GE’S TALENT MACHINE:

THE MAKING OF A CEO

Submitted by:
Group 6
Ankur Purohit
Karan Sehgal
Aishwarya Krishna
Prithwi Banerjee
Shalini Singh
Shivangi Nayak
General Electric
Founded by Thomas Edison in 1878

GE promotes top leaders from its own

Executive development practices made by Charles Coffins, the CEO

Coffins was commited towards measuring a performance

Observer called GE “a CEO factory”

In 2003 fortune magazine article named him (Coffins) “the greatest CEO of all time”

GE use human capital as a competitive advantage

Continues improvements in the training and development of staff

GE maintain being a revolutionary organisation; by hiring from within GE and always looking out
for new management talent
Well defined succession management process which puts performing employees in lower
management positions, in a variety of industries
WHY SUCCESSION PLANNING

Works on proven leadership model

Lower risk due to familiarity of culture

Higher acceptability and morale from staffs

Encourages hiring from within

Better relation between top management and employees

KEY PLAYERS
Ralph Cordiner
• Implemented decentralization at a crucial juncture in the course of diversification, this eased strains imposed on GE2.
• Introduction of Session C3.
• Created a succession plan for managers, helped identify successors in each level
Fred Borsh
• Identified “Talent” as a general resource and not something that’s department specific: “Hoarding” reduction. The advent of EMS
(Executive Manpower Staff)
Jack Welch
• Immense restructuring by elimination of over 1 Lakh jobs
• Vitality curve starts now: Reward scheme also changes
• Special emphasis laid on the GE value system and managers who didn’t adhere to the values were let gone
Jeff Immelt
• Suggested key elements for growth strategy on the face of environmental changes
• Technological leadership
• Services Acceleration
• Enduring customer relationship, Resource allocation and Globalization
Reasons for GEs success
Comprised of a formal and an informal head

Continuous process, and not just a one time or a crisis management issue: recognized
the fact that leadership succession is critical and an on-going process

Emerging leaders were exposed to various sectors and verticals. Example: GEMS
exposure for Jeff was crucial. It helped the leaders develop a holistic view of the
business and not remain a frog in well

The importance placed on Talent management by the organization as a whole: The

working together of the HR department and the CEO in the leadership development
process. The realization that the work of any one alone wouldn’t be as effective
Challenges
Will GE be able to sustain the success (after Welch)

Shareholder want to realise the same returns that they have been receiving under
Welch regime

GE has to be very careful to manage transition from Welch to the CEO in order to
maintain a balance or he has to minimize the disturbance during the transition

Will the GE strategy continue? will it change and reflect the leadership trait of the
new CEO and if so, to what degree will the new strategy diverge from the old
strategy
Key learnings
Leadership and succession planning requires heavy investments and immense
commitment: From the organization (HR) as well as the CEO

This is an ongoing process and abandonment of the same at any stage would result in
a half-baked outcome

The need for a leader to develop from within the organization is to ensure that the
leader is aware and imbibed in the culture. There would be no mismatch and the
time taken to acclimatize an outsider is avoided
But this also has its negatives, to identify processes which are of minimal or no value
addition, an out siders perspective is critical: Example: The vitality curve: It seems to
be causing more harm than good by demotivating majority of the staff
THANK YOU