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General Electric Company Running Head: GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY

General Electric Company Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

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General Electric Company Table of Contents Abstract ...............................................................................................................................3 History .................................................................................................................................4 The Company Today............................................................................................................4 Goals and Objectives............................................................................................................5 Strategy …..…………………..............................................................................................5 Geographic Region.............................................................................................................10 Organization …………......................................................................................................11 Quality…………................................................................................................................14 Human Resources...............................................................................................................14 Compensation………………………………….................................................................17 Competition……………………….…………...................................................................18 Financial Summary……….................................................................................................19 Financial Protection............................................................................................................20 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................21 References………… ..........................................................................................................22

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Abstract This paper presents an overview of the General Electric (GE) Company and its operations on global scale. The company was established over 130 years ago as a conglomerate and was one of the original 12 corporations listed the Dow and is the only one remaining. Throughout its history GE has sustained high levels of profitability, employing over 320,000 people in over 100 countries. GE has remained successful throughout is history by developing strong leadership, expanding through acquisitions and through innovative research and development programs and has been consistently recognized as one of the world’s most admired companies. This research will provide information onGE’s business operations and strategies that have allowed it to grow into one of the largest organizations in the world.

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GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY History The General Electric Company is a multinational conglomerate with employees and facilities located around the world, manufacturing products from aircraft engines to media products. Thomas Alvin Edison besides being one of our greatest inventors was also a keen businessman and is credited with being one of the founders of GE. Edison started and ran many businesses with the motivation of selling his inventions to the public, and in 1878 he established the Edison Electric Light Company to support his research to develop an electric lamp, His goal was to develop light bulb that could be used in homes and to market electricity to the masses. Edison remarked he wanted “make electricity so cheap that only the rich would burn candles.” (Tammy, 2007). In less than two years Edison had developed the first practical incandescent lamp for indoor use. During this period other inventors and businesses were also working to develop and promote electricity and were directly competing with Edison for control and advancement of the industry. In 1892, the Edison Electric Company consolidated with an emerging competitor the Thomas-Houston Electric Company, dropping Edison’s name and forming the General Electric (GE) Company. (Edison and GE) The Company Today, headquartered in Fairfield, Connecticut, GE is one of the largest organizations in the world. It is a conglomerate of businesses operating in over 100 countries with more than 320,000 employee’s world wide. GE has established a reputation for being able to attract and develop some of the world’s most effective business people to serve at its helm, including the current Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Jeffery Immelt.

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GE’s has been able to successfully grow throughout its 130 year history because of its diversified business model and its leadership’s ability to perform and adapt their business strategy has led the company through nine recessions and one depression. General Electric was one of the original 12 companies listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average and is the only one of the 12 original companies on the Dow remaining today. (Useem, 2004) The company’s tradition of investing in research and development of new products and improvement of existing products, have allowed it to continue to maintain a solid advantage over its competition. As a single entity or conglomerate, GE does not publish a mission statement, however the CEO does spell out his operating goals and business objectives in his Annual Report. (GE Annual Report, 2008, pp. 3-6 ) 2008 CEO Goals and Objectives A company’s business goals and objectives provide the statement of what will be accomplished in both the long and short term. Immelts goals and objectives for GE are to prepare for tough times, build strong businesses and to sustain a competitive advantage. Immelt is taking action to prepare for turbulent economic environment. GE is planning to reduce working capital by about $5 billion over the next two years, freeing up cash to reinvest in growth and to strengthen the balance sheet. To build a strong business Immelt has three priorities to expand leadership infrastructure and media, capitalize on GE’s cyclical advantages by creating value for its customers through efficiency and energy savings. Sustain a competitive advantage by continuing to invest in initiatives that will give GE a long term advantage. (GE Annual Report, 2008, pp. 3-6 )

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Strategy In his Letter to Shareholders, published in the 2008 Annual Report, Jeff Immelt stated to achieve its organizational objectives, GE will the strategy of “drawing on the key strengths from the past and making them relevant to the new era of global business.” The report goes on to state that in order to sustain its competitive advantage, GE needs to be Global, Drive Innovation, Build Relationships and Leverage Strengths. (GE Annual Report, pp. 6-8)

