Question

What is your take on Jack Welch’s strategic leadership?

Discuss his strategy-making process for GE to be competitive.

Based on your independent research, what was the nature of the competitive advantage of GE under Jack Welch’s leadership?

The textbook defines six strategies. Which one did GE adopt and explain how and why?

Based on your independent research, discuss GE’s corporate governance and social responsibility during Jack Welch’s era.

Answer 1

Jack Welch had a strategic vision for GE and as part of his strategic leadership he was able to express that strategic vision and enable employees of GE to work in a systematic manner to achieve that vision. As a strategic leader he realized his mission by initiating a restricting plan, bringing on board a much needed job cut, and aligning businesses so that GE focuses on segments in which it is either the number one or number two player. As such I think that Jack Welch was one of the best strategic leaders to have come across in the corporate history.

His strategy making process was democratic to a large extent and he consulted his divisional and segment heads and managers before taking any decisions. He believed in open thinking and encouraged his managers to think out of the box and to take calculated risks. This strategy making process allowed GE to be competitive and enabled GE to grow into a highly flexible and agile corporate behemoth.

The nature of competitive advantage of GE under Mr. Welch’s leadership was differentiation. Jack Welch emphasized on research and development (R&D) a lot and based on this GE was able to develop products that added incremental values for its clients and customers. R&D helped GE to attain increased level of product innovation. Of the six strategies GE adopted the strategy of core competency development and the company used innovation management to further strengthen its core competency.

During Jack Welch’s era GE’s developed strong and robust corporate governance and social responsibility framework. Jack Welch realized the need for strong corporate governance and he emphasized on principles of ethical governance as well. He also realized that GE has several stakeholders beyond the company’s shareholders and hence social responsibility was given a high degree of importance.