General Electric Co Business Analysis

Business Analysis Part IIIIII

General Electric Co. is a diversified technology and financial services corporation based in the United States. Some of General Electric's key business segments consist of aviation, power generation, household appliances, GEC and a 49% stake in NBC Universal. General Electric generates the majority of their revenues, around 70%, from the United States (Which of These Two Giants Should You Invest In?, Febr).

Recent Economic Trends

General Electric, the United States industrial conglomerate, on Thursday, April 10, 2008 reported a surprise fall in first-quarter profit, reinforcing fears that the United States economy is sliding into recession and dragging down markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The second-largest company in America by market capitalization, seen as an economic barometer, saw its shares fall by nearly 13% after it reported a 6% decline in profits. General Electric also lowered its earnings forecast for the year. The company blamed the profit fall on a slump mainly on its financial services businesses, analysts said the figures confirmed the state of the United States economy and that the turmoil in credit markets has begun to spread from banking to the industrial sector (Huber, Apri).

Company Tactics

After the banking sector failures of the past few years, General Electric is turning back to their original purpose: innovation in products, and less so in services. General Electric leadership attempted to make a decision about what they should do and what they did not do. As far as implementation, the profile of General Electric's new Batesville, Mississippi factory represents the analysis from "The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution." The limitation to hierarchy in the plant, the grouping of employees in teams, and the respect implied by the decent salaries suggest that "everyone in the company knows which decision and actions they are responsible for," General Electric as "encouraged higher level managers to delegate operation decisions" and that "field and line employees understand how their day to day choices affect the company's bottom line." Because their recent hardships, General Electric have demonstrated ability to change, choose a strategy, and accept tradeoffs (Bernier, Dece).

Management

New research into the challenge to hire the best people and hold on to them is to follow six key principles to success. General Electric has done the following; aligning recruiting efforts with strategy; making sure the company's talent management practices fit with each other; making deliberate effort to embed corporate culture into talent management processes such as, hiring methods and leadership development; getting involvement by managers at all levels, including the CEO; figuring out the best balance of the company's global and local needs, and finding ways to differentiate the company from its competitors.

"Corporate strategy is the natural starting point for thinking about talent management," write the authors. General Electric's growth strategy is based on five pillars: technological leadership, services acceleration, enduring customer relationships, resource allocation, and globalization.

Implementing that strategy "may have less to do with strategic planning than with attracting, recruiting, developing and deploying the right people to drive the effort. According to