Transforming innovation for growth

As Beth Comstock closes her chapter at GE, I find myself reflecting on her legacy at this incredible company.  During her tenure, Beth helped GE expand into new areas of innovation.  I have always marveled at her uninhibited creativity and boldness. At her embodiment of the thrill of discovery, of the unknown, and of the new that is central to innovation at GE. The reverberation of her effect on the company is not only impressive, it is inspiring.

Beth was the force behind ecomagination and healthymagination, securing GE’s world-leading brand to be a thought leader in energy and healthcare.  She enabled the creation of new businesses and growth engines like Current and GE Ventures – making her a key reason we’ve had the unique opportunity of introducing over 100 startups into GE’s ecosystem.  She was also one of the chief architects of GE’s transition from industrial manufacturer to digital industrial leader – placing her among the first to signal that the Industrial Internet would become bigger and more important than anyone imagined.

Beth’s legacy of achievement is remarkable.  Her leadership bolstered my resolve: to stand for what I believe, to embrace the cutting edge, to inform where our future could be, and to drive active partnerships within the entrepreneurial ecosystem.  She saw clearly that the biggest, brightest ideas can light the way.

Growing through transformation

Bit by bit, little by little, incremental innovation simply won’t cut it. Just consider the past 25 years. From the Internet to e-commerce to the cloud to the smartphone to the Industrial Internet – none of it existed in 1992. Trillions in new value have been created in the years since.  It happened fast.  But everything’s moving even faster now.  To grow, we must not only stay one step ahead of change… We need to lead it.

We will take risks.  Will all our experiments work out? I hope not. That would mean we aren’t reaching far enough. There is no option other than to actively and always seek innovation, see around corners to the road ahead, whenever and wherever we can.  The pace of industry change, after all, will never be as slow as it is today. 

In these times, we have to think differently and be open to new opportunities – including opening new markets, and working with new partners or entrepreneurs with daring insights. We can unearth new growth models and combinations we haven’t seen before when we:

• Invest in new startups, because determined innovators are motivated to break down walls, and we can learn to see what they see and partner to stimulate synergistic growth. 
• Launch new businesses, because partners and customers will be more likely to trust us for the long term if we’re able to shift now to serve core, emerging, adjacent, and transformational markets.
• License our intellectual property, because monetizing what GE has already invented will advance the cause of global innovation and create new value.
• Find new funding vehicles, because investing in startups goes beyond just giving them cash -- it fosters growth and innovation. Providing a talent and cash infusion to bring a new idea to life will drive growth.
• Partner with the ecosystem, because accessing a large network of experts is crucial for seeding innovation, and partners can help us innovate faster.  There is power in forging relationships that lead to breakthroughs.

These are but a few models that drive profitable growth. Innovation is growth, and it can’t happen fast enough.  This has never been as true as it is right now – during times of transition and transformation, for GE and for enterprises around the world.

The pursuit of growth requires us all to be change agents, because change makes a better company and a better world. That’s something we strive for every day across GE, and it is one of my priorities in my role as Chief Innovation Officer – mobilizing a collective of innovators inside and outside of the company.

The brilliance of Edison, of Beth – is in all of us. They both started as each of us can every day, letting ideas illuminate the future we all share.