Ge's Talent Machine: the Making of a Ceo
Human Resources Management
General Electric
Case study report
1. Introduction
General Electric (GE) was founded 1878 by Thomas Edison. This American company is nowadays very well-known due to its multinationality, to its conglomeration of corporations and also to its excellent performance on the segments in which operates (infrastructure, capital finance and media). However, over the years this firm has also been outstanding when it comes to Human Resources (HR) practices having previously been referred to as a CEO factory.
This report will be performed with the intent of studying the strategic talent management system of GE and what are the implications that it has on the overall performance of the company.
2. Pivotal Talent Positions in GE
After defining its strategic objective and vision, a company should identify the key positions that are crucial to meet those objectives. Also, in this way it is easier to perceive where to allocate the key employees or even where to spend more resources. This is also important because a significant improvement in the performance of these key talents that occupy the pivotal positions can have a dramatic impact on the results of the company. For GE, because they are a company that operates mainly on the technological/scientific area, these positions are the engineers. They are the ones with the potential of creating an impact on the company’s formation of a sustainable competitive advantage. However, the differentiation between them and other positions, is not done at a personnel level but rather on a professional level; this because all the other workers are also valuable for the company, therefore they cannot be disregard. The main difference is that engineers are the key for GE to outperform its competitors.
Over the life of the company, with its different CEOs, GE had a lot of changes at the level of HR practices but all of them, since the beginning of the company, made the development of management talent
General Electric
Case study report
1. Introduction
General Electric (GE) was founded 1878 by Thomas Edison. This American company is nowadays very well-known due to its multinationality, to its conglomeration of corporations and also to its excellent performance on the segments in which operates (infrastructure, capital finance and media). However, over the years this firm has also been outstanding when it comes to Human Resources (HR) practices having previously been referred to as a CEO factory.
This report will be performed with the intent of studying the strategic talent management system of GE and what are the implications that it has on the overall performance of the company.
2. Pivotal Talent Positions in GE
After defining its strategic objective and vision, a company should identify the key positions that are crucial to meet those objectives. Also, in this way it is easier to perceive where to allocate the key employees or even where to spend more resources. This is also important because a significant improvement in the performance of these key talents that occupy the pivotal positions can have a dramatic impact on the results of the company. For GE, because they are a company that operates mainly on the technological/scientific area, these positions are the engineers. They are the ones with the potential of creating an impact on the company’s formation of a sustainable competitive advantage. However, the differentiation between them and other positions, is not done at a personnel level but rather on a professional level; this because all the other workers are also valuable for the company, therefore they cannot be disregard. The main difference is that engineers are the key for GE to outperform its competitors.
Over the life of the company, with its different CEOs, GE had a lot of changes at the level of HR practices but all of them, since the beginning of the company, made the development of management talent