1. BE GLOBAL. Our non-U.S. revenues have averaged 13% annual growth this decade. We expect our global growth to outpace the U.S. in 2009. This is a source of competitive advantage for GE. We are perfecting an approach called “connected and scalable localization” whereby we accelerate growth by expanding our local product lines, serving new customers, and creating strong partnerships with local champions. GE has 25 countries each with more than $1 billion in revenues, so empowering our local teams is critical to driving growth. Global diversity is important in this cycle because it diversifies revenues and risk. We expect Healthcare’s diagnostic imaging business to suffer in the U.S. as our customers grapple with budget cuts. However, we have a $9 billion global

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healthcare business that we expect to experience strong demographic growth, offsetting weakness in the U.S. 2. DRIVE INNOVATION. We will invest $10 billion in technology and content in 2009, the same level as 2008. Since 2000, we have invested approximately $50 billion in product technology. We’ll launch economical “value products” in 2009 such as the 2.6megawatt wind turbine, which has high efficiency, more capacity, and lower cost. We’ll continue to build our innovation pipeline. We launched a venture in digital pathology, which we think will be a $2 billion market over time. We launched hulu,™ a joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., which is an innovative digital content platform competing with YouTube.™ We have invested $150 million in battery technology that will power our hybrid locomotives. We will continue to fund innovation through the downturn. 3. BUILD RELATIONSHIPS. GE has many ventures and partnerships that help us grow and diversify risk on a global basis. Our multi-business structure makes us a particularly desirable partner for governments and other large investors. A great example is our spectacular success with the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. This event produced $2 billion of revenues across multiple GE platforms, while building our relationships in China. In 2008, we announced a multifaceted partnership with Mubadala, the commercial investing arm of Abu Dhabi, which includes a commercial finance joint venture, projects in renewable energy, and a training center in Abu Dhabi. Mubadala will also become a “Top 10” GE investor. 4. LEVERAGE STRENGTHS. We have core processes centered on organic growth, operating excellence, and leadership development. The aim of these processes is to

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spread best practices across the Company. We compare our progress on common metrics in industrial organic revenue growth, margins, return on total capital, and productivity as measured by revenue per employee. The chart on this page shows how we compare with a composite of world-class peers. We continue to perform. In addition, we continue to invest $1 billion annually in our people and leadership development. We value our team. We remain committed to developing broad and “battle-tested” global leaders.

(GE Annual Report, pp. 3-8). Another long term tradition of GE that could be considered a strategy is the continual development its employees and selecting and attracting high quality CEO’s who are innovative and forward thinking to lead the company. In most cases, each man selected to lead GE, has been considered a leading industrialist of his day. Throughout the history of GE, many of those CEO’s have abandoned the direction of his predecessor and taking GE in a new direction. The advice that has been passed on from the outgoing CEO to the incoming CEO has been to “Blow it up” encouraging the new CEO to take risks. During the 1980’s and 1990’s under 20 years of leadership from Jack Welch, the company had moved heavily into financial services and was largely into growth by acquisition, buying new businesses and selling those that were not

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performing as well. Welch had expanded the number of GE products and saturated the market, seeming to producing most everything. During this 20 year period, Welch also increased GE’s annual revenues from $27 billion to $130 billion and in 1999 Fortune magazine named Jack Welch the Manager of the Century. (Bianco, 2004) When the Jeff Immelt took the reins of the company from Jack Welch in 2001 he followed tradition and changed direction of the company. Immelt focused less on acquisitions and more on internal growth. He wanted to become better in the business sectors they are currently in, preferring to have controlled growth and quality service and products, rather than numerous short term acquisitions for immediate financial gain. Immelt goal is to grow the company from within through innovation and marketing. From its beginning GE was built on growing by developing products and creating demand for its products. Owen Young, GE’s 2nd CEO, introduced electric appliances to give GE a friendly presence in the home. Immelt has cut General Electrics acquisitions team by two-thirds and revitalized its research and development centers. Taking risks and changing directions has been a tradition of GE’s leaders and Immelt is no different and looking to the future of the company he is exploring areas such as nanotechnology, hydrogen power and advanced propulsion. (Useem, 2004) Another of Immelts initiatives is GE’s Ecomagination. Ecomagination is a GE philosophy or commitment to produce energy efficient products. This initiative started in 2005 is used across all of GE businesses. Jeff Immelt said "Ecomagination is GE's commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more efficient sources of energy, reduced emissions and abundant sources of clean water." "And we plan to make money doing it. Increasingly for business, 'green' is green.” Immelt went on to say “Ecomagination is about the future we will focus our unique

