Company Analysis Essay on General Electric

Chapter 1- Managing and Performing

Heller (2015) has presented the history of General Electric entailing some of the units of its production. General Electric is considered among the largest firms in the world that was formed in 1892 as a result of a merger of two competing organizations, Thomson-Houston and General Electric Company. The company is active in various industries such as oil and gas, transportation, aviation, renewable energy, power, and energy connections. Additionally, it also operates in other segments such as life sciences, automotive, transportation, engineering, and software development firms. The Aviation segment of the company deals with products and services such as jet engines, replacement parts, and repair maintenance services as well as aerospace equipment and systems. On the other hand, oil and gas sector is responsible for the supply of mission necessary equipment through downstream processing in refineries. It is also necessary to note that this area provided equipment that is crucial for the global oil and gas industry. It further undertakes other roles such as inspection and compression of the pipelines and down streaming processing in petrochemicals plants and refineries. As such, it deals with a broad range of goods and activities in the world of business. However, General Electrics can trace its roots to the power industry in the early years. General Electric is a well-performing company with their gross revenue having been listed among Fortune 500. For instance, in 2011, it was ranked as the sixty-eighth in America.

The CEO of General Electric is Jeff Immelt who has been in that position since September 2001. He is the ninth chairman of the company since its formation. Jeff Immelt has had various global leadership positions since he joined the company in 1982. They include partaking tasks in the Plastic Appliances department and Healthcare business. He became an officer of General Electric in 1989 and moved to join the Capital Board of the firm in 1997. Jeff Immelt has been named three times as the Worlds Best CEOs by Barrons. Moreover, he has also been named in a poll that was carried out by Fortune Magazine as Americas Most Admired Company and The Worlds Most Respected Companies ("John F. Welch, Jr.", 2017). As such, he has undertaken various roles even before rising to the CEO of General Electrics.

Jeff Immelt has been observed to practices the various functions of management in his daily functions. He has undertaken the aspect of planning and as such considered investing more in organic growth. As such, they have increased from two percent of income that they used to invest in research and development to six percent. This is a projection of the future that requires more skills and knowledge for the growth and continued survival of the company. More products are also being launched every year with his guidance and instruction. This can be linked to the leadership function of management. The increase in operations in various countries worldwide also depicts the aspect of staffing. The expansion into other nations has been fortunate so far that also shows the capability of Jeff Immelt to put the right individuals on various tasks. Additionally, in all the countries where they have expanded their operations, the firm also runs different strategies. Being a global business, Jeff Immelt has also ensured that there is enough cash set aside and planned for future activities ("GE's Jeff Immelt on Leadership, Global Risk, and Growth - Knowledge@Wharton," 2013).

Chapter 2- The External and Internal Environments

Internal Environment

The factors within a company usually assist it to adapt to various factors that are found in the business world. General Electric has been observed to be keen on such issues and has undertaken strategies to ensure that internal aspects of the firm do not result in adverse effects. One of these aspects is information technology that they apply in various segments to come with the final product. The world has been undergoing a rapid development in the field of informatics. Moreover, the technological forms have been observed to be distributed at a high rate and further exchanged in a more transparent manner. As such, they have influenced the internal functioning of the firm whereby some segments may not have fully adopted the latest form of technology in the market. As such, this may affect some of the final products and services.

The human resources of General Electric also have a broad impact on the output of their employees. The quality of skills and knowledge among the population continues to improve as a result of the advancement in the education sector and competition in the market that has required individuals to come up with more effective skills and knowledge. In addition to this, the living conditions of people have also been changing. As such, the firm has ensured that their personnel is satisfied as they undertake their duties in the organization. The level of morale of a worker to partake in functions of the company has a broad effect on its performance. As such, General Electric has incorporated the aspects of salary and promotion as a part of the packages offered to employees to keep them motivated. They have gone further and modified the culture and even regulation of the organization such that it has created a satisfying environment in general for the personnel to partake their duties.

