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Question: Discuss about the Changes undertaken by General Electric (GE) under its New Manager. Answer: Introduction In order to be competitive in the market, a business organisation needs to maintain changes that help in its growth. These changes can come in the form of change in internal as well as external factors. The assignment highlights the changes undertaken by General Electric (GE) under its new manager. General Electric is an American multinational company situated in New York. Thomas Edison is one of the co-founders of the company. The company came into existence in the year 1892. It is famous for manufacturing various types of aircraft engines, electrical distribution and energy, gas and so on (Ge.com. 2017). The assignment analyses contributions made by Immelt in shaping up the strategies of GE. The business environment of the 21st century is analysed along with the resources and capabilities of GE. These two factors were analysed in order to identify the reasons for the change in the organisation. Apart from this, the alternate strategies that GE can formulate are also provided in the assignment. Jeff Immelts contribution in GE According to Armstrong and Taylor (2014), the most challenging factor in leadership is taking control of an enterprise that already had a prominent leader. In the case of GE, this was a similar problem that Jeff Immelt had to face. Jack Welch was a prominent leader of GE and had built up the reputation of the company. Accepting the managerial responsibilities of the company proved to be a huge challenge for Immelt. During the initial period of his takeover, Immelt set out to declare that long-term strategic changes will be made in the company. The World Trade Centre bombing in 2001 prompted this action as the transformational strategy is one of the most critical management strategies in the modern world. Such a change can be implemented with the proper support of the individual as well as the organisation (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014). Immelt made strategic changes that involved changing the business portfolio. The focus was also on redirecting the performance goals of the organisation to the attainment of revenue for the organisation. The management of the organization should position General Electric in a way so that in the emerging market technological advancements become the major tool for the organization to compete other rival business organizations. This decision was needed in order to comply with the financial loss that New York City had to suffer due to the bombing of the World Trade Centre. The company focused on the innovation of the products in order to gain a competitive advantage. Immelt was of the view that competitive advantage can be gained with the introduction and application of new technologies that can also help GE to expand and grow in the international market. Ivanaj et al. (2015) observed that changes also need to be made in the culture and structure of an organisation. Immelt realised this fact and implemented the necessary changes that were required in the organisational structure of GE. The emergence of new technology and competitors are one of the primary reasons that such a change needs to be brought about in the organisation. In this regard it can be said that General electric has immense growth opportunities focusing on the basic need to turn the corporate R and D centre into an intellectual hort-house; not only that, to speed up the internal diffusion of the latest technologies (Camisn and Villar-Lpez 2014). The management of General Electric can increase the availability of the renewable energy technology that plays a significant role in determining the success of the organization. Thus it can be said that technological sector is the place utilizing that the management of the organization can expect to outplay the rivals from the market. Apart from the technological factors, the management of General Electric can utilize another area of strength; that is the socio-cultural factor influencing the business environment. In this regard, Johnston and Bate (2013) stated that it is worth mentioning that as the management of the organization is promoting the green lifestyle and increasing the adoption of mobile technologies. The board members of the organization are incessantly inclined towards using popular support for the renewable energy use. In this context, it is important that the organizations usage of renewable energy operating segment does benefit from the amplified demands regarding this external factor. Thus it can be said that along with technological factors, socio-cultural aspects of the organization can too be considered as one of the strengths of the company and utilizing these two strengths the management of the organization can experience immense profitability by eradicating the market competition. Despite the change in the managerial responsibilities and the strategic implementation of Immelt, the sales of GE suffered a major setback. In April 2015, the company made a decision that involved the selling of capital shares of the company. The changes that were made by Immelt were completely different from the managerial ideas that were implemented by Welch. It has been that the company failed to meet the target that was initially set for the appointment of Immelt. Goetsch and Davis (2014) stated that achieving the target of the organisation is one of the important factors that every business manager needs to achieve. Immelt had aimed at increasing the return on capital along with the sales of the company. However, instead of increasing it, the new managerial techniques led to the loss of stock as well. The sales of GE saw a considerable fall from the year 2001 to 2014. Hence, Immelt faced challenges that were not expected during the taking over of managerial duties. The new manager also did not pay much attention to the maximisation of the value of the shareholder. The main focus of Immelt was to make transformational changes in the business portfolio of GE. As stated by Godemann et al. (2017) identification of the sources of earning a profit is important for an organisation to achieve success. Immelt wanted to understand the profit of the company and use it in order to help in the progress of the company. After the analysis, it was seen that much of the profit of the company came due to the cost reduction strategy. GE used to discard the assets that were less important to the company. However, Immelt managed to identify four global trends that can help in attaining proper growth for GE. The four global trends as identified by Immelt include demography, infrastructure, emerging market and