A Report On General Dynamics (GD) Company

General Dynamics (GD) is headquartered in Falls Church, VA and was founded in February 1952 in Delaware. The beginning of GD began as they supplied rockets, missiles, electronics, and war machines as needed. Due to gaining an understanding in the mission world, GD was able to eventually become a global leader in aerospace and the defense sector. GD added technology in the 1900s – General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) to their enterprise. Many governments and agencies depend on GD for security and safety. Since they have the ability to produce business jets, submarines, combat ground vehicles, and communication systems. GDIT’s mission and vision statements along with their objectives are collectively known as VMO (vision, mission, objectives) and they take pride in their VMO.

A vision statement generally describes what an organization wants to become in the future and a mission statement describes who the organization fundamentally is at their core. GDIT’s vision statement is to reinvent the bounds of innovation to advance our customers’ missions. Their mission statement is to discover new ways to rapidly deliver a full spectrum of mission-critical solutions by partnering with our customers, teammates, suppliers, and communities. Their objective would the commitment of assisting customers to attain mission success is on the same level as GD’s dedication to work on the path of the highest trust, reverence, ethical conduct, authenticity, and teamwork to achieve mission success for their clients. In other words, no shortcuts to attain the goal. GD thinks consistent and incessant improvement confirms customers obtain customized solutions to go beyond and meet their current and future needs. GD’s major strategies are weaponry, aerospace, technologies and marine systems.

Their Combat Systems division is one of GD’s specialty and they continue developing, designing, and reforming many of the world’s recognized land combat machines. They produce light armored vehicles, tanks, and high-performance weapons systems and weapons, which have weaponry such as M2-A1 heavy machine guns, MK19/MK47 grenade launchers, and M2A Quick Change Barrell (QCB) kits. There are three subunits for the Combat Systems: ordnance and tactical systems, European land systems, and land systems. Europe and other countries come to GD for weaponry and aerospace needs.

Their Aerospace division has the responsibility for two subsections called Gulfstream and Jet Aviation. GD’s first Gulfstream became the world’s first all-purpose aircraft. They are able to have product service and support customers domestically and internationally with their global network for operators, aircraft owners, and aircraft completions for other equipment manufacturers. GD’s aerospace division is as popular as their information technology division.

Their Information and Technology subdivision consists of the information technology and mission systems sections in which they advance, mature, and secure systems of well-branched defense, aerospace, and communication products. GD also has large IT networks and systems, cyber products, imagery sensors, command and control systems, and communication systems. Moreover, the Marine systems generate and build complex ships. Their subsections include bath iron works, electric boat, and NASSCO (not an acronym). Marine systems have locations on both east and west coasts in the United States, also, they have been building, maintaining, and delivering ships for the U.S. Navy. They also construct, mend, and design submarines, surface combatant, auxiliary combat-logistics ships, and commercial Jones Act ships.

Diversification is when a business expands into a new opportunity or they expand their current operations. In taking a diversification route, companies set themselves up for either great risk or reward. A few advantages of diversification are to maximize underutilized resources or have multiple investments due to surprises, which always do occur in the business world. A few disadvantages are not being able to adapt to market change and not being able to accommodate the new skill sets needed in expertise or new field. There are a few different types of diversifications: horizontal, vertical, concentric, and conglomerate (Diversification, 2018).

Horizontal diversification is when new services or products that are what the current customer base is attracted to and vertical diversification is when a previous stage of the production cycle is reinstated. The concentric diversification is new products are introduced in order to use technology and marketing to their fullest and conglomerate diversification is when a new product is launched and it has no relations with any current products or services. GD does not have much diversification that occurs within the company, much less than their competitor Boeing (Stephens, 2016). The only diversification that may have occurred is cybersecurity being added as a horizontal diversification action by GD. They secured a $70 million cybersecurity contract in 02/2017 (Stump, 2017), to continue their diversification and to continue their security services and wealth maximization.

General Dynamics operates on a global level and they have offices in Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom in addition to the United States. In Japan, the capacity that GD is operating at is technology. There was a contract won by GD back in 09/2012 in which they were awarded a $94 million to support U.S. Marine Corps C4ISR Systems and they did so domestically and from Okinawa, Japan (General Dynamics awarded, 2018). In Canada, GD has a part of their mission system in which land, sea, air, space, and cybersecurity operate. Finally, in the United Kingdom GD functions in the form of technology, manufacturing, research and development, and armored vehicles (General Dynamics United Kingdom Limited, 2018). Since GD is operating on a global scale, they need to have a culture of ethics.

GD has a culture of ethics and instills the trustworthiness, honor, and reverence needed to perform at a high level and be of assistance to both GD and their partners and clients. According to GD, they pride themselves on their responsible and ethical practices (Commitment to Ethics, 2018), having such ethical standards have led GD to become globally prominent and esteemed among their competitors and associates. GD makes it known to anyone joining the company ethical practices are a top-tier priority and GD as a company needs to continuously uphold the maximum standards of honesty and ethics in their long and short-term projects. GD has a status of brilliance; therefore, the current, future, and former employees of GD comprehend the need to keep the ethics responsibility at the forefront. GD’s program for ethics started back in 1986.

