Scenario

When Jack Welch assumed the top position at General Electric in 1981, he inherited a company that had a market value of $12 billion certainly a modest number, by today's standards. By the time he left in 1998, GE was worth $280 billion. While leading GE, Welch was charged with the task of making the conglomerate better by any means necessary. With his gut telling him that his company was due for a complete overhaul, Welch decided to implement Six Sigma at GE in 1995. Six Sigma is a methodology that aims to reduce defects and errors in all processes, including transactional processes and manufacturing processes. Organizations that use Six Sigma test their processes again and again to make sure that they are as close to perfect as possible. Five years after Welch's decision to implement Six Sigma, GE had saved a mind-blowing $10 billion. Welch claimed to have spent as much as half of his time working on people issues. By assembling the right team and ingraining them with the right management philosophies, Welch successfully oversaw the transformation of GE from a relatively strong company to a true international juggernaut.

Provide a brief profile of General Electric and a summary of the drivers for change within the organization.

Discuss and evaluate the relevance of three models of strategic change to GE bearing in mind the current economy. (1.1).

Evaluate the relevance of the models of strategic change for GE and assess the value of using strategic intervention techniques in organisations. (