environment. Waddell et al. (2013) stated that in order to ensure that the products of a company are sold in a proper manner, analysis of the demography is important in order to increase the sales. The managers of the organization should strategize the operations of the business in a way so that the organization can utilize their strengths like technological advancements and the market reputation to make the most of the market and to ensure their profitability. The infrastructure of GE provides the company with an opportunity to invest in areas that do not remain in the comfort zone of the company. Hence, export to other countries that are involved in the trade activities with the U.S.A was identified by Immelt. It has been seen that some of the emerging markets provided the main source of income for the company. Countries like India and Russia have a triple growth rate of GDP than the U.S.A. However, there remains the environmental threat that may cause problems in the growth of the country. As stated by Eden and Ackermann (2013) environment analysis is one of the most factors that need to be considered by the management. Aligning the strategies of GE Requirement in 21st century Organisations need to align the selected strategies in order to monitor the effectiveness of the strategies. The strategies need to address the requirements of the organisation as well as the individuals. The factors that affect changes in organisations are also an important factor for an organisation to consider (Farkas 2016). The changes that take place in the business world are one of the major components that Immelt needed to take into consideration. The strategic decision undertaken by Immelt needed to be compatible with the business market of the 21st century. The focus of Immelt was mainly on three factors that composed the emergence of successful business in the 21st century. These factors include technological advancement, competition in the market and the innovative technique. In the case of GE, these factors are important in order to gain customer satisfaction and increase the reputation of the company. Immelt observed that technology is one of the important factors that can help in the growth of the enterprise. In the case study, it is seen that Immelt focused more on the development of technologies. This is evidenced by the fact that the research and development department of the company saw an increased percentage of budgets. The initial transformation that was brought about began from the updated technology that was first used in Japan. Throughout the branches of the company in the country, Immelt began the construction of research and development centres. In the case study, it is seen that about 37,000 technologies were implemented in the various branches of the company. Immelt stated that the focus of GE was to research for bigger and long-term prospects of the company. Apart from technologies, innovation also played a huge role in the improvement of the company. The fact that the company was involved in providing assistance to the healthcare people proved to be an effective strategic decision to GE. According to Grant (2016), customer satisfaction is another important aspect that needs to be undertaken by a company. This involves customer orientation and providing value to the customers. These factors are important in order to retain the loyalty and trust of the customers. Immelt felt that the increase in customer orientation led to more involvement of the customers. Immelt focused on the idea that in order to increase the revenue of GE, customer satisfaction was of utmost importance. In this regard, the responsibilities of Immelt increased as he needed to focus on hiring marketing executives that can identify the tastes of the customers. The role of marketing executives was delegated to possess a detailed knowledge about the new products and services that the company can offer. Nieves and Haller (2014) observed that selling products together can help in the increase of revenue of a company. In the case study, it is seen that GE focuses on selling bundled products that are essential for providing support to the customers. GE introduced cross-business marketing campaign in order to earn more revenue. This involves selling supporting items to already existing products or infrastructure. Resources and capabilities of GE Camisn and Villar-Lpez (2014) stated that every company need to have potent resources and capability in order to survive in the changing business world. This can be done by identifying the resources and increasing it by the methods necessary for gaining the resources. For example, in the case of increasing the number of employees, it is essential that an organisation recruit talented employees. The capabilities can be improved by encouraging the growth of the employees. In the case of GE, Immelt hoped for improving the abilities of the employees by encouraging growth. It is seen from the case study that the organic growth of the country was attributed to about 8%. This can be considered as an improvement as the growth of the company was a mere 5% under Welch. The revenue of the company also increased due to the rise of the potential of the employees. The increased revenue accelerated the growth rate as more technologies were used to train the employees. In the case study it is seen t hat with the increase in growth and revenue of GE, the company managed to expand in the international market. This is an important attribute for the survival in the competing market of the 21st century. Growth within the organisation as well as outside is an important step for the success of the company (Beardwell and Thompson 2014). Changes due to new strategies Change is an important factor that helps in the application of new strategies in an organisation. It is the duty of the managers to formulate new changes in the organisation and encourage the employees to accept the changes. The changes that Immelt felt as a need in GE involve the structure of the organisation as well as the culture. This was mainly due to the fact that the company was undergoing a transformational phrase that involved new challenges, new managers as well as new policies of the business. Hence, the base of the company needed to change in order to cope up with the changes in the business world. GE underwent changes in the leadership style. During its initial stage in the market, the promotion from a junior post to a senior post mainly came from the internal sources. However, with the changing time, the promotion of the employees seemed totally based on the performance. Johnston and Bate (2013) stated that internal promotion also helps to keep the employees motivated. Targets are provided to the