Immelt and GE

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13 October 2007

Immelt and GE

Having become the CEO of General Electric Company , Jeffrey Immelt was primarily expected to undertake the development line , previously held by Jack Welch . However , the dramatic transformations , implemented by Immelt into the whole GE 's organizational culture , have scared many , with the rest closely watching the process and the results of structural cultural , marketing changes encouraged by Immelt

Question No . 1

Trying to answer the question , how Immelt has impacted the overall business activity

at GE , it is obvious , that a serious structural change took place (Brady 2005 , 49 . The fact that Immelt has invested 5 billion into the newest revolutionary projects , speaks for itself (Brady 2005 , 50 . Moreover , changing the company 's orientation towards overseas customers is the proof , that Immelt is aimed at further revolutionizing the company . The GE 's CEO expects 60 of the GE 's profits to come from overseas (Brady 2005 , 50 . Thus , re-orientation at international customers has recently become one of the major company 's objectives

Question No . 2

The culture , which had existed in GE during Welch 's being the CEO could be characterized by the following features . First of all , the company was known for being primarily process-oriented and hard-driving (Brady 2005 , 52 . Secondly , the values , to which the GE managers used to keep , presupposed achieving bottom-line sales for significant financial compensation (Lee 22 . Thus , the company 's management may have lacked sufficient incentives for progressive development . Objectively , it is impossible to state that the company had been unsuccessful under Welch but definitely , under Immelt the company has faced revolutionary changes in organizational culture , core values and corporate structure . The previously exercised `promotion-from-within ' has been eliminated by Immelt - it is no more viewed as a source of productive top management (Stanford 10

Question No . 3

The structure of values , implemented by Immelt , and effectively exercised by the company , is completely different from the one executed by Welch . Innovation is made its basis , its source , and its driving mechanism . `The blockbuster ideas (Brady 2004 , 31 , generation of which Immelt has made real , are the sources of significant profits for both the company and the employees , who produce these ideas . Moreover , Immelt is the author of the new model , which allows making the process of generating ideas quantifiable and scalable (Brady 2005 , 52 . As a result , the company 's approaches towards employees have turning top managers towards more financial incentives through their hard intellectual work . What is more important , innovation is the integral feature of the company 's cultural environment today . Immelt values his employees , but urges them to undertake active steps and to produce innovative ideas . The time of bottom-line sales has passed it is the time of innovative ideas and revolutionary approaches in management , marketing and sales . Immelt claims the value of the manager to be integral to the industry he (she ) is responsible for this integrity is essential to support and promote company 's leading position in the international market . As a consequence , constant learning is one more value incorporated into the GE 's new culture - in for the employee to become inseparable with the new team , learning new skills and approaches is essential and is , actually , compulsory

Question No . 4

In the light of the new values , which Immelt constantly implements into the GE 's culture , the employee 's culture is turned upside down (Lee 23 First of all , undertaking such serious steps requires considerable risk and courage to change the way GE operates as a result , Immelt primarily claims that members of the GE 's team cannot and should not be cowards (Brady 2005 , 53 . As long as Immelt is in constant close contact with the GE 's top management , he views their obligations in learning more about their industries , and not about other managerial approaches (Brady2005 , 53 . The strategies in appointing top managers has resulted in hiring more than 1 ,700 new outsiders (Brady 2005 , 54 . Immelt has thus displayed his ability to search and evaluate the workforce beyond the company 's walls consequentially showing his confidence that the newcomers will succeed in becoming integral to the company 's business culture and business values

Question No . 5

Obviously , revolutionary approaches and ideas require revolutionary techniques to implement the desired changes . First of all , `banishing some of the previous traditions ' has become essential to change the corporate face of GE (Brady 2004 , 32 . It does not mean , that Immelt ignores previous GE 's corporate values . He rather understands the need to eradicate certain traditions , which risk preventing the company from effective development , the way Immelt views it . The Commercial Council which Immelt has created , is expected to lead to better management achievements : in to become a member of the Council , a manager should produce `three imagination breakthrough ideas ' per year (Lee 24 Immelt has chosen a very proper approach to creating incentives for his employees . As long as employees view money as the biggest incentive they should be encouraged to earn on the basis of their achievements Thus , Immelt has tied employees ' financial compensation to their abilities (Brady 2005 , 54 . What can be recommended is that re-directing the company 's marketing strategies to outside markets should be slowed down doubtlessly , revolutionary approaches in management require immediate measures to make these approaches effective . However , some time will be needed for the newcomers to merge with the new environment and for everyone to acquire new marketing skills , about which Immelt speaks (Stanford 11

Conclusion

Jeffrey Immelt has created a new culture within GE . This culture is not simply new , but is exercised by Jack Welch during his being the GE 's CEO . Such changes require close control , consideration and analysis , this is why it is recommended that they should be slowed down to give some more time for the company to absorb the consequences of these changes , and to integrate into the new structure of corporate values

Works cited

Brady , D . GE Breaks the Mold to Spur Innovation . Business Week 26 April 2004 : 29-34

Brady , D . Immelt Revolution . Business Week 28 March , 2005 : 49-56

Lee , S . `Embracing Learning at GE : Lessons From the World 's Most Successful

Conglomerate . Development and Learning in Organizations , 18 (2006 22-24

Stanford , J . Cultural Shift at GE : Putting the Customer First Strategic Direction , 20

(2005 : 10-13 PAGE

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