Basic Information of GE's Growth Strategy: The Immelt Initiative
Author: Christopher A. BartlettPublisher: HBR
Case Number: 9-306-087
Publication Date: Feb 13, 2006
Course Category: Management
Case Summary of GE's Growth Strategy: The Immelt Initiative
- Taking Charge: Setting the Agenda• On Friday, September 7, 2001, Jeff Immelt took over for Jack Welchc as CEO of GE. Four days later, the 9/11 attacks occurred and the world was thrown into chaos.
• By the end of Immelt’s first week on the job, GE’s stock had dropped 20%.
• Later that year, GE’s stock dropped again on suspicions from the Enron scandal.
• After a rough start to his tenure, Immelt realized that internal growth would be the key to GE’s long-term success.
- Building on the Past, Imagining the Future
• Immelt constantly went out of his way to emphasize that GE was not an over-grown, slow to move, slow to react conglomerate.
• He instead viewed the company as a collection of highly correlated businesses made up of world-class people, processes, and strategic initiatives.
• Acting on this, Immelt created a growth strategy made up of 5 key elements:
1. Technical Leadership – A key driver of future growth
2. Services Acceleration – GE already had a large amount of product out in the industry that would eventually need servicing as the products aged and wore down.
3. Commercial Excellence – Shifting focus from GE’s internal processes to external customer requirements.
4. Globalization – Main focus on
5. Growth Platforms – Build new businesses based on high-growth areas that will provide “unstoppable” opportunities.
- Investing through the Down Cycle
• Immelt felt that investing heavily in the business during the economic slowdown of the early 2000’s was crucial to the long-term growth of the company.
• Immelt quickly made the following acquisitions: the Telemundo and Bravo television networks, Interlogix security systems, and water service provider BetzDearborn.
• He also committed to building several new R&D facilities around the world.
• Despite these efforts, GE’s stock dropped another 39%.
- Ongoing Operations: Rigor and Responsiveness
• Immelt made cash flow GE’s number one financial focus. He used tools like Six Sigma to re-align the business around this objective. It was through improved cash flow that Immelt would continue to invest in the business.
• Immelt also hoped to change the image of being CEO of GE from the cold, results-oriented focus of Jack Welch, to a more open and less hard-edged image. The main offspring of this effort was a renewed focus on social responsibility and the creation of a new role within GE: VP of Corporate Citizenship.
- Rebuilding the Foundation: Beginning a
• Looking back on 2002, it was a horrible year for GE. Revenues were flat, corporate scandals were all over the news, the economy was struggling, and GE’s stock continued to slide, now 60% off of its all-time high from 2001.
- Rebalancing the Portfolio
• As 2003 began, GE finalized plans to acquire Vivendi-Universal Entertainment. Immelt felt that this acquisition was crucial to growing the NBC business within GE as the deal would provide them with important content, production facilities, cable distribution and a strong management team.
• Shortly after the Vivendi deal, GE announced plans to acquire a British life-science company, Amersham. Immelt felt that Biotechnology would be very important part of GE’s future growth.
• There were many concerns about this second merger, particularly the idea that GE’s corporate culture would stifle the innovation and creativity that had made Amersham successful in the first place. Immelt vowed to not allow this to happen.
- Focusing on Customers, Emphasizing Services
• Immelt named Beth Comstock as GE’s first Chief Marketing Officer in 2001. This move was meant to stress GE’s new focus on their customers and less on their internal processes.
• Acting on the momentum created by the new marketing emphasis, Immelt formed Commercial Council in 2003 to bring together GE’s top sales and marketing leaders. Immelt chaired that council himself.
• GE began to work very closely with their customers to improve their customer’s business (focus on providing service for GE). In 2002, GE completed 6,000 Six Sigma projects with their health-care providers alone.
• Immelt wanted GE service to be a critical part of their customer’s operations.
- Driving for Growth: New Platforms, New Processes
• GE’s top leaders identified 6 business growth platforms that would lead to way for GE’s growth opportunities over the next few years:
1. Health-care information systems, security and sensors, water technology and services, oil and gas technology, Hispanic broadcasting, and consumer finance.
2. These businesses were averaging a 15% annual organic growth rate.
- Aligning Management: New People Profiles
• As GE’s growth strategy began to take hold, Immelt worried that some of GE’s traditional managers may not have the skills to be able to succeed in the more entrepreneurial environment that he was trying to create.
• Acting on this, HR developed new career paths for managers, focusing on more in-depth job experience as opposed to job rotations.
• HR also developed 5 action-oriented leadership traits that they would require all leaders to possess:
1. External (customer) focus
2. Think Clearly
3. Imagination and Courage to take risks
4. Inclusiveness and Connection with People
5. Expertise in a function
• To develop these skills, 20-30 “pillar jobs” were created within each organization which required the continual use and development of these 5 skills.
- Funding the Growth: Operating Excellence
• Throughout GE’s re-investment in itself, Immelt insisted that the companies ongoing operations fund the growth. To accomplish this, Immelt enacted tools such as Lean Six Sigma
• These efforts, as well as an overall simplification and consolidation of the business, allowed GE to save a considerable amount of money by the time 2004 rolled around.
- Preparing for Liftoff: Innovation and Internationalization
• By 2004, the world economy was turning around. By year’s end, 11 of GE’s businesses had turned in double-digit earnings growth from 2003 numbers.
• Immelt felt that this was only the beginning and that GE’s focus on growth and re-investing in itself would soon start to pay off.
- Imagination Breakthroughs
• Imagination Breakthroughs (IBs) were identified as large projects or business opportunities that had the potential to generate at least $100 million in earnings within 3 years.
• Within 1 year of launching an initiative to develop IBs, over 80 had been identified within GE. By 2005, 25 of these were generating revenue.
- Of Town Halls and Dreaming
• Immelt started holding Town Hall Meetings with customers to get a better idea of what they wanted out of GE and how he could serve them better.
• He also created another type of forum known as “Dream Sessions” in which he would meet with major CEOs from major industries to discuss roadmaps, implications for GE, and future opportunities for GE.
- Infrastructure for Developing Countries: A New Growth Market
• In 2004, revenues from outside of the
• Leading the way was a massive increase from developing countries – an area that Immelt was particularly focused on for long-term growth
- Reorganizing for Efficiency – and Growth
• In 2005, Immelt reorganized the company into 6 major groups:
1. GE Industrial
2. GE Commercial Financial Services
3. NBC Universal
4. GE Health Care
5. GE Consumer Finance
6. GE Infrastructure
• Each group was to focus highly on coaching, developing and supporting younger managers within the group.
- Going Forward: Immelt’s Challenges
• Immelt’s main challenge moving forward is to maintain the momentum that his moves have produced to date.
• “GE thrives because we use our size to help us grow.”
• “Our goal is not just to be big, but to use our size to be great.”
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