Keynote speaker: GE Healthcare’s Anders Wold
DeviceTalks Boston’s featured keynote speaker is Anders Wold, president & CEO of clinical care solutions at GE Healthcare. MDO Publisher and DeviceTalks co-founder Brian Johnson recently asked Wold about innovation at GE:
Johnson: One of the things that we are always remarking on is the impact that GE chairman and former CEO Jeff Immelt has had on the medtech industry, when you consider all the people that have worked for him and who have gone on to lead medtech companies. In fact, DeviceTalks could be called the Jeff Immelt Alumni Assn. Boston Scientific CEO Mike Mahoney, Abiomed CEO Mike Minogue, Medtronic CEO Omar Ishrak, yourself – the list goes on and on and on. What do you think is the reason that so many CEOs have come out of this world?
Wold: I think GE has been a very good breeding ground for innovation. And in GE, you have a few things that other companies wouldn’t have. There are some resources … everything from supply chain globalization. You get the distribution arm, you get the branding, all these different things. And on top of that, you have very, very strong management skills and experienced people involved.
Jeff Immelt was very true to specialization, domain knowledge, to staying close to market versus other companies that prioritize general management and commodities and things like that. So I think those are the drivers behind this. Now, you could also argue, why isn’t everybody staying? I think there’s also a very good breeding ground for managers to do this, and consequently there are other options on the table, frequently. So, others try to venture out. I think that’s a natural kind of evolution of that.
Here’s how GE wants to make its anesthesia machines smarter.