Bringing business transformation to a company of this scale is no easy task. But the company is determined to transform from a US-centric company into a global company, so GE introduced a major change last year: siting a critical business unit here in Hong Kong.

Focused on generating growth outside the US, GE set up their Global Growth and Operations (GGO) business unit in Hong Kong last August. The GGO aims to develop business models that are cross-business in nature and globally scalable. To enable this development, the GGO operation supports 13 different regions worldwide.

King Lee, CIO, GE GGO said that his firm's IT strategy is formulated in the US before its implementation in different regions. Often, projects are prioritized based on the majority--and the majority is in the US.

"But when the company is focusing on growth and international markets are growing two to five times faster than the US, the need for IT in these markets far exceeds the US need," said Lee.

The 13 GGO markets include Canada, Latin America, Russia, Germany, Rest of Europe, the Middle East/North Africa/Turkey, the sub-Sahara region, India, China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and Australia/New Zealand.