Philips is one of the world's top three healthcare systems
About GE, we talk most about Welch who doesn't know Chinese, but do we understand the GE around us? Understand how GE came to our side?
GE Medical Systems Group, is the whole GE into China's pioneer, it entered China in 1979, 1991 officially invested in China to set up factories. By 2002, its production, sales of total business in 1 billion U.S. dollars, and become one of the fastest-growing GE business in China. And China has become the third largest market for GE's global healthcare, following the United States and Japan.
From its 12 years of dedicated operation in the Chinese market, we find that GE is not as mysterious as people think, but please note that it has done what perhaps we have overlooked: improve the quality of an enterprise, or style, and insist on using the enterprise's good values to drive all the operational activities of the enterprise and develop the market. From this we say: a company without beliefs will not have real value and life. A great company is always different.
Inside GE Healthcare with a Fascination
Some people once exclaimed, "There's an amazing GE in the world, but there's only one GE.
Yes, GE has been around since Thomas Edison founded the company more than 100 years ago. Thomas Edison founded more than 100 years ago, since 1896 has become the Dow. Since the founding of the Jones index index enterprise, with its companion or compete with the enterprise, a crop and a crop; ashes, one after another. But it, only it, spirited "youth" to today. Today, GE's annual revenue is more than $130 billion, and has more than 300,000 employees in more than 100 countries around the world.
But GE's difference is not its hair and face, nor its strength, but in its old-fashioned way can be "thirteen do not rely on". Imagine, who can light bulbs, engines, refrigerators, plastics, CT, oil, media, finance ...... all "complete" under the name of an enterprise? So much so that the author could not follow the example of Mr. Lu Xun to separate them with commas.
How can GE succeed in so many industries at the same time? How can it succeed in opening markets in so many countries? How could it succeed in bringing so many employees together? This is a mystery that people have been exploring. So some people say categorically that GE is an exception, an exception that specializes in mainstream thinking. The conclusion is: "GE is unrepeatable." How many things under the sky can be replicated unconditionally? All people need is to understand, to feel, to learn, and also to cooperate and catch up.
Into the GE China Medical Systems Group, GE's diversified development and its breakthrough in China, go global thinking, we may be able to get a glimpse ......
With the unity of the values of China
Asked the mystery of GE's success in diversification, GE CEO Immelt, down to the grass-roots employees, will not be mysterious. GE employees at the grassroots level will not be mysterious and extremely concise answer: "This is first of all because GE adheres to a creed: there is a global unity of corporate values - adherence to integrity, focus on performance, the pursuit of change, the user first." In a word, GE's success, there is a unified cultural values, which is extremely important.
Ms. Wu Yunling, vice president of GE (China) Medical Systems Group, believes that "the reason why the company has been selected as the most admired company by the world-famous financial magazines for many years is not only because of its performance, but actually more importantly, because the company has the concept of adhering to integrity and pursuing change." In her view, no matter what part of GE, how different the specific business operations, they will be different ways to try to realize this **** the same philosophy: the promise of integrity, but the pursuit of change, the principle is also only one - customers first.
GE Medical Systems' products are large medical devices. We are both familiar and unfamiliar with medical devices. We are familiar with it because each of us has the opportunity to benefit from it in our lifetime; we are unfamiliar with it because we may not need to spend much effort to understand it carefully. But the medical device industry needs a culture to support it, and the reason is simple: it's about the lives of all of us. So how did GE Healthcare use its unique cultural values to discover and develop the Chinese market?
Doing the GE market with Chinese characteristics
GE is unique in the world, but GE's medical devices are not unique in China.
At present, most of the world's large-scale medical equipment products have entered China, of which the three well-known giants are: Germany's Siemens, the U.S. GE Medical Systems and the Netherlands Philips. Because of the different national customs and traditional culture, the German quality of rigor and the American pioneering style, making Siemens and GE two companies in the cultural appearance of the formation of a big difference, the results in the product and do the market also formed their own styles, Siemens is very important to product quality, but just can not pull the price of the high-end market is not very expensive. And GE, traditionally do the market is their specialty, that is more to make the GE market with Chinese characteristics and Chinese characteristics of the market GE products.