General Electric Company 10 energy, technology, manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities to develop tomorrow's solutions such as solar energy, hybrid locomotives, fuel cells, lower-emission aircraft engines, lighter and stronger materials, efficient lighting and water purification technology.” "We will establish partnerships with our customers to tackle their most pressing environmental challenges and double our research spending to develop the products and services they need," Immelt said. "And we will use these technologies to improve our own energy efficiency and environmental performance." (GE News Center, 2005)

As environmental awareness and concerns increase throughout the world. The Ecomagination philosophy will encourage GE to develop “green” products that are demanded by the public. Ecomagination is involved in researching environmentally cleaner energy such as wind energy machines, hybrid engines, and solar systems. This new market will become financially lucrative”Ecomagination Vice President Lorraine Bolsinger told shareholders that “GE has never had an initiative that has generated better financial returns so quickly.” (America.Gov, 2007) Geographic Region In terms of marketing capitalization, GE has evolved into the tenth largest organizations in the world. GE employs more than 320,000 people worldwide including over 150,000 people in the United States. GE also manages one of the world’s most complex supply chains, doing business with over 500,000 suppliers throughout the world. (Avero) GE operates in every region of the world, from the Americas and Europe to Africa and Asia Pacific. GE was a major sponsor of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, earning nearly $2.0 billion in revenue from the event. The

General Electric Company 11 goal of sponsoring the Olympics was not only the short term profit of providing technological support to China for the event and the gain of the exclusive production rights for GE’s Media division NBC Universal, but was interest in developing a solid relationship with a large emerging market such as Chine whose basic needs have not been met. GE views China as a key long term market and expects its business in China to double to $10 billion by 2010 as the Chinese government is expected to begin to focus on developing and improving the nation’s infrastructure. Overall GE has 12,500 employees in China and in Aug 2008 GE announced it would move into its new research and development center located in Shanghi, China. The new complex covers more than 650,000 square feet and will allow GE to conduct actual researchand-development programs inside China and more firmly entrench the company in the market. The Research and Development facility is one of four global R&D centers that GE operates, the three other R&D centers are located in the United States, Germany and India. (Patalon, 2008) GE has focused on research and development since its beginning, allowing it to drive new technologies and stay ahead of its competition. In 2007 GE’s R&D budget totaled $6 billion and with over 2800 employees, of which 1000 were PhD’s. (GE Research, 2009) Organization General Electric is a diversified company organized in to five businesses operating globally. The five operating businesses are 1) Energy Infrastructure, 2) Technology Infrastructure, 3) GE Capital Finance, 4) NBC Universal, and 5) Consumer & Industrial Products. These businesses provide a wide range of products and services ranging from aircraft engines, power generation, water processing, and security technology to medical imaging, business and consumer financing, media and entertainment content and industrial products.

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(GE Organization Chart, 2009) 1. Energy Infrastructure: GE is a one of the leading supplier of energy and GE’s Energy Infrastructure operation is engaged in the development, implementation and improvement of products and energy technologies that harness resources such as coal, oil, gas, and nuclear energy as well as with renewable energy sources such as water, wind and solar. GE also offers water treatment solutions for industrial and municipal water systems including the supply and related services of specialty chemicals, water purification systems, pumps, valves, filters and fluid handling equipment for improving the performance of water, wastewater and process systems, including mobile treatment systems and desalination processes.

