The General Electric (GE) Company is a multinational corporation that is considered to be among the most successful companies in the world. The company has different sectors such as GE Capital, GE Digital, GE Power, GE Healthcare and GE Aviation, and other divisions. Thomas Edison began GE as an electricity laboratory in 1890 by merging his businesses and named it the Edison General Electric Company. The company then merged with its competitor – the Thomas-Houston Company – and formed the General Electric Company. Starting off as an electric company, the organization diversified to aviation in 1976, and over the years it established other GE divisions. The organization operates in over 180 countries and is greatly invested in harnessing water, gas and oil to produce electricity. GE is suitable for research concerning strategic management as it has a longstanding history and is multidivisional.
Firstly, the company was selected on the basis that it has managed to remain relevant through the different historical times. Since GE began in the 19th century, it has strategically evolved to maintain it competitiveness through the years. Evidently, the company has had to make strategic changes, including technological, legal, and organizational ones, to ensure its sustainability in the dynamic market. Having a change management control process has seen the company reduce leadership, performance, technological, and cultural hindrances that would otherwise have caused it to dysfunction (Ngoie, 2014). In essence, the diverse changes that the organization has implemented through the years make it a point of reference for strategic management research.
Secondly, the company was selected because of its multi-divisional business departments. It is without doubt that GE has a complex business and strategic plan for its different divisions. Thus, its complex strategic management plans have enabled GE to homogenize its operations, innovation and research. Additionally, the company focuses on meeting its customers’ and also ensuring employee satisfaction through talent management in its different divisions. Notably, GE has over 300,000 employees whose productivity and performance should be high to ensure the smooth running of its multi-divisions (Adgbite, 2020). Therefore, GE’s complex organizational culture, work environment and human resource policies provide a comprehensive outlook on the impact of strategic management on employees and an organization at large.
In order to undertake this research, it was crucial to focus on having the background of GE. Numerous sources such as Ngoie (2014) provide background information on the company from its inception and growth over the years. The next step would be to determine the company’s current operations, products and its competitors. For this part of the research, sources such as Karmokar (n.d.) were utilized as they provided comprehensive information into the company’s vision and mission statement as well as its customers and products. Kamorkar (n.d.) will provide particulars on the company such as in 2010, the annual revenues generated by GE were £23.9billion and that it has invested more than £4billion in research and development worldwide.
Its major products include the GE90 engine, household electronic appliances, power grid provision, industrial software, and healthcare equipment. The company has numerous competitors including ALSTOM, Siemens Energy and ABB Ltd (Kamorkar (n.d.). GE has significant market penetration especially in the provision of healthcare equipment, its engines and power grid stations to different hospitals, airlines and countries across the globe. The research will focus on analyzing the strategic management plans for its power division. Sangwa (2021) will be used as the source highlights GE’s value systems, resource auditing, the future strategic plan, the product or service portfolio and its current strategic position. Finally, Adgbite (2020) will provide GE power division strategic SWOT analysis.
The research plan will include identifying the topic of the study which is, ‘The strategic analysis of GE’s Power Division.’ Following suit will be to search for relevant sources that will be utilized in the study. Hence, the search agenda or words will encompass, current GE strategic management plans¸ GE’s power division strategic management, and SWOT analysis of GE’s strategic management plan. The research will take into consideration some questions such as the strategic management changes that GE Power has undergone.
References
Adgbite, A. (2020). General Elecric business power unit. Research Gate. Web.
Karmokar, S. (n.d.). General Electric [Doctoral dissertation]. North South University. Web.
Ngoie, M. (2014). General Electric company case study. Research Gate. Web.
Sangwa, S. (2021). Strategic analysis of the General Electric company – power division. Science and Education Scientific Journal, 2(4), 654-666. Web.