In 1979, GE Healthcare entered China, mainly engaged in product imports, sales business. 1991, GE Healthcare stationed in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, investment in factories, they are in China more than ever more extensive and in-depth work: from the government to the market, policy to resources, products to customers, research, communication, research and development, promotion, difficult and subtle. 12 years later, today their Today, 12 years later, the idea has become clear: to face a developing country with a population of more than one billion and not high income level, so that people here can also enjoy the best medical checkups and healthcare services - this is the market positioning that GE Healthcare has found for itself. After a long-term study and thorough analysis of China's medical device market, GE recognized that China today offers one of the world's largest universal markets, and that's where GE Healthcare would enter.
Best time, best industry
In fact, many people also see the high profit return of the medical industry, whether it is selling drugs or medical equipment products, it is just like the 19th century Europeans in the Americas to develop a gold mine as tempting, so many domestic enterprises have to get involved. But in an industry where human lives are at stake, there are very few companies and business activities that truly reflect the care and concern of human beings.
GE is in the medical systems business, which is undeniably a lucrative and lifelong companion. But why GE chose in the 1990s to take this business as the whole group into China's pioneers, GE frankly: this is the best time in China, engaged in one of the best industry. Because the medical industry is related to thousands of households, and China's health care business has reached the "best time to improve".
Dr. George Chen, vice president of GE and president of GE (China) Medical Systems Group, emphasized: "Our overall goal is to make development in China an important part of GE's core strength. Hardware investment is one aspect, more important is the soft things, to put the gold content of the very high technology, so that ordinary Chinese people can also enjoy, which in the Chinese market, has been very, very important."
Enterprises make money are one thing, but the concept of making money is different, will bring completely different market vision and business model. If "people-oriented" is not based on caring for others and human beings, and if making money is not a good business without finding the customers who need it most, how can a company continue to make money for decades and centuries?
To 2002, China's GE Healthcare production, sales of total business volume of 1 billion U.S. dollars, and has become one of the fastest-growing GE business in China. And China has become the third largest market for GE Global Healthcare after the U.S. and Japan.GE Healthcare's global turnover reached $9.6 billion, and although this is not the highest of GE's global businesses, Dr. Changzheng Ma, vice president of GE's (China) Medical Systems Group, pointed out, "We have been committed to laying a solid foundation in China." Why did it take 12 years to lay the foundation? Ms. Wu said, "To lead with new product technology, to support with our strong maintenance and service, to safeguard with our best employees, and throughout is our unchanging values and soul."
12 years, needless to say pioneering, how many of our businesses have survived 12 years? To discover and open up a new market with the corporate character of integrity, change and putting customers first, and to occupy it solidly and permanently, reflects the fact that GE's values have stubbornly penetrated the marrow of the enterprise and reached every cell in every choice of business goals and actions.
Popularizing high-tech "decentralization"
Enterprises do everything from the market. Undeniably, the world's largest and most high-end market is still in the United States. All companies that want to take root in the U.S. market must have the highest-end technology to use it to produce products that meet customers' needs and provide them with supporting services. But the Chinese market is obviously different from the U.S. market, since GE has been very clear: China now offers one of the world's largest popular market, then, a deep understanding of what Chinese customers actually need? This is the biggest opportunity for the company. Based on this point, George Chen said: "We have a very strong belief that if we can make a 'China cost' in the country, but really have elite quality, elite performance, cutting-edge technology and popularized products, we can definitely be in this area is very popular with customers. " Where in heaven is such a perfect thing? But GE from the beginning of entering China, this is how to do: always keep technology and international standards, while following the domestic market step by step forward.
In the 1980s, China's medical community, only a few large medical institutions can afford the U.S. imports of ultrasound machines, CT machines, in the 1990s there has been a great improvement, but can have a nuclear magnetic *** vibration machine of the hospital is still not much. Now the situation has been greatly improved: in the past to buy a magnetic *** vibration, to spend millions of dollars, now hundreds of thousands of dollars can buy a very advanced magnetic *** vibration equipment. At present, in every province in China, there are GE's diagnostic imaging equipment, the country's major cities have their offices and service centers, the product has been deep into the grass-roots county hospitals. From magnetic **** vibration, cardiovascular machines to positronic scanners and notebook ultrasound, there are both cutting-edge medical products and popularized products. Its portable laptop ultrasound, has been introduced to the market as a mature highly sophisticated technology popularized products; and then the double-row spiral CT machine, from the diagnosis of the image quality, scanning speed of all aspects of the view, than the original have improved, the price remains unchanged. GE is the double-row technology into the economy of the CT of the world's first, and this product and technology, five years ago, is still in the high-end market, and foreign countries is still high-grade products.
