The organization is functioning like a normal company with a functional structure, except of the fact that the revenues are cashed in by the mother company in USA, Nevada.
This company has over 1200 employees and 3 office spaces at Berceni, Aurel Vlaicu and Dimitrie Leonida. The most employees are engineers and they are working on field. Sometimes they are called for projects in other countries.
The company offers products and services like turbines and generators, but also does maintenance work for them.
The company has contracts and does maintenance work at Cernavoda, S.C Nuclear Electrica, Portile de fier and Petrobrazi. And it also builds a wind park at Silistea, Galbiori, Mireasa, Cogealac and Fantanele.
- Organizational resources
Tangible assets
Buildings. The company owns one plant in Berceni neighborhood where the turbines and the generators are being produced, one plant at Dimitrie Leonida metro station for the engineers’ offices, but the office building from Aurel Vlaicu is rented from Floreasca Business Park.
Equipment. The equipment of the GE’ has also a great value and it is shared into 2 types of equipment:
- equipment for building generators and turbines.
- equipment for repairing damages that can occur to the generator and turbines
Land. The company owns land in the following villages, as it was needed for building the wind-driven power park: Silistea, Galbiori, Mireasa, Cogealac and Fantanele. For acquisitioning the land, General Electric had to negotiate with the authorities of the country and with the administration of these villages.
Financial Resources. The company has a limited budget established one year earlier by the financial leader of Romania. This budget has to be approved by the mother company in USA and the money is transferred at the beginning of the year. If the company wants to overcome the budget, it has access to the international fund of GE. The financial leader sends a request, explaining why it is necessary for the budget limit to be expanded. The top management team from USA approves or not this procedure.
Intangible assets
Human Resources. The people who work in this company have experience, knowledge and great skills. People who work here as field engineers are highly creative and have exceptional technical skills.
Legal Properties. GE’s intellectual property is among the company’s most valuable assets. It is GE’s policy to establish, protect, maintain and defend its rights in all commercially significant intellectual property and to use those rights in legally responsible ways.
-
Trademark- The GE trademark (monogram) is registered, giving the company a mark that is instantly recognizable and helping to build the GE brand.
-
Patents- GE total: 2,370 filed in the entire world, but each company, including the Romanian one can use these patents without consequences.
-
Slogan- the slogan is also registered and protected: GE imagination at work
-
Reputation- Globally, the company’s reputation is impressive, as the companies from all over the countries helped to build it:
- In 2010, GE ranked #1 in healthcare and #19 overall on Fast Company's list of the world's top 50 most innovative companies.
- In 2010, GE was named in Ethisphere's list of the world's most ethical companies.
- In 2010, GE was named in Business Week's list of the world's 25 most inventive companies.
- In 2010, GE ranked among Fortune magazine's listing of the Most Admired Companies in the World for its 5th consecutive year.
- Recognized as a "sustainability leader" by Dow Jones, GE is included in the 2009 North American and World indexes of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) for the sixth consecutive year.
- In 2009, Fortune ranked GE among its list of the world's top companies for leaders.
-
Brand- In 2009 GE’s brand was considered to be the fourth one in the world, after Coca Cola (the red line), Microsoft (the black line), IBM (the light blue line) and GE ( the dark blue line):
Source: Interbrand / Businessweek. Values stated in US$ billion
- Vision and Mission
Mission Statement - “Who we are and what we do”
Imagine, solve, build and lead - four bold verbs that express what it is to be part of GE. Their action-oriented nature says something about who we are - and should serve to energize ourselves and our teams around leading change and driving performance.
What unifies us? Our Actions and Values.
What we do and how we work is distinctly GE. It's a way of thinking and working that has grounded our performance for decades. It's a way of talking about our work and ourselves that takes the best from our past and expresses it in the spirit and language of GE today.
It's about who we are, what we believe, where we're headed, how we'll get there. It's how we imagine, solve, build and lead.
Imagine. From the very beginnings of our company, when Thomas Edison was changing the world with the power of ideas, GE has always stood for one capability above all others - the ability to imagine.
Imagine is a sense of possibility that allows for a freedom beyond mere invention. Imagine dares to be something greater. At GE, Imagine is an invitation to dream and do things that you didn't know you could do. Because at GE the act of imagining is fused with empowerment - the confidence that what we imagine, we can make happen.
Solve. Every business has to have a reason to exist - a reason that answers the fundamental question of "why are we here?"For GE, the big question has a simple answer: We exist to solve problems - for our customers, our communities and societies, and for ourselves.
Build. From 0 to 60 in six seconds? Try zero to $5 billion in five years.
It's not so much a vision for our future - where we're headed is in many ways a reflection of where we've already been. It's not a destination. It's a quest. A quest for growth. And when we look to the future, we know that for us, there's only one way to get there. Build.
Lead .Imagine. Solve. Build. Each of these is merely a word without one vital element. Lead.
