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Case Study

GE Healthcare India (B): The product innovation journey

By Wolfgang Ulaga and Athanasios Kondis

4 pages

December 2014

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Reference: IMD-5-0801

This three-part case series examines the marketing challenge encountered by a leading medical technology manufacturer, General Electric (GE) Healthcare – a division of General Electric Company – in India. It follows the development of Lullaby Warmer Prime, an infant warmer that was designed, manufactured and commercialized by the Maternal Infant Care (MIC) division of GE Healthcare India from 2011 to 2014. The case series, together with a PowerPoint slide deck and video link, assesses the main issues that business-to-business (B2B) companies face in their efforts to create and capture value in emerging markets. Case B addresses GE’s novel approach to product innovation. In creating a new infant warmer for low-resource business customers, GE decided to employ original and unconventional principles for product design and development.

Learning Objective

Low-resource business customers pose unique challenges. Management needs to gauge the implications for product development and the marketing and sales strategy.
Defeaturing existing products does not suffice. The traditional approach to product innovation used by Western multinationals in emerging markets no longer fits the bill. New products should be designed from scratch and incorporate the best available technology.
Product innovation and commercial innovation should go hand in hand. Fast commercial prototyping should be adopted to design the go-to-market model in parallel with product development.

Keywords

Marketing, Emerging Market, Bottom of the Pyramid, Business Model Innovation, Low-Resource Customer, Fast Prototyping, New Product

Settings

BRIC, India
GE Healthcare, Healthcare, Medical Equipment, Healthcare
2011-2014

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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This case study is part of a series

GE Healthcare India (A): The marketing challenge of low-resource customers
GE Healthcare India (B): The product innovation journey
GE Healthcare India (C): The commercial innovation imperative

2016 THE CASE CENTRE AWARD WINNER (Outstanding Case Writer: Hot Topic Competition)

This case study is part of a series

GE Healthcare India (A): The marketing challenge of low-resource customers
GE Healthcare India (B): The product innovation journey
GE Healthcare India (C): The commercial innovation imperative

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