineThe Ecomagination line now features 45 products with $12 billion in sales. Although skeptics might look upon Ecomagination as the latest version of corporate “greenwashing,” it has impressed socially conscious investors with memories of Mr. Welch. The company pledged to spend $1.5 billion a year on such research by 2010, more than double the $700 million it spends today. Immelt (current Chairman) said GE also aims to double the revenue goal over that period for products that provide better environmental performance, to $20 billion a year, and expects more than half of its product revenue to come from such products by 2015.
Business strategy environmentally friendlyAt the same time, GE promised to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of its factory operations 1 percent by 2012. Without the initiative, those emissions were expected to increase 40 percent, the company said.
Sophisticated manufacturingMr. Immelt and Ms. Bolsinger say that the point of Ecomagination isnt to save the planet but to make money. And the best evidence that G.E. can do both lies in a windowless Greenville, S.C., plant that is the largest gas turbine factory in the world. Alongside huge gas-fired turbines destined for Saudi Arabia (half of G.E.s overall revenue comes from overseas customers, and the Middle East in particular is booming) workers are busy assembling ultra-efficient wind turbines as quickly as they can get the components. Since G.E. acquired the wind unit from Enron after it went bankrupt in 2001, annual sales have grown to more than $4 billion from $500 million, and the $2 million machines are nearly sold out until late 2009. The wind turbines contain some 8,000 different parts, says Frank Ferraro, a manager at the plant, “but we can do the final assembly in less than a week.” G.E.s success in Greenville is an impressive example of its prowess when it comes to sophisticated manufacturing, as well as a sign that Ecomagination is more than just another slogan.
Excellent Marketing, Broad Market CoverageG.E.s sponsorship of the Summer Olympics in Beijing next year has given G.E.s infrastructure unit a leg up in winning lucrative orders for locomotives and power turbines from Chinese buyers, according to G.E. executives.
Strength as a ConglomerateThe bottom line in this business is stock price performance. G.E.s huge infrastructure business is the companys largest division in terms of revenue. “Infrastructure is carrying the company, that and citing surging orders for locomotives, power turbines, jet engines and other big-iron products that boast fat margins and lucrative long-term service contracts.
Well developed corporate strategyIn 2004 G.E. Bought Vivendis TV and movie assets becoming the 3rd largest media conglomerate in the world naming it NBC universal. G.E. also formed the spinoff of mortgage and life insurance assets into an independent company Genworth Financial.
Growth with direction, building international imageAs soon as Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electrics chairman, became chief executive in 2001, his foreign-based managers began pressing him to move some major operations overseas. In 2004, he moved G.E. Healthcare from Wisconsin to outside London, the home of Amersham, a company G.E. had just bought. G.E.