Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

INTRODUCTION:

General electric is one of the world's largest and most diversified companies. With eleven different

segments of the company, ranging from Advanced Materials to NBC Universal, General electric has a

strong hold on many separate markets. As a whole, General Electrics' main competitor on a

conglomerate level consists of Siemens.

Siemens AG (SI) is a leading diversified company offering products and services in information and

communications, automation and control, power, transportation, medical, water and wastewater

treatment, lighting, financing, real estate, and home appliances. Siemens' is one of the largest markets

in the world, with thirteen worldwide businesses and annual sales of $97 billion. Siemens companies in

the U.S. employ approximately 70,000 people and 430,000 people globally. Siemens’ most closely

mirrors General Electric’s size and structure, making it their largest competitor.

Breaking GE down into individual segments reveals a more accurate depiction of the company’s

competition. Each separate venture of GE has its own degree of competition. While all eleven segments

of the company are important, the largest and most profitable areas of business are GE’s finance, media,

and technology businesses.

GE’s Consumer Finance and Commercial Finance are GE’s most lucrative businesses producing 39 billion

dollars in revenue for 2004. These financial institutes offer a wide array of services and products such as

commercial loans, home loans, bank cards, auto loans, leasing and financing inventory, debt

consolidation loans, and home equity loans. Citigroup, a GE competitor, provides financial services for

more than 200 million people in over 100 countries with revenues of over 66 billion. Citigroup competes

with General Electric’s financial service business segment with their four business groups in the financial

services. These segments consist of Global Consumer Group, Global Corporate & Investment Banking

Group, Global Investment Management, and Global Wealth Management. The competition in this area

is high between GE and Citigroup.

GE NBC Universal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies owning a television

network, world-renowned theme parks, Motion Picture Company and other various media outlets.

While GE NBC produces lower revenue than its competitors, such as Disney and Time Warner Inc., GE

maintains a relatively competitive profit.

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

Another large competitor GE faces is Koninklijke Philips Electronics competing on more of a

technological battlefield. Phillips is a global company that generates more than 39 billion in sales and

employees 161,000 people in over 60 countries. Phillips is one of General Electric’s smaller competitors

though Philips Medical Systems is increasingly creating more competition in that business segment of

General Electric.

General electric’s main advantage is the fact that they are so diversified. The competition is steep in

each of their individual companies, but there are few companies that can compete with General Electric

as a whole.

PORTER 5 FORCES ANALYSIS:

This is an excellent framework that could help managers, entrepreneurs and investors to evaluate

whether a business is operating in a profitable industry. From the results of this analysis, strategies could

be formulated to help companies identify opportunities and avoid threats.

Here is a Porter 5 Forces framework:

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

Each force in this framework could be categorized as strong, medium, or weak. Strong forces are

perceived as threats to the enterprise. Strong forces have strong bargaining power thus limit the

enterprise’s ability to increase price or lower cost. On the other hand, weak forces are perceived as

opportunities. Weak forces have low bargaining power thus the enterprise could increase price or lower

cost to sustain more profit.

ANALYSES ON GENERAL ELECTRIC:

1) Intensity of Existing Rivalry

Government limits competition: Government policies and regulations can dictate the level of

competition within the industry. When they limit competition, this is a positive forGeneral

Electric.

Relatively few competitors: Few competitors mean fewer firms are competing for the same

customers and resources, which is a positive for General Electric.

Large industry size: Large industries allow multiple firms and produces to prosper without

having to steal market share from each other. Large industry size is a positive for General

Electric.

2) Bargaining Power of Suppliers / Threat of Substitutes

Substitute has lower performance: A lower performance product means a customer is less

likely to switch from General Electric to another product or service.

Substitute is lower quality: A lower quality product means a customer is less likely to switch

from General Electric to another product or service.

Substitute product is inferior: An inferior product means a customer is less likely to switch from

General Electric to another product or service.

High cost of switching to substitutes: Limited number of substitutes means that customers

cannot easily switch to other products or services of similar price and still receive the same

benefits. High switching costs positively affect General Electric.

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

Limited number of substitutes: A limited number of substitutes mean that customers cannot

easily find other products or services that fulfill their needs. Limited substitutes are a positive for

General Electric.

3) Bargaining Power of Customers:

Buyers require special customization: When customers require special customizations, they are

less likely to switch to producers who have difficulty meeting their demands. Buyer

customization positively affects General Electric.

Large number of customers: When there are large numbers of customers, no one customer

tends to have bargaining leverage. Limited bargaining leverage helps General Electric.

4) Threat of New Competitors

High capital requirements: High capital requirements mean a company must spend a lot of

money in order to compete in the market. High capital requirements positively affect General

Electric.

