Ge Health Care

Disruptive technologies in health care

Messed up industry. Very expensive and inconvenient. Nothing happens. Disease treatment has become very complex – BP, Diabetes interaction etc. are complex. Hospitals have gotten good at saving lives – very expensive. General hospitals are in a crisis. They do not facilitate more and more simpler procedures. Instead, it has gotten more and more complex. How can patients do what nurses do, what nurses do what FPs do and what specialists do what FPs do. GE initially not interested in $15K radiology imaging machine. Taking care of the 5% time that FPs cannot read the x-ray.

It's a marketing problem, not a technology problem. Find a customer that can find a value in your product than find a customer who will use it grudgingly. Not enough volumes to sustain them. Sony is the only serial disrupter. Created 10 new markets – last one 1979 – Walkman. Since then no distruptive technologies from Sony. What happened. They are still good at competing in existing markets. They probably hired lots of MBAs. New growth businesses should be allowed to play by very different rules compared to the existing businesses. Or else, innovation slows down.

Health Care Industry in India

Government cannot create efficient systems.

Framework for analysis

Situation Review

Assemble the facts in the case

Immelt inherits from Jack Welsh. Bad things happened – 9/11 and bursting of the dot com bubble. Stock dropped a lot. Welch focused on productivity but Immelt was more focused on marketing. Growth through acquisition. Fundamental difference between him and Jack – focused on organic growth. Open communication and integrity and transparency. He increased R&D spending. He invested in R&D in India and China. He wanted to increase service revenues. Imagination breakthroughs and focus on R&D. He hired more marketers and focus on the customers. He was more of a coach and a mentor. Focus on knowledge and training and leadership.

Glocalization – Local product made in the US and taken globally without changing it. R&D and service support in the US. Mgmt makes all the decisions in terms of further development or put the product in harvest mode.

Reverse innovation – starts in the developing market needs and bring to developed nations for other new markets.

Immelt – Reverse innovation is essential or some else will come up with better products. Further, the low cost products