“When a man is healthy, he has many dreams. When he is sick, he has but one.”

True regardless of socioeconomic status or geographic location. GE, Siemens, and Philips manufacture world-class diagnostic equipment. But one, GE Healthcare, has focused on delivering diagnostic solutions to people at the top and at the bottom of the pyramid.


GE began because Edison, the inventor who eventually held 1,093 US patents, wanted to solve problems for everyday people: problems related to illumination, power, sound, communication, and transportation. He wanted to make life better for the average man and he understood that accessibility to solutions would only happen if the affordability gap was addressed. Edison stated “We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles.”

GE Healthcare has R&D facilities in a number of countries, but it was the research team in Bangalore that carried the water to GE corporate in terms of providing affordable diagnostic equipment to doctors and clinics serving India’s poorest. The biggest challenge for the team was not functionality: it was bringing the device to market within a price range that would be accepted by Indian healthcare workers and institutions. While equivalent GE devices could sell for tens of thousands of US dollars, the research team recognized that a diagnostic device developed for this market would have to sell for $500-1000. The research team, with GE approval, developed a value segment. The new value segment focused two things: a) keeping product costs down while keeping quality intact, and b) learning how/if the existing sales/marketing assets could be leveraged to sell to this segment.

They did it. GE’s MAC series has forever altered global accessibility to critical cardiac diagnostics.

Then, in another moment of brilliance, the company realized that with a little reengineering and without substantially cannibalizing sales of high-end products, GE could bring a mobile device, the MAC 800, to the US market. Bloomberg Businessweek titled the trend trickle-up innovation but adds that not all manufacturers are comfortable selling emerging market hand-me-ups in the West.

GE Healthcare. Best in class. Best of show. Deliverer of dreams.