General Electric Company 13 2. Technology Infrastructure provides essential technologies to countries around the world. The division is involved with healthcare and transportation. They provide expertise in imaging, diagnostics and patient monitoring systems, as well as working on disease research and drug discovery. The Transportation branch of the division provides aviation product and services for aircraft engines and parts for both military and commercial aircraft. The division also provides equipment for industries related to railroading, mining and power generation. 3. GE Capital offers a range of financial products across the worldwide from commercial loans, leases, financial programs, home loans, credit cards, personal loans and other financial services. The financial division is aimed at commercial business, consumers and markets worldwide. Additionally GE Capital focuses on developing partnerships and joint ventures that can help GE as a whole capitalize on specific market opportunities. 4. NBC Universal, the media division, is focused on the development and marketing of entertainment, news and information to a global audience. The division is involved in producing film, television, and sports for a global audience. Additionally it works with new technologies such as the internet ensuring GE is effective in the ways it does. 5. The Consumer and Industrial divisions sells products such as major home appliances including refrigerators, freezers, ranges, dishwashers, clothes washers and dryers, microwave ovens and air conditioners. GE brands are GE Monogram(r), GE Profile(tm), GE(r), Hotpoint(r) and GE Cafe(tm). Consumer & Industrial also provides integrated electrical equipment and systems used to distribute and protect energy and equipment. (GE Profile, 2008)

General Electric Company 14 Quality GE has been named one of Fortune Magazines Most Admired Companies and in 2009 was rated number one in quality and service. The company has been consistently named in the top 10 of this list for the past 55 years. In 2009, GE was rated number 1 in its industry category of Electronics and is number 9 on the list of all companies worldwide. According to Fortune Magazine, their Most Admired list is “the definitive report card on corporate reputations.” (Fortune Magazine, 16 Mar 2009) The survey starts with approximately 1,400 companies from the Fortune 1000, non-U.S. companies in Fortune's Global 500 database with revenues of $10 billion or more, and the top foreign companies operating in the U.S. These companies are then sorted into one of 64 industry categories. The 15 largest companies from each industrial category are selected and executives, directors, and analysts, in their own industry category, are asked to rate the companies on the following nine key attributes of reputation; Innovation, People management, Use of assets, Social responsibility, Quality of Management, Financial soundness, long term investments, quality of products and services, global competitiveness. (Schein, 20 Mar 2009) Q 7) In the mid 1990’s Jack Welch was told he could improve the quality of GE in every corner by implementing Six Sigma. Six Sigma is a quality management program first used by Motorola. Although skeptical Welch began to infuse the program into every corner of GE with the goal of making GE thousands of times better than his competitors by producing nearly defect free products and services within four years. Welch wanted GE products and services to be of such high quality that the only choice for customers would be to use GE. Welch understood that this quality initiative would improve employee and customer satisfaction as well as increase

General Electric Company 15 profitability for GE. http://www.1000ventures.com/business_guide/cs_quality_sixsigma_ge.html Human Resources With more than 300,000 people working at GE, GE considers its employees their greatest asset. The culture at GE affects the way they go about recruiting, selecting and training their employees. The diversity of recruitment at General Electric (GE) is "very healthy," reports Steve Canale, manager of recruiting and staffing services for the global technology, media and financial-services company. "Our first job is always finding and attracting the best possible candidates," Canale explains. "Once we meet that standard, we focus on diversity, and it's working out well. The quality and the numbers are good." (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) GE recruits hires approximately 1,000 graduates each year in the U.S. More than half are from thirty-eight core universities that GE calls its "executive schools. "Of those students that we hire full time, 60 percent have completed one or more internships or co-ops with us," Canale says. "Our Early Identification program for interns and co-ops really makes for a very strategic pipeline. And our selection process for internships at GE is just as rigorous as for full-time positions." The company has recruited for many years at North Carolina A&T, Tuskegee and the University of Puerto Rico-Mayagüez. It recently added to its recruitment roster the University of Miami and the University of Texas. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) GE also recruit about 400 former military personnel each year and has been named by corporate juggernaut is also listed by G.I. Jobs as a “Top Military-Friendly Employer.” When appearing before Congress last year, Marc Chini, vice president of human resources, GE Infrastructure, said: “Because of the vast variety of functions within GE, we have had great success in placing veterans where their particular strengths and interests lie. (Duffie, )

