Contributor Beth Comstock is the Chief Marketing Officer at GE.
Innovation, R&D, and game-changing tech. When combined with the right market intelligence, investment horsepower, and willingness to break the rules, they can lead companies to not just weather a recession, but roar out of it. At GE, we’re betting big on the power of breakthrough technologies to do just that — and a living, breathing example of that thinking in action can be seen in our new healthymagination business initiative, which today issued its first annual report.
 Beth Comstock |
Since launching healthymagination in May 2009, we’ve reached our year-one goals with $700 million in R&D investments, $250 million in capital investments and the launch of 24 new products and technologies. But beyond charting the progress made in such a short time, the report hammers home the idea that innovation isn’t simply about generating more ideas. Rather, technologies must be marshaled toward specific business goals; attack real societal problems; and be wedded to a deep understanding of customer needs.
Because innovators and companies are often stuck in their current successes or current business models, there’s a critical need to generate new thinking. In the military, they call it “rearview mirroring” — which is when plans to fight the next war are made by looking back at the last war. Just as that kind of trap can prove disastrous for a country, it can also cripple a business long-term.
 Vital signs: The Annual Report also spotlights the investments GE is making in areas including our own employees’ health; partnerships with companies such as Intel, Mayo Clinic, Eli Lilly and Intermountain Health Care; healthcare IT solutions; new products that meet local needs at affordable price points; and investments to bring better health solutions to remote and underserved communities. |
To tackle this challenge head-on in our healthymagination initiative, GE started by looking at our innovation strategy in three ways. First, we wanted to innovate by mining our existing product lines for technologies that meet our healthymagination goals of reducing healthcare costs while simultaneously increasing access for more people and increasing quality. At the same time, we wanted to do what we call “moving into adjacent healthcare spaces” — which is all about freeing ourselves of old thinking and taking the great technology we have today and finding new, related markets or applications. For example, one area we are pursuing is to take our healthcare imaging technologies into digital pathology.
Concurrently, we also stepped on the gas to develop game-changing technologies that will be in demand in the near future. One example can be seen on our launch of Vscan, an ultra-smart, ultra-small, ultrasound. Another example can be seen in what we call “Reverse Innovation,” which is our approach to developing technologies in emerging markets, for emerging markets — and then finding new outlets for these less expensive, often-miniaturized technologies in developed economies. For example, our lightweight, inexpensive Mac 800 electrocardiogram was born from the mobile unit created in India and China for those countries’ rural needs.
We made the decision to develop and fast-track these new products, and the others that are now part of healthymagination, by focusing on the right kind of market intelligence and insights — and by keeping our global research and technology developments tied to our marketing and sales teams. It’s why healthymagination is about bringing better healthcare to more people and at the same time, a core business strategy at GE designed to generate revenue and position us for long-term growth.
 Healthymagination is a $6 billion commitment over six years. The commitment is to invest $3 billion in R&D, $2 billion in financing and $1 billion in technology and content, launching at least 100 innovations that lower cost, increase access and improve quality by 15 percent. |
* Read the full Healthymagination Annual Report
* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about Vscan
* Read more healthymagination stories on GE Reports
* Read “Reverse Innovation hits Harvard’s most influential list” on GE Reports
* Read “Reverse innovation: Building GE’s local growth model” on GE Reports