They provide all their employees with the tools and resources needed to understand how to practically practice ethics. For example, they have the ethics helpline, which comes in multiple languages and is available all year. Subsequently, GD is global, they have ethics for both their Board and other departments, meaning all employees of GD must be compliant with the code of ethics, executives and the Board included. The code of ethics called the Standards of Business Ethics and Conduct employee handbook or the “Blue Book” in multiple languages. GD also uses the Blue Book to ensure all parties affiliated with GD, not limited to clients, partners, contractors, vendors, and more, also follow their guidelines to be steady with the standards GD has created of ethics and compliance. For example, on the GD website, you can find the code of ethics in French, Chinese, Arabic, German, Polish, and Russian—overall there 17 translations for a code of ethics and this illustrates how serious GD is about keeping all their employees informed.

The employees need to take ethics training once every year as a mandatory guideline set by the company. In essence, GD gives the confidence and care the employees need in order to continue the premium standards of ethics GD has set for themselves for over 30 years now. GD’s ethos, which is connected with GD’s ethics, can be summed up in four words: alignment, transparency, honesty, and trust. They provide GD employees with what to expect on a daily basis when working for GD. The ethos is the ways they innovate and improve their processes by investing and using the appropriate resources and wealth with ethical decision-making. If there are mistakes, GD is honest and transparent about what course of action needs to be taken in order to correct the mistake and hope to work with associates and vendors who hold the same values. Also, no human trafficking and fair treatment of all employees based on universal human rights are what GD aims to accomplish daily. GD is also socially and environmentally friendly — these also make them great citizens since they are able to have such maintainable corporate practices.

GD is having a continuing method of their global supply chain, which will provide clients with their needs to quality and punctual products. They had established many connections worldwide and due to this, it has bought much-needed value for GD and whom they work with. These partnerships assist GD in having good business practices and becoming socially responsible. An example is an online supplier who provides a registration portal. The online portal is able to then classify likely providers and deliver information to the necessary parties at GD. The supply chain management council has a batch of experts who meet to discuss as well as provide ideas and business practices to uphold the value created by the supply chains from GD.

Moreover, there is also supplier diversity to be more socially responsible. The different types of businesses GD partners with include but not limited to women-owned small businesses, veteran-owned, service-disabled veteran-owned, and Native American-owned small businesses. GD has received many awards since they do their best to accommodate a diverse supplier base. For example, they have received an award from the United States Department of Defense Nunn-Perry Awards in recognition of outstanding Mentor-Protégé teams and the U.S. Department of Justice Small Business Awards.

Military families are a priority for GD and their employees, they proudly support fellow veterans and employees who are in the military. They provide funding and volunteer distinct programs that support the military and their loved ones. Multiple legs of GD have committed to providing support for the military: GDIT, jet aviation, land systems, Gulfstream, electric boat, and bath iron works.

GDIT has signed a support statement for the Guard and Reserve and backed by the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) to honor and enforce the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act, provide the managers and supervisor with the tools they need to effectively manage employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve, embrace the values, leadership and unique skills service members bring to our workforce and encouraging opportunities to hire Guardsmen, Reservists, and Veterans, and continually recognizing and supporting U.S. service members and their families in peace, in crises and in war (Supporting Service Members, 2017). Jet aviation has an incentive program for the wounded military veterans. Land systems have Veteran Day ceremonies for employees who are in the military, in addition, they support non-profit organizations such as the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots campaign, USA Cares, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. (VFW), and the Wounded Warrior Project (Supporting Service Members, 2017). The Gulfstream sponsors Georgia Institute of Technology’s VET2 training program. This program provides active duty Army soldiers an opportunity to prepare for life outside the army and to transition into the civilian workforce. The electric boat leg of GD has luncheons and other activities for fundraising in order to support military members in Kuwait, Iraq, and other countries. The final leg that provides assistance for military members is bath iron works, who provide a recreational program for military members called the No Boundaries program — with activities such as archery, zip lines, cycling, paddling and fishing.

GD is also environmentally friendly and they illustrate it through their recycling goals and energy consumption. They have facilities in accordance with environmental laws and regulations, which means they protect their environment, communities, and employees. GD demonstrates their environmentally friendly practices by reusing as necessary, reducing waste, and engaging in pollution prevention — in order to be a top company GD is constantly auditing themselves internally to find new ways to improve environmentally as a company. When they are preparing major decisions in regards to the company, environmental implications are included in their overall decision.

For example, if there is a production decision to be made, they will confirm environmental hazards with their vendors prior to proceeding. The approach for an environmentally friendly company is from the Board down to the janitors at GD. Their goal is to teach environmental responsibility to their employees and to affirm clients are also following the environmental programs in place. The certification for environmental compliance is ISO 14001 and GD has the most current certification.

GD has major strategies in place, which are weaponry, aerospace, technologies and marine systems. They have a few subdivisions within each but the major strategies are defense and aerospace. Diversification is not a big part of what GD does because they have been in the market for such a long period, however, cybersecurity may be a diversification attempt they have made. GD operates globally and specifically in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Japan. They operate on a worldwide stage and this causes them to be under a microscope. Therefore, they have a code ethics installed as well as social responsibilities and environmental sustainability practices.