employees and the performance management system is analysed based on the successful fulfilment of the target. Immelt focused on maintaining the target by focusing on the earning and growth of the enterprise. GE has managed to reduce the overhead cost and have managed to improve the productivity of the employees by the application of the target method. The growth rate of GE can be determined by the internal talent that it possesses. Lin and Wu (2014) observed that an organisation is good for its employees. In order to analyse the growth rate of the company, GE managed to shift the strategic priorities towards the growth of the employees. This was evident during the financial crisis in 2008 during which Immelt reduced the long-term loans in order to focus on the increase in revenue of the company. The skill and attributes of the employees are based upon the exposure to the talents in the field of work. Immelt also gathered benchmarking strategies in order to encourage the employees to develop the talents. In the case study, it is seen that Immelt amassed massive changes in the organisational structure. This was mainly done because the organisational structure remained in existence since the time of the inception of the company. The new and modern world warrants an improved organisational structure in order to ensure a smooth running of the business. Under the managerial capabilities of Welch, GE had been divided into various small divisions. However, Immelt managed to unite the divisions in the hope of maintaining the goals of the organisation. Consequently, the business sectors were reduced but the growth rate of the company kept on increasing. The case study provides evidence that during the years 2002, 2005 and 2008, the business sector of GE reduced from 12 to 5. Carlopio (2010) stated that innovation is important in order to maintain product uniqueness. Profitability and cost control policy led to the increase in the innovative nature of the business in GE. However, it is to be kept in mind that innovation in large projects often leads to the cause of risk. The manner in which the likelihood of the business increased due to the innovation process proved that Immelt focused his attention on the improving the innovative department of GE. The case study points out the market strategies were also improved by Immelt in order to transfer the business to the research and development department. The research and development helped in increasing the technologies that were necessary for understanding the business market. Hence, these changes were aligned with the initial declaration that was made by Immelt. The success of GE points out to the fact that meeting the organisational strategy is a united effort of the employees as well as the manager of Im melt. Considering alternative strategies In order to ensure that the strategies of an organisation do not fail, it is necessary that every manager develop alternative strategies that can help in providing back up to the organisation. The alternative strategies also act as secondary strategies that can be used in a short-term length in order to ensure the development of an organisation (Booth 2015). However, the alternative strategies need to be formulated after analysing the factors that may cause risk. The risk factors include the internal as well the external factors that may hinder the progress of an organisation. The alternate strategies prove as a reimbursement factor for the initial mistakes committed by an organisation. The case study highlights the fact that after the initial appointment of Immelt as the manager of GE, the company did not have success as it was expected. This was mainly due to the existence of certain internal as well as external factors that led to the hindrance of growth of the organisation. Some of them included the bombing of the World Trade Centre and the financial crisis of 2008. In order to ensure that the collaboration is maintained between the employees and the managers, an alternative source can be the use of metrics based measurement of performance management. The benchmarking strategy is a prime example of the manner in which most companies in the United States achieve the desired results (Rothaermel 2015). The case study highlights the fact that since its inception in Immelt, GE has mostly seen the downfall of the revenue and financial considerations of the company. Hence, Immelts role as a manager is vague due to the less contribution made for the company. In order to understand the performance of the companies in different sectors of the country, it is necessary to identify the products and services of the company. The analysis shows that the profit in different sectors varies due to the products and services sold by the companies (Wheelen and Hunger 2017). As such, there has been a fall in the profits for most companies. An example can be cited that highlights the decrease in profit in sectors that supply natural resources. The case study states the fact that supply of natural resources like power and water has seen a decrease in profit from $5.80 billion to $5.35 billion in the space of four years. Hence, it is the duty of the marketing department to ensure that the marketing department makes considerable research before investing in the market. A proper marketing management is necessary in order to maintain the profits of the company. GE needs to ensure that proper sectors are undertaken for investment. The fact that the company invests in the healthcare sectors is an important profit-making strategy of the company. Immelt also ensured that investments that were not required by the company were reduced. This included the less use of plastics that was not compatible with the company. The biggest opportunity to GE is the fact that the US Financial Regulation identifies the company as a changing financial sector of the country. GE also considers targeting internationalisation of business. The view of Immelt is the fact that global presence can help in increasing the cost-effectiveness of the company. In this regard, certain decisions taken by Immelt can lead to the downfall of the company. Investing in a poor country like Nigeria may decrease the chances of profit-making for the company. Hence, understanding the alternate strategies can help in decreasing the loss of the company. Conclusion Hence, after the analysis of the case study, it can be said that the challenges faced by Immelt after acquiring the managerial duties of the country were severe. The fact that Immelt managed to maintain the reputation of the company despite its fall in profit in the initial years explains the managerial prowess of the individual. 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