GE is already synonymous with leadership. But with this mantle comes responsibility. And it's not just a responsibility to maintain the status quo or manage what worked yesterday. It's the bigger responsibility to change.
Vision Statement - “Where we are going”
Inventing new alternatives of fuel by respecting their “ecofriendly policy”. This is the vision of the entire General Electric.
As for the vision of Romanian branch only, the vision is to build in the next two years an oil-based electric power plant for Petrom. This plant is supposed to cover up at least 10% of the total power energy produced and distributed in Romania. As already 9% of the total of power energy distributed in our country comes from the eolian turbines, General Electric Romania is trying to increase the number up to 20% in the next 5 years.
In conclusion, General Electric Energy Services Romania has the vision to monopolize slowly but sure the entire building of electric power infrastructure in Romania.
- SWOT analysis
External Environment
GE bases its relationships with suppliers on lawful, efficient and fair practices. In turn, we expect our suppliers to adhere to applicable legal requirements in their business relationships, including their obligations to treat their workers fairly, to provide a safe and healthy working environment, and to protect and preserve environmental quality. There are specific guidelines you must follow to ensure that our supplier relationships won’t damage GE’s reputation.
What GE watches out for
• Selection of suppliers on any basis other than open, competitive bidding.
• Potential conflicts of interest in supplier selection, including the acceptance of gifts or other items of value except in strict compliance with business guidelines.
• Directing business to a supplier owned or managed by a relative or close friend.
• Unsafe conditions in supplier facilities, or workers who appear to be underage or subject to coercion.
• Apparent disregard of environmental or labor standards in supplier facilities.
• Entrusting personal data or confidential information to suppliers without ensuring that they have appropriate technical,
physical, and organizational measures to prevent unauthorized access.
What leaders must do concerning the external environment?
• Where practical, provide competitive opportunities to all suppliers – large and small; local, national and international; internal and external.
• General Managers must establish and document a purchase authorization and approval process for their business. It must establish criteria for such major purchases as the business deems appropriate, including limits based on broad classes or types of purchase. Documentation must also include authority for financial control in accordance with this and related company policies (see “Related policies, procedures and guidelines” below).
• Ensure that a process is in place to execute the Supplier Responsibility Guidelines (see “Related policies, procedures and guidelines” below).
• Provide sourcing employees with clear guidance on acceptable and unacceptable practices in accepting gifts and gratuities from suppliers.
• Ensure that relationships with suppliers support GE’s compliance and integrity obligations in such areas as data privacy and protection of GE’s intellectual property.
• Officers and managers reporting to an officer have full implementing authority for this policy.
Internal Environment
General Electric Energy Services Romania has an atypical structure. Firstly, the CEO Cristian Colteanu is not only the Romania’s CEO, but also for Moldavia and Bulgaria. Secondly, the company has only two departments: the financial department and sales department. The reason for that not having a marketing department is because this business doesn’t need advertising, the power energy being a basic necessity that they won’t give up and the government of any country has to cover it.
The administrative part of the company is composed of less than 100 people, while the rest is composed by the teams of engineers assigned to work on the field. There is a special team created for each important contract ( Cernavoda, SC NuclearElectrica, Petrobrazi, Petrom& GE). Also, every wind-driven power plant has its own engineer that supervises it. But there are also teams created only for interventions like emergency situations when the electric power is off in a city and the General Electric team has to take immediately action and solve the situation ( if there is concluded a contract between the local administration and GE).
Cristian Colteanu
President & CEO
Cristian Valentin Colteanu joined GE as Regional Executive for Romania, Bulgaria and the Republic of Moldova starting September 2007. Aged 58, Cristian Colteanu is the former Ambassador of Italy between 2003 and 2007. Also, during this period he was the Ambassador of Romania in the Republic of Malta and the Republic of San Marino. As a result of his impressive activity, he was awarded with several medals of honour. He accumulated extensive experience in the government sector as Secretary of State, National Coordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe and National Coordinator of Southeast European Cooperative Initiative in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 2000 to 2003.
- Strategic advantage
The competitive advantage of the company is defined as the strategic advantage one business entity has over its rival entities within its competitive industry. In this case, the competitive advantage of GE can be represented by:
- high quality of products and services
- the brand that can be trusted in because of its good reputation
- the capabilities and resources that place General Electric on the highest rank in this industry
Company’s Capabilities
The main capabilities of this organization are:
-
Being global – GE Romania has contracts of over $7 bill. with China
-
Being innovating- Empowering people to come up with alternatives for producing power energy trough contests and financial incentives
-
Building partnerships – GE and Metka formed the biggest partnership in Romania until now in order to create a new electric power plant
Sometimes, it takes everything that we are to solve the world’s toughest challenges. But GE has all the resources to leverage all of its strengths: their size, scale, expertise—and even their financial capabilities and brand.