High sunk costs limit competition: High sunk costs make it difficult for a competitor to enter a

new market, because they have to commit money up front with no guarantee of returns in the

end. High sunk costs positively affect General Electric.

Advanced technologies are required: Advanced technologies make it difficult for new

competitors to enter the market because they have to develop those technologies before

effectively competing. The requirement for advanced technologies positively affects General

Electric.

Industry requires economies of scale: Economies of scale help producers to lower their cost by

producing the next unit of output at lower costs. When new competitors enter the market, they

will have a higher cost of production, because they have smaller economies of scale.

Economies of scale positively affect General Electric.

Patents limit new competition: Patents that cover vital technologies make it difficult for new

competitors, because the best methods are patented. Patents positively affect General Electric.

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

Customers are loyal to existing brands: It takes time and money to build a brand. When

companies need to spend resources building a brand, they have fewer resources to compete in

the marketplace. These costs positively affect General Electric.

High learning curve: When the learning curve is high, new competitors must spend time and

money studying the market before they can effectively compete. High learning curves positively

affect profits for General Electric.

Entry barriers are high: When barriers are high, it is more difficult for new competitors to enter

the market. High entry barriers positively affect profits for General Electric.

New Entrants

The threat of new entrants for General Electric is small due to the vast size of the company. Many of

GE's companies require a great deal of brand recognition to stay successful. The scale of economy that

GE operates in places a hardship on new entrants to any of the three major segments of GE. The

financial services industry would require an extremely large amount of startup cost and capital making it

difficult for small companies to compete. The finance industry also hinges on an established and trusted

name for success. The threat of new entrants to the finance industry competing on the scale that GE

competes in is very small.

GE NBC also has little threat of new entrants imposing competition. In the world of broadcast and

entertainment there is also a great deal of monetary value that must be expended in order to even have

hopes of competing with such networks as NBC. New entrants must also face the legal barriers licensing

regulations created by the government to limit entry into the broadcast industry. Not only must new

entrants have a mass amount of capital and legal issues but they must also compete with the NBC name.

Technology is yet another industry that requires large capital and expense. It would be difficult for new

entrants to obtain the cash and development that is essential in this industry. Also, new companies must

take into realized the channels of distribution for the production of technologies are difficult to achieve

without an already established relationship.

The threat of new entrants in all aspects of GE is low due to the repeating trends of the market

requirements that GE employs. People already have a solid relationship with the brand name GE, and it

would be very expensive for a new company to try and compete with it. It would require a great deal of

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

capital in advertising to get a new companies brand name out to the public. All of GE's companies are in

very large-scale economies, which are difficult to break into.

Threat of Substitute Products

Every company has to worry about the threat of new products being created which would make their

product obsolete. GE is no exception. Just about every product that General Electric creates has the

threat of substitute products.

The financial segment of GE is not as susceptible to a threat of substitutes as other units of GE. A

consumer is not as likely to switch their financial provider, as they are their light bulb brand. GE NBC is

one segment that could be prone to substitutes. Substitution for GE NBC is as easy as viewers switching

a channel and advertisers switching networks. This creates a high level of competition that promotes

companies to continually have the edge over their competitors.

The technology industry is also an at-risk industry to threats of substitutions. From their consumer

products to their healthcare technologies, everything has the ability to be taken over by a newer

technology or a more efficient product. General electric’s advantage in this field is their strength of

brand name. With new products coming out all of the time, consumers may be reluctant to switch due

to their loyalty to the GE brand name.

Bargaining Power of Buyers

Due to the size of General electric, they have considerable bargaining power for most of their products.

For many of their companies, the switching cost for buyer is extremely high. This is true with the

financial, broadcasting and technology industry. For many companies, such as GE Healthcare, the

volume per buyer is very large in both quantity of goods and cost of goods. This makes the switching

cost for buyers high, giving GE yet another advantage over their buyers. This is true for most of their

companies, but not all. Some of General Electric’s companies, such as GE Consumer and Industrial, the

switching cost of buying a different product is minimal. In these few scenarios, GE must stay competitive

in the price wars with their competition.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low for General Electric’s many industries. Due to the

shear volume of goods that GE buys from their suppliers, the suppliers have no ability to bargain with

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Porter’s 5 Force Analysis on GE

GE. Most of GE's suppliers could not survive if they lost GE's business. General Electric is also very

flexible in who they choose to be their suppliers. This gives them the advantage of having suppliers fight

for their business.

Group II

Members:

1) BVVSS Ramanjaneyulu,2) Karthigeyan K,3) Shameerullah B. &4) Murali N.

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