I am watching a live video presentation by Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, on the company's global healthcare business, its current state and its prospects. The stunning developments in its diagnostic and treatment technologies, coupled with the fact that over 50% of GE Healthcare's is outside the US and so provides insight as to better models within, were in one way what you'd expect from a company started by Thomas Edison, and in another just blew me away.
Immelt's talk is as much a pitch to Obama and Sibelius as they develop a new healthcare plan for the country, as it is for analysts and investors reeling at GE's steep stock price drop, as it is for employees and their families wondering if the company will continue giving them benefits. A tour de force presentation, Immelt's delivery is at times inspiring and others stumbling. The uncanny similarities between Obama's platform, GE's business strategies and consumer trends really do lend credence to the notion that, working together, they can solve the world's problems all at once with the help of non-profits and NGOs. Cost savings, access improvement and quality Improvement are key goals; products exemplifying them are portable ultrasound, low-dose CT scans, medical equipment tracking.
But the kicker comes in a turn of phrase, "health equals wealth," that brings home several longstanding principles that may prove proportionately beneficial to the world as to GE's bottom line. If both health and profits are maximized together, the traditional saying "at least you have your health" could be turned into "how the hell did you lose it?" From a strict, personal bio-economic point of view, there literally can be no wealth without health, so equating the two makes perfect sense. Immelt draws strong parallels between the Ecomagination initiative, which profited from improving the health of the environment, and this new Healthymagination, targeted towards our bodies.
The point is that profit-driven corporations are not de facto enemies of social justice, and as a committed allies may be able to do more than any activist group alone while doing well by their employees, investors and abiding by regulations. What GE is here taking the lead on in these initiatives is to harmonize business and social interests under sweeping rubrics such as health and the environment, without which the world wouldn't work, let alone businesses and governments. There is still much to learn, think and do to expand "health equals wealth" into other universally shared aspects of life on earth, and so GE's vision is a welcome current event creating a better future.
