SWOT analysis
A summary GE’s SWOT analysis is as follows:
Figure 1. A table displaying the SWOT analysis of GE.
Most countries focused on free trade policies that affected the performance approaches by GE. Some of the policies sought to eliminate the existing tariff barriers within various trade blocks (Bartlett & Wozne, 2004). The plan was to reduce tariffs to 5% within a two-decade period among the various nations based on common preferential tariffs.
With reference to the high prices of the GE products because of the high-production costs as well as minimal vendor efficiency, there was a big possibility for local markets being dominated by imported hand held devices. Welch’s prices were comparatively higher for the foreign manufacturers based on elements of protectionism. Protectionist policies could be largely blamed for GE’s stagnating performance.
The GE product sales within the country were expected to decrease annually because of the different economic aspects. Primarily, this was in connection with the global financial crisis that affected the country’s local financial status.
In fact, many governments were expecting slow economic growth trends, which affected the customers’ buying behavior. In addition, the economic policies increased the competition that also influenced the performance of Apple (Bartlett & Wozny, 2004).
The growing global population was part of the aspects affecting the mobile industry. Further, the existing ratio of electronic device ownership was high, standing at 1:4. This signified that more people considered electrical devices as important components of their lives.
Individuals also settled on the big-ticket items while expecting consumers to slow with regard to buying various electronic products due to the consideration of market uncertainties on the grounds of the global and local crises in financial standings.
With an increase in competition, there were developments of technology. The developments were aimed at influencing the position and performance of every company in the communications mobile industry. This affected the innovation process of the GE Company (Bartlett & Wozny, 2004).
While adopting market targets and segments, GE focused more on global countries than local markets. Welch released GE products in areas that were characterized by provider coverage, which supported certain forms of electronic devices and respective technology.
Under such positioning elements, Welch aimed at ensuring high levels of product flexibility, value addition and convenience with regard to devices for any form of professional use (Bartlett & Wozny, 2004).
The firm established strong brand across the market where all its products focused on acquiring new technologies. This was aimed at not only making the business establishment focus on the brand, but also concentrate on the best ways to promote its presence.
The pricing objectives of the firm needed proper identification as a way of determining the optimal levels of pricing. For this reason, the pricing objectives involved the company’s profit maximization objective. This was an attempt of maximizing the profit while taking into consideration revenue and cost aspects. GE used the penetration pricing strategy by charging minimal for products that gained market easily (Porter, 1996).
The organization has continued to gain from Welch’s change management approaches that have positively impacted it (Collis & Montgomery, 1995; Porter, 1996). It can be asserted that Welch was instrumental in adopting practices that could enable the firm to achieve excellent performance outcomes. These approaches include employee recognition, training programs and organizational behavior modification.
Organization behavior modification is one of the learning principles that Welch used to ensure that a positive culture was established in GE (Porter, 1996). Specifically, such a model provides a rigid framework for analyzing, measuring, identifying, evaluating and intervening with regard to employees’ the related job behaviors, which are aimed at improving work performance.
Research shows that its crucial effects include improving productivity, for example, sales performance, safety, attendance and punctuality (Collis & Montgomery, 1995). The effects of Welch as a leader in work performance and behavior variation is due to the reinforcement principle on behavior modification. Replacing the leader would have negative implications for the company.
References
Bartlett, C., & Wozny, M., (2004). GE’s Two Decade Transformation: Jack Welch’s Leadership. New York: Harvard Business School Press.
Collis, D. J., & Montgomery, C. A. (1995). Competing on resources: Strategy in the 1990s. Harvard Business Review, 73(4), 118–128
Porter, M. E. (1996). What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74, 61-78.