General Electric Company 16 GE is committed in investing in its employees and spends over one billion dollars annual on training and maintains a facility in Crotonville, NY for continuing education and recruits recent graduates for corporate level leadership development programs. Three of the leadership programs focused on Information Technology and Engineering are Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP), the Operations Management Leadership Program (OMLP) and the Information Management Leadership Program. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) The Edison Engineering Development Program enrolled about 250 new graduates in 2005, and concentrates on design engineering. Participants earn masters degrees through affiliations with leading universities like Georgia Tech and Purdue University. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) The Operations Management Leadership Program, which emphasizes industrial engineering with assignments in manufacturing shop operations, process engineering and materials management. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) The Information Management Leadership Program offers training in advanced information technology and systems and strategic applications. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) "Program graduates often continue working in the business where they started," Canale says. "So if you did EEDP with GE Aircraft Engines, you'd probably stay with Aircraft Engines. But of course career opportunities always exist for cross-business advancement." (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) GE’s attraction to military personnel is its Junior Officer Leadership Program (JOLP). This initiative allows former junior military officers to serve three eight-month rotations in different departments of the company’s Energy division. One rotation might place you in sales

General Electric Company 17 while another assigns you in manufacturing. JOLP comprises both on-the-job and classroom training. (Duffie, ) Although entry-level staffers don't normally do much international traveling, they are often exposed to international teams and business challenges. Those on the upper-management track are almost certain to see an overseas opportunity as part of their career development. "GE is truly a global company and so our people have to be global thinkers," Canale says. (Diversity/Careers Online, 2005) Jeff Immelt’s employment strategy focus’s on innovation and developing risk takers by providing the flexibility for employees to make mistakes and grow. This provides a stark contrast to the previous CEO’s policy where managers who underperformed were fired. (Ref 12, Q 10) Compensation The majority of compensation systems in the US are based on an hourly scale in which employees received fixed hourly rate and may receive periodic pay increases based on performance. The problem with this system is the expectation that pay will continue to escalate and the result of this is employees with the same task are paid a different salary based, not necessarily on performance but rather on longevity and employees after years of service may become overpaid for what they’re doing. (Pinto, 2005) Although General Electric was a profitable company when Jack Welch took over as CEO in 1982, he saw that many people had become comfortable in their positions and resistant to change and lacked innovation. To resolve this problem, Welch implemented several initiatives the most significant was a performance matrix. With this new policy, managers are required to rate their employees and not more than 20 percent of the employees can be rated at the highest level and up to 70 percent rated as average or meeting expectations and 10 to 15 percent rated at

General Electric Company 18 the bottom. The top 20 percent are granted significantly larger salary increases and bonus awards, the middle 70 percent receive adequate pay raises and many at the bottom of the scale are encouraged to leave and GE goes so far as to say publicly that they are happy to see their bottom 10 percent join their competitors. This solution not only encourages employees to increase their performance, it results in approximately a 10 percent annual turnover for the company and provides a mechanism to infuse new personnel and ideas into the organization. (Pinto, 2005) (Q11) Another issue in today’s environment is executive compensation. According to Fortune, GE has been recognized as America's most admired company several times in the past few decades. However GE’s compensation philosophy was the salary and bonuses were needed to attract and retain quality managers. Additionally stock options and stock appreciation rights were used as incentives for superior long term performance and long term performance awards were paid to executives who remained with the company with extended periods. When Jack Welch retired he received a $9 million dollar annual pension package along with other retirement benefits in excess of $80000 a month which include an apartment, lifetime use of a company office and access to a corporate aircraft was criticized (Fabrikant, 6 Sep 2002) When Jeff Immelt became CEO of GE he announced sweeping changes for senior executive compensation that focused on performance. The stock would only be awarded if specific performance criteria were met. Long term incentives would based on meeting specific criteria over time, additionally the executives would be required to hold stock for a specified time limit. These changes tied executive compensation packages directly to the organization performance and which was favored by the stockholders and critics. (Krell)

