Nani Beccalli-Falco, president and CEO of US-based General Electric's international operations, is really upbeat about the growth prospects of Asian markets, especially those in Southeast Asia and Thailand.

Last year, Asia contributed sales of US$25 billion (Bt890 billion) for GE's diversified businesses ranging from financial services to hi-tech products such as medical imaging equipment, aircraft engines, railway locomotives and power plants.

Beccalli-Falco, who has been working for GE for 31 years, was here last week to attend a local publicity event to showcase the group's six major businesses: commercial finance, healthcare, industrial, infrastructure, GE Money and NBC Universal.

Responsible for the strategic direction of GE's businesses outside the US, he is optimistic that growth in Thailand and other parts of Asia will continue to be impressive.

"For the first time, Thailand generated revenues in excess of $1 billion last year, making it our largest market in Southeast Asia.

"Revenues from Southeast Asia were about $3 billion in 2006," he said.

By 2010, GE expects its Southeast Asian revenues to top $6 billion with sales in Thailand doubling to $2 billion in four years.

GE Money, the consumer and retail financial services arm, recently spent Bt20 billion on a 26-per-cent stake in Bank of Ayudhya.

GE is also eyeing the infrastructure projects planned here such as power plants with a combined capacity of 3,500 megawatts and water management systems.

GE has adopted a unified strategy with varying tactics to suit each of the foreign markets and its stage of development.

In Russia, the market poses a major challenge because its rules and regulations are undergoing drastic change, while in Brazil, for instance, GE appears to have been late in entering the consumer-finance market, Beccalli-Falco said.

Services accounted for 45 per cent of GE' s total revenue of $163 billion in 2006, making it one of the world's largest conglomerates.

GE's services are all-encompassing, covering financial, technology, customer, industrial and other services aligned with its wide range of industrial and manufactured products.

In terms of cross-border strategic management, Beccalli-Falco often mentions Darwinism to highlight GE's capability to adapt to global changes.

He cited the 1990s as an example, as during them the Internet hype suggested that bricks-and-mortar businesses would be gone and that "click" businesses would conquer the world.

In response to that global trend, GE adapted several of its businesses into "brick-and-click" enterprises via massive digitalisation.

For example, GE's healthcare imaging equipment today is heavily digitised for advanced medical diagnosis. So are its aircraft engines and large industrial turbines for power plants and other uses.

The entertainment and broadcasting businesses at NBC, one of the major US TV networks, are no different as GE strives to be the champion of brick-and-click enterprises.

Beccalli-Falco said 2007 would likely mark the first time that GE's non-US revenues would be higher than those generated in the home market.

Growth in GE's businesses outside the US is averaging 15 per cent per year, outpacing the US market, while its business here has increased by an average of 25 per cent per year over the past three to four years.

Southeast Asia is growing about 6 per cent while the huge Chinese market is expanding by around 11 per cent.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

The Nation