Company’s Core Competencies
The central values of the General Electric Co. are generally believed to be, ranked in this order by the manager:
- excellent customer service
- Porter’s 5 forces model
Suppliers- GE Romania Energy Services has more than 100 suppliers, as it needs financial consultancy (Ernst& Young, KPMG), it consultancy (IT plus, Total Soft ), bank services ( ING Bank & RBS Bank), staff (Adecco, Hill International) and specialized temporary staff (Genpact). These are the biggest suppliers of GE for which GE represents the most important client. Contracts are concluded and every tariff is negotiated at high level.
Potential Entrants- GE Romania Energy Services is not threaded by the potential new entrants, as there is a small possibility to be overcome in capabilities by another company. For building a single generator it is needed of more than 7bill $, which is an important amount of money even for a multinational company. Moreover, a turbine and a generator are built in 5 up to 7 years so the effort, money and time spent on it exceed even a large company’s competencies.
Buyers - The buyers so far are the local administrations of the cities, the centrals ( Cernavoda, SNN Nuclearelectrica), also different countries that needs energy infrastructure. ( the most important contract is concluded between GE Energy Services Romania and China)
Substitutes - The threat of substitutes is almost inexistent. Then possibility to find a new plan for creating electric power infrastructure would take years of studies and allocation of many expensive resources.
.
b. Formulation – major goals
The biggest challenge in the future for General Electric is showed in the next article:
Romania's largest oil and gas firm Petrom SNPP.BX signed a deal with a consortium made of General Electric Co. () and 's Metka () to build a power plant by September 2011, the company said.
The value of the deal was 400 million euros ($631.1 million) and the facility, which will be built in the southern town of Brazi, will use natural gas. It is expected to reach a power output of over 860 MW.
About 20 percent of the plant's capacity will be used to cover Petrom's energy consumption, while the rest will be sold on the Romanian energy market. Construction is expected to start at the beginning of next year.
The company wants to provide up to 9 percent of Romania's electricity output by 2012. (Reporting by Marius Zaharia; Editing by )
(Gandul Newspaper, 31st March 2010)
The partnership has to be a success, as the costs of this project are very high. The future challenge of General Electric Romania is to manage this project well, to solve every problem that occurs and to eliminate all the risks as possible regarding this project.
So, the major goals of GE Romania are:
- Finalize the building of the power plant together with Metka for the biggest client, Petrom
- Transform Romania into the biggest wind-driven farm in Europe in the next 5 years
- The acquisition of two other companies, Nuovo Pignone and Granite Services International in order to expand their services and produce its own equipment in the future
- Participating to as many auctions as possible in order to obtain new projects for new clients
Implementation
In order to implement a planned, incremental change it is needed for a change agent, a catalyst and a critical mass. The agent often is represented by someone from top management team. This person notices the change and begins the steps in order to implement the change. The catalyst can be someone from inside (middle management) or someone from outside. The critical mass are the employees to whom the decision of change must be communicate in order to convince them that the changes will create benefits.
Resistances to change
When implementing a change resistances may occur. The persons who oppose to change are the inhibitors. The possible resistances to change that may be caused by:
-
Differences between cultures. For the partnership between Metka and GE two different cultures may get along in order to reach common objectives. The differences between Greek culture and Romanian culture can create divergences.
Also, there are cultural differences between top management team and the Romanian employees. The Romanian employees have to comply with the decisions from the headquarter, Nevada. Every incremental change has to be approved from the mother company GE USA. So, even though a change agent from GE Romania wants to start the process of implementing a change, the first step is to seek for approval. There are cases when people didn’t agree with US managers and they refused to do certain things, this leading to a conflict.
-
Decision taken by the top management team without consulting the employees. The Romanian employees are often dissatisfied when the top management team from USA takes decision without consulting them. The Romanian team must comply with their decisions even though they not agree with it. These types of unannounced changes create divergences between employees and the management team from USA.
3. Conclusion
General Electric Romania has the reputation of a large company that respects its employees. Talent is the lifeblood of this organization, and GE views employees as its highest-priority resources. GE’s Romania people number nearly 2,000.
Strategic management is the set of managerial decision and action that determines the long-run performance of a corporation. It includes environmental scanning (both external and internal), strategy formulation (strategic or long range planning), strategy implementation, and evaluation and control. The study of strategic management therefore emphasizes the monitoring and evaluating of external opportunities and threats in lights of a corporation’s strengths and weaknesses.
General Electric, one of the pioneers of the strategic planning, led the transition from the strategic planning to strategic management during the 1980s. By the 1990s, most corporations around the world had also begun the conversion to strategic management.
4. References
- Fundamentele managementului organizatiei, Ovidiu Nicolescu si Ion Verboncu, Editura Universitara, Bucuresti, 2008
-
Internet :
- Ziarul Gandul – art. 31 martie 2010 ( Parteneriatul Metka, Petrom si GE)
- Ziarul Financiarul - art 19 decembrie 2007 ( Presedintele Cristian Colteanu)
