Ge - Jack Welch's Leadership
GE's two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch's Leadership
Regarding Jack Welch's leadership, I think Welch has created a "new model of strategic management".
When Jack Welch took office in April 1981 as the new CEO of General Electric, he was facing many challenges. First was the expectation and doubt from shareholders. Could Jack create another management legend as Jones did? Where is GE going under Jack's leadership? The second challenge was GE's organizationally rigid structure; resistance to change and bureaucratic climate which made it impossible to perceive important environmental changes. The third challenge was GE's organizational structure, decision-making process and information management procedures which no longer fit the organization's needs. The fourth challenge was how to revive the organization from the decline stage to the earlier stage of the organization life cycle.
To respond to the above challenges, Jack started focusing on GE's key business by collecting GE's current resources. His main purpose was to reach a standard for each business to become the #1 or #2 competitor in its industry. Before Jack took over GE, it was one of the most diversified companies in the world. GE's business covered lighting products, home appliances, industrial automation products, motors, electrical distribution and control equipment, locomotives, power generation and delivery products, aircraft jet engines, nuclear reactors and so on. During the fix, sell and close process, GE sold more than 200 uncompetitive businesses for over $11 billion, and made over 370 acquisitions costing more than $21 billion. As a result, GE became lean and agile, and the business concentrated on three circle concepts, which are core competency, technology and services.
Then Welch restructured the organization by breaking down the bureaucracy. Welch eliminated sector levels and reduced the hierarchical levels from nine to four which speeded up the decision making. In
Regarding Jack Welch's leadership, I think Welch has created a "new model of strategic management".
When Jack Welch took office in April 1981 as the new CEO of General Electric, he was facing many challenges. First was the expectation and doubt from shareholders. Could Jack create another management legend as Jones did? Where is GE going under Jack's leadership? The second challenge was GE's organizationally rigid structure; resistance to change and bureaucratic climate which made it impossible to perceive important environmental changes. The third challenge was GE's organizational structure, decision-making process and information management procedures which no longer fit the organization's needs. The fourth challenge was how to revive the organization from the decline stage to the earlier stage of the organization life cycle.
To respond to the above challenges, Jack started focusing on GE's key business by collecting GE's current resources. His main purpose was to reach a standard for each business to become the #1 or #2 competitor in its industry. Before Jack took over GE, it was one of the most diversified companies in the world. GE's business covered lighting products, home appliances, industrial automation products, motors, electrical distribution and control equipment, locomotives, power generation and delivery products, aircraft jet engines, nuclear reactors and so on. During the fix, sell and close process, GE sold more than 200 uncompetitive businesses for over $11 billion, and made over 370 acquisitions costing more than $21 billion. As a result, GE became lean and agile, and the business concentrated on three circle concepts, which are core competency, technology and services.
Then Welch restructured the organization by breaking down the bureaucracy. Welch eliminated sector levels and reduced the hierarchical levels from nine to four which speeded up the decision making. In