Strategic change
1.
From the start Welch started, his tenure at a very demanding period since all the sectors of the economy was facing recession. There were high interest rates and a tough dollar intensified the situation. The country was going through difficult times with most people being laid off due to depression in the economy. This situation ideally was too difficult for any manger that had just joined the company and high expectations were anticipated from him. What could he do was what many remained speculating on whether the new CEO would meet the standards of his predecessor (Bartlett & Wozny, 2005).
/>
Welch was not shaken at all when he met all this situations. He was determine and a focused manger who was ready to cause an impact at a company that most people at that time felt that the company was going to fail. To control performance in GE’s wide spread portfolio of enterprises, he faced each difficulty with an option of ensuring excellence. By first setting in motion a sequence of changes, that was the initial indication that the CEO was determine for success of the company. Strategic planning is very essential when faced with such situations. He put in place a five-year strategic plan, which ensured consistency and effectiveness. His standards of operation were an approach, which most successful business and high planners would apply during such times of recession. The approach is *1 or *2: fix, sell, or close. He decided on this mechanism because of the dynamic nature of the industry. According to him, there was no way one can set up a general theme or a single strategy for such a big company. All the sectors needed urgent strategies and being one sided would make other sectors vulnerable for problems.
Welch managed to fix some sectors, sell others and at the same time to maintain the company’s image of being the leader industry in its operations, in addition, he had to acquire some to replace the ones he had sold. This mechanism was effective in that everyone was on the look out for any opportunity while at the same time trying to do away with the constraints that slowed down their progress. Welch also motivated his workers, and encouraged his business heads to always discuss issues and plan for the future growth of the company instead of dealing with petty issues. Competitors were kept at bay by this mechanism since there was no loophole for them to chip in (Bartlett & Wozny, 2005).
2.
In addition, the radical changes that Welch made at the company were targeted at improving efficiency and reducing unnecessary expense that the company incurred from too much salary. He reduced the number of staff to a manageable level of which all were committed to doing business not owning titles. The leadership structure changed from what employees were used to like CEO to sectors to departments to business. Now it became CEO directly to business. This changes saw an increase in revenue for the company from $27.2 billion to 29.2 billion, while operating profits increased from $1.6 billion to $2.4 billion. This also led to a strong rise in both sales and the earnings in the second half of the decade. After the restructuring process, Welch was still not done with the company’s vision. To ensure excellent service provision, the company software also needed to be adjusted. He acknowledged that companies could enhance its productivity through major restructuring; however, it cannot maintain relatively remarkable productivity without cultural change. By 1989, Welch made his objective of changing the corporate culture. He modified the chief components of the organizational culture in a bid to develop a management system that was identified by speed, simplicity, and self-confidence. To facilitate the culture transition, he introduced two related initiatives-dubbed Workout and Best Practices. This was aimed at developing the desired culture and management approach. The change of company’s culture was also aimed at ensuring freedom of employees and attitudes of togetherness. This enhances feedback delivery and quick responses to ideas and proposal making the company one of the best to work in (Bartlett & Wozny, 2005).
3.
With constant change in technology and management practices, my organization is on the fore front in trying to beat these upcoming challenges by ensuring all its department work closely with one another and making sure there are no duplication of duties. Usually there are general changes and with this, the organization ensures everyone is made aware through internal memos and verbal communication. The senior management in most cases handles major changes affecting the organization and incase of necessity, they can pass that to the other junior managers for further discussion and proposals. Other issues are addressed as they come and if it is necessary all the employees be notified of the changes before implementation. This as work out for our organization since the company is not a large one thus everyone is within reach anytime and they can be monitored closely with ease.
To remain top on competition, the organization ensures quality production of goods and services through staff motivation and encouragement to retain them for long and utilize their potentials. The organization believes in investing in its employees since they are the one directly involved with the clients. They also ensure continuous campaign on its products in order keep the customers updated on its consistent delivery of services. On the other hand, we are in a dynamic world and technology is at the forefront of any successful production. My company therefore, keeps all the employees on regular training programs on their areas of specialization so that each is well equipped of the current market trends and technology advancement. Training also ensures growth of employees’ professionalism and efficiency.
Managers and supervisors in addition, work closely with one another in ensuring policy regulation and amendments of existing rules that are not favorable to the daily operation of the organization. Suggestions are also welcome by the management on what should be done in each department and this keeps teamwork and sharing of ideas, skills, and experiences.
4.
Managing organizational change can be very disturbing especially in an organization that was not expecting changes. My organization have work hard to reducing fears on employees that expects the worst to happen to them once there is major changes in the organization. This is because achieving personal change can be thriving if one is ready for the changes that the company is undergoing. The company therefore, has a mechanism of thoughtful planning and sensitive execution, in addition to ensuring that it notify and consult every individual who will be affected by the changes. Forcing changes to employees creates many problems, hence my organization avoid this by consultation and careful planning and involvement of everyone. Change should be realistic, attainable, and assessable. Strategic planning requires the need to identifying what the organization can do best and setting up of objectives and goals. This is completely different from the one presented since in the fist instance, the presented case start with having a vision and direction. For our case, the management is more interested in achieving its short-term objectives rather than the overall growth of the company. Although in both cases, resources need to be identified, my organization uses what it has at that time and future development will be taken care of once the urgent operations are dealt with first. The action plans are the same since in the case presented one has to have a concise plan for execution of activities. These helps in keeping changes smooth in integration with the existing systems and ensure the change is adapted quickly.
In the implementation of strategic change, the organization uses the SWOT analysis. This has greatly helped the organization in establishing the right changes for adaptation and which one to discard. Diagnosis is based on the capabilities of the organization in relation to what it wants to do. Strategic planning is one of the workable mechanisms for most organizations in this modern age. Diagnosis of problems starts with the ability of the management to control and facilitate organizational operation. This can only be achieved through hiring of qualified personnel who are able to detect problems before they escalate into huge problems in the organization.
Reference:
Bartlett, C. and Wozny, M. (2005). GE’S Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch’s Leadership. Harvard Business School.
