Question

Determine the Corporate Strategy of GE and relate it to its sources of competitive advantage. Provide at least 8 examples

Answer 1

Corporate strategy includes all the actions undertaken by the firm to achieve company objective. It is a continuous process and focuses on achieving aimed results. The firm uses corporate strategy to achieve competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is that factor that puts a company in a favourable position or in a superior position from its customers.

General Electric is an industry leading high technology brand with business operations across eight business segments that include power, aviation, healthcare, transportation, capital, energy connections and lighting, renewable energy and oil and gas. GE has continued to push the line in all these areas to create strong competitive advantage and to generate higher profits.

Some of the strategies followed by the company to attain competitive advantages are as follows:

1. General Electric’s main generic strategy for competitive advantage is differentiation. By producing unique and special products they have successfully attracted a large pool of customers.

2. GE pursues being the market leader, through differentiation. Differentiation can be seen through various points. First of all, GE uses GE Capital to help finance other businesses to buy from other GE business units. Secondly, GE invents and uses apps, and systems to make the life of their clients more convenient.

3. Strong talented work force and R&D Department that helps in creating innovative products. The company recruits and maintain the world’s best talents.

4. Love for innovation, GE is innovating continuously. One of the more recent innovations and actually a new market is ecomagination. GE was one of the first moving into the multibillion environmental industry, while maintaining high profits     

5. GE also follows a Focus strategy; the industries where they perform are yielding high profits which are higher than the industry standard.

6. GE uses smart up and cross selling in its business such as an energy contract together with a windmill thus creating a diversified portfolio.

7. GE own its own bank named GE Capital. Thus can finance their own needs along with the needs of their suppliers and buyers.

8. GE follows a proper structure of supply chain management to cut unnecessary cost and broaden profit.

9. GE is a divisional company the structure is decentralized; each division has its own senior management teams. Based on divisional structure, GE can easily contain a product or service structure within it and react to market needs quickly.