General Electric Company 19 In 2008 Jeff Immelt declined his bonus and $11 million dollar long term performance bonus n because the companies stock declined. Other top GE executives also took significant pay cuts from the previous years. Immelt’s commitment to tie executive compensation to company performance was a great way to add accountability to job performance and kept its top executives out of the spotlight, while other companies are being publicly critisized for executive compensation inspite of poor performance. (Manning, 2009) (Q11 Ref: Competition As a Conglomerate, General Electric is number one in market capitalization and total revenue. However, some of General Electric’s competitors include Citigroup, Philips Electronics, Siemens, 3M and United Technologies. Although General Electric is the top competitor in its industry it still has competitors that pose a threat. These threats keep GE’s leaders and managers constantly looking for new innovations and monitoring their competitors. (GE Yahoo Finance) Siemens Company is one of GE’s most significant global competitors, competing with GE in the Industry, Energy, Healthcare and Financial Sectors. GE does maintain a significant size advantage over Siemens and GE is far more reaching than Siemens industries which focuses on operating in the Americas and Europe. (Siemens, ) Philips is also a conglomerate competing with GE in primarily the medical systems and lighting industry. Although Philips has over 121,000 employees in 100 countries GE continues to have a significant size advantage. (Philips Annual Report, 2008) Philips has moved into some of the same emerging markets as GE such as China, Russia and Africa. Philips continues to outsource many of it products and with over 50000 of its employees in low wage countries such as Mexico, Poland and China. GE has a considerable size advantage over Philips and its other competitors, however as these other companies expand into new markets, they will pose a threat

General Electric Company 20 to GE not only in product sales but the competition for the available workforce with cause an increase in will also be competing for available the work force. (Schwartz, 2007) Financial Summary In addition to be one of the world’s most admired companies General Electric is also one of the largest corporations in the world. GE has a market capitalization of $112.4 dollars over 3 times their nearest competitor. Their total outstanding shares amount to $10.5 billion and the company’s total assets at the end of 2008 exceeded $797 billion. (GE Yahoo Finance) GE, like many other companies across the world, has been hurt by the economic downturn of the past few years. Despite the continued recession, in 2008 GE still had its third highest earnings in its history earning $18 billion. GE’s overall global revenues grew 13% in 2008, to more than $183 billion and over the past 5 years the profits of GE have been steadily increasing with an average annual growth rate of 12% per year. Additionally GE’s 5 year average Gross Profit Margin has been 42.64%, much greater than the industry average of 22.35%. GE’s 5 year average for Operation Margin is 14.22% and similarly the 5 year average Net Profit Margin for GE is 12.07% twice that of the industry at 6.04% . Overall GE has performed better than the industry average and the profit have been on the rise. (Rueters GE) (Q4, Q5) Financial Protection Over 50 percent of General Electric revenues are generated from overseas as it conducts business activities in diverse markets around the world. These international business activities expose GE to the possibility of losses due to fluctuation in foreign currency exchange rates. One of the difficulties in managing an international business is effective management of its Financial

General Electric Company 21 Protection strategies. GE uses methods such as derivatives and hedging to manage against transaction risks such as interest rates, foreign exchange rates and changed commodity prices. GE manages these risks using various techniques including issuing debt whose terms correspond to terms of the funded assets, as well as combinations derivatives that achieve their objectives. GE addresses its exposure to various commodity price risks with commodity contracts and uses futures and options contracts along with interest rate swaps, currency swaps, and interest rate and currency forwards as economic hedges to protect their investments in global operations conducted in non- U.S. dollar currencies. (GE Annual Report, 2008) Conclusion GE has been one of the most successful companies in the world. Originally founded to develop and market the inventions of Thomas Edison, General Electric has maintained its innovation and risk taking traditions, which that has resulted in continuous growth and profitability. GE has become one of the largest and most diversified corporations in the world and has been listed as Fortune Magazines, Most Admired Company several times in the past few decades. Competition in today’s world of globalization dictate companies continually improve, develop, and expand into new markets to increase its sales and workforce. GE’s leadership recognizes that short term profits are not sufficient that for long term success and that the company must continue to be innovative and provide services that are beneficial. Its leadership also recognizes that the employees are its most valuable asset and continually works to develop it people. It has implemented a culture in which the employees are expected to perform and are allowed to take risks.

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