Here is a very good (but not perfect) example of an Individual Case Analysis deliverable. This is from a case we will not be covering this semester, so focus less on the specific content and more on the level of detail in analysis, strategic nature of the recommendations and professionalism of the format.
Including two pages of original exhibits/appendices is optional so this particular analysis do not feature this. Please refer to the case-specific rubrics for the Nike & Starbucks cases.
Strategic Repositioning
General Electric (GE) is repositioning itself to be the world’s best infrastructure and technology company with a smaller financial services division. Their focus is on driving infrastructure leadership, investing in innovation, and achieving a culture of simplification to better serve their customers around the world. GE has grown its infrastructure platforms with major portfolio moves, investing in adjacencies and pursuing opportunities that are closely related to its core.
Transforming the Portfolio
GE is moving away from slow growing and non-core businesses such as appliances and NBC Universal, and turning to future-growth industries including clean-tech and health care. GE sold its Appliances business to Haier, and its ownership of NBC Universal to Comcast. In 2001, GE’s portfolio is: 40% industrial; 40% capital & insurance; 20% appliances, NBC, plastics. Since 2014, GE has become 60% industrial and 40% capital. In 2015, the company acquired Alstom’s Thermal, Renewables & Grid business. Alstom is a good strategic fit with GE, providing complementary technologies, global presence, and power services installed base.
Reducing the Size of GE Capital
In parallel, GE is making a concentrated effort to reduce the size of their capital business and align its growth with Industrial earnings. Although GE Capital used to produce 60% of GE’s profits, it made GE more vulnerable to changes in the macro-environment and can no longer generate acceptable returns. Thus, GE is selling most of the GE Capital assets and retaining those financial assets that support their core businesses. The financial services exits are unlocking significant capital that GE is reallocating to generate higher returns. In 2015, GE retired 6.6% of its public float through the Synchrony Financial split-off and plan to use the dividends to fund their buyback programs.
Multi-Business Portfolio as a Competitive Advantage
The new GE has a connected multi-business portfolio. Below are the major products in each department:
1) Power: power generation services, gas turbines, engine & generators, nuclear reactors, water systems. 2) Aviation: jet & turboprop engines; components & integrated systems for commercial, military, business; general aviation aircraft & ship propulsion applications, global service networks. 3) Healthcare: diagnostic imaging systems (MRI, CT, nuclear & molecular imaging, and digital mammography), surgical imaging products, ultrasound, pharmaceutical research & production tool. 4) Transportation: locomotives, diesel engines, drilling motors, mining equipment & propulsion system, motorized drive systems, software and analytic solutions to optimize rail & mining operations. 5) Lighting: light products and services, including industrial-scale lighting solutions. 6) Capital: GE industry-focused financial services verticals, including GE Capital Aviation Services, Energy Financial Services and Industrial Finance including healthcare Equipment Finance.
This connected multi-business portfolio has become the competitive advantage for GE – the infrastructure businesses were built upon technical and market leadership, and the diversity provides strength through disruptive events and commodity cycles. The company also developed the GE Store to drive advanced technologies for all of these business segments. The GE Store is a transfer of technology, talent, expertise, and connections through GE’s massive, diverse network of business and markets. Across its global network of nine technology centers, the GE Store has more than 3,600 of the world’s best scientists and engineers working for all the businesses. Each business can contribute to GE by providing unique expertise to the GE Store and leverages the GE Store to compete more effectively.
Current Performance
In the midst of this transformation, GE delivered good results. In 2015, the company grew its Industrial earnings per share by 19%, expanded the segment margins by 80 basis points, and returned $33 billion of cash to investors. Strong execution was reflected in share price. The company’s total stock return was +28% in 2015, above the performance of the S&P 500, which grew by 1%, and the industrial index, which declined by 4%. GE ended the year as the eighth most valuable company in the world.
Sustainability Strategies at GE
As a digital industrial company, GE has the tools to succeed in an evolving world and will continue to lead on sustainability through partnerships, digital solutions and new business models in the over 170 countries where it operates.
- Ecomagination is GE’s growth strategy to enhance resource productivity and reduce environmental impact at a global scale. As a part of this strategy, GE is investing in cleaner technology and business innovation, developing solutions to enable economic growth while avoiding emissions and reducing water consumption, committing to reduce the environmental impact in its own operations, and developing strategic partnerships to solve some of the toughest environmental challenges at scale.
- Healthymagination. GE is committed to developing and investing in innovations that deliver high-quality affordable and accessible healthcare to more people around the world. Healthymagination combines corporate venture capital with new business creation, external collaboration and thought leadership initiatives, alongside efforts in Human Resources, the GE Foundation, and with the GE Healthcare business, to provide a unique position to achieve this mission and drive innovation on a global scale. Through its Brain Health Initiative, GE has partnered with the Kavli Foundation and the Allen Institute for Brain Science to create a unified platform that allows neuroscientists around the world to better share, aggregate and analyzes research data. The company has also launched a program that encourages U.S. communities to work together to develop population health improvements by partnering with public and private entities.
- Unlocking Efficiency through Digital. As the world is marching towards an increasingly digital economy, GE launched Predix, the cloud-based platform for the Industrial Internet. With Predix as its foundation, the company will increase energy and materials efficiencies and reduce emissions across industries using the power of analytics. In transportation, GE locomotive control software can analyze data on train operations, weather and routes to deliver fuel savings and emission reductions of up to 17 percent. In healthcare, the GE Health Cloud can help unlock data, quickly and seamlessly so that clinicians can take action to improve outcomes and patient care around the globe.
Recommendation
Few companies in the world can combine technology, domain expertise, and manufacturing in the way that GE can. Consequently, there is a massive opportunity for GE to cross-leverage these areas of expertise and create game-changing solutions for itself and the industry at large. As the operating climate for industrial companies becoming increasing challenging, GE needs to focus more resources on developing the GE Digital, transforming the industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive.
Currently, GE is attacking this opportunity by marrying the physical and digital worlds, using technologies like the Internet of Things, sophisticated software, and big-data analytics. The company can invest more in R&D activities regarding to smart factories, smart operators and cyber security services. At GE, a 1% improvement in productivity across its supply chain represents an annual savings of $500 million that can be reinvested or distributed to shareholders. Worldwide, a 1% improvement in industrial productivity could boost global GDP by a staggering $10 trillion to $15 trillion over the next 15 years. Therefore, becoming a better digital industrial company will lead GE’s future growth.