On the other hand, the management also has an effect on the way the firm operates. Management innovation has been identified as one of the fundamental capabilities of General Electric. The structure of the company in the past was traditional. As such, it results in information being distorted and the flow of information further declined. This led to the levels of organization in the firm being reduced as it would enable information to be communicated in a direct manner. Management innovation thus brought up the aspect of the personnel and organization to be streamlined. Furthermore, it has also been improving the performance of the firm as it has been depicted in the high level of output and its appearance among the Fortune 500.

External Environment

Despite being an important and successful organization, the business is still affected by external factors. Politics usually highlight the function of the national government. Being a large global firm, it thus has to deal with the national political systems in a different way. Difficulties experienced in the process are such as tax policies and regulations and restriction which the organization has to adjust the conditions of the service and even requirements of the products for them to suit the nations markets. As such, it is necessary for the company to consider these elements as they will work well with various governments and even attain all goals that they had set for their customers. The political aspect may further influence the business regarding the decision to invest in a new nation (Saleem, 2010). This is as a result of the local companies having to make the decision entailing a new entrant in the market.

On the economic element, there is the element of fluctuation in national growth and prices of fuel as well. Other costs that have to be considered are such as labor and operational. It is necessary for the firm to come up with measures that will enable it to avoid the elements of inflation and deflation of every country they operate. This is as a result of the difference in the growth of the economy and the external aspects that will influence the firm; for instance, the impulsive situation that results from currency exchange fluctuation. The different rate of currency exchange has an impact on the company for it to predict an economic performance. It is also essential to consider the term of trade to comparing import and export price. This will give a knowledge of the balancing payments that will be the major issue resulting in the element of currency exchange rate (Ghuman, & Aswathappa, 2010).

In the social aspect, the elements that have to be put into consideration are religion, norms, culture and the social environment. As such, General Electric has always considered these factors before investing in other countries (Rao, 2016). As for the demography, products and services should be made such that they can fully satisfy the market and individuals as well. For instance, if a country has health issues, General Electric can venture in the health care industry and thus take advantage of the high demand (Bucifal, 2009). As such, considering the social welfare of a country as well as the quality of life is fundamental to making the company successful in a new setting.

General Electric concentrates on innovative products. In the technological aspect, their competitors are utilizing more advanced forms that are always coming up on the market. Moreover, they can compete more efficiently by using new business models that have been invented by the General Electric technology. Environmentally, they are usually concerned about the surrounding issues. This is as a result of the need to deal with environmental factors in various countries. For instance, in Australia, the costs of tax is quite high. There is the carbon emission tax that may affect their performance and even investment as well (Saleem, 2010).

SWOT Analysis

An analysis can be conducted to depict the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company as follows;

Strengths

One of the obvious strengths of the company is its global recognition. It was identified as the largest company in the world by Forbes. Furthermore, in 2011, it obtained another rank in the USA as among the largest companies. This aspect of global recognition enabled General Electric to gain competitive advantage. It may further be attributed to its remarkable performance in the local and international markets.

Its historical background can also be pointed out as an effective strength of the business. It has a strong reputation as a result of the experience, and this may be attributed to several positive gains such as being preferred by most clients for the provision of goods and services and attraction of investors as well.

General Electric is also quite innovative as seen in their production methods and other capacities. Moreover, the services and products that they offer are also innovative since they began operating as a company hence the success in the market and high market share.

The company also has a highly differentiated portfolio. This can be attributed to its operation in various countries. Additionally, it also has a wide variety of goods and services that it offers to their customers (Pride, & Ferrell, 2015).

Weaknesses

The operational level has been associated with some difficulties. The company has been strongly diversified in that it has set up other business units in various nations across the world. As such, this has brought challenge when it comes to making decisions. It is quite time-consuming to come up with effective judgments in some situations and especially as a result of the approach used by the company where all the managers are consulted and their views or opinions taken into consideration as well.

The aspect of being a big brand is also quite challenging. The company may be an easy target for lawsuits. The litigation may arise from minor issues that may have been solved through a consensus among the parties involved (Giffin, 2015).

Opportunities

Various opportunities are available for the company especially due to its size and range of products and services as well. One of these is in research and development. Their department that deals with research and development have been observed to be quite strong. The capa...