Companies without cutting-edge technology can't lead the way. Committed to more quickly and efficiently put the high-end technology into the economic popularization of products to design and use, so that domestic customers can enjoy and profit, but also to improve the level of medical care in the country; when one day the domestic market has a higher demand, GE can also provide a higher-end market. Chenji said, "We will go along this path."
Making global products in China
GE Healthcare's entry into China is not just about setting up a national R&D center for new technologies and a market for its products in the country. Through 12 years of hard work, GE has established a large-scale R&D and manufacturing center for medical imaging and diagnostic equipment with the world's most advanced level in China, which positions the products from the beginning of the process, from development, manufacturing to sales, as products all over the world. Because they also understand the international market very well, this kind of popularization of highly sophisticated technology products, that is, in the United States, Europe, Japan, is also very competitive potential, can have a great opportunity to win. In China to invest in the development and manufacture, the establishment of a production base for the whole world, this is GE higher vision.
GE Medical Systems now has three wholly owned enterprises and a joint venture in China, the Asian operations center has been gradually relocated to China, GE Healthcare China has reached 1,800 employees, more than 400 engineers. Investment in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone from the initial millions of dollars to date has been more than 40 million U.S. dollars, the output value from the initial 10 million yuan to the current growth of 1.3 billion yuan. X-ray machines, CT, dual-row CT, magnetic **** vibration, these in the technical content, performance, quality, cost of the best features of the products are reflected in the Beijing Industrial Park building development and manufacturing. The notebook ultrasound produced in the Wuxi plant will again be a proud product that GE Healthcare will take to the world. Today, 25% of the world's CT sales and more than 50% of China's popular CT market come from GE Healthcare's R&D and manufacturing bases in China. And with the 1,000th high-tech CT machine rolling off the production line in 2000, China has become one of the world's top five CT machine supply bases.
Taking China as a global technology center and manufacturing base to build, GE directly realized the localization of talents. With the introduction of a series of GE's high technology, it has cultivated and developed a local proprietary technology R&D team in China. At present, the Beijing R&D Center has more than 250 engineers who are mainly Chinese engineers and technicians who have mastered highly advanced technologies. They are responsible for global R&D tasks and participate in the research and development of GE's global high-grade medical products as well as some key technologies. As a result of global collaboration on projects, an innovative R&D result can often be accomplished in a very short period of time.
While upgrading the domestic technology team, GE has fostered a large number of local high-tech collaborators with international competitiveness. Considering the optimal cost of products, GE Healthcare has been focusing on domestic production and procurement. Currently 5 billion dollars of procurement sales, although the domestic share is not yet very large, but Ma Changzheng believes that: "procurement volume can not just look at the numbers, but also to see its gold content. Especially in the field of technology, it is because of the areas directly related to medical systems, directly related to plastics, and related to integrated circuit boards, China has improved a lot, and the cooperation has developed well. Going forward, our sourcing will also be more domestic, we're still laying the groundwork for one of the fastest growing markets in China over the next 20 years."
What does it mean to be a global products company? Obviously its products are not just made for China, or for developing countries, or for underdeveloped countries. In fact today GE's Chinese products, 70% for export, and the vast majority of exports to Europe and the U.S. CT, X-ray machines, production are increasing dramatically, reaching a production capacity of 1,000 units per year. 2002 GE China medical exports have been 10 times that of 1998, and has become a major exporter of electromechanical products to the Beijing Municipal Government. Well-positioned products can be called Luoyang paper expensive, sales are very good. GE is using high-end technology, lower cost, popular price, to sell products to the global user. GE people say: this can make us stand firmly in the first position in the market.
"Sharing" their results
GE Healthcare does not consider itself just a company that buys and sells products, but rather an all-around development of the company. GE's strategy is to always pursue the fastest and most cutting-edge high-tech medical equipment company, while focusing on the product service and management experience in the industry as a whole. The company's strategy is to remain the fastest, most cutting-edge high-tech medical device company, while focusing on making its products, services and management experience available throughout the industry.
From GE Healthcare's point of view, after-sales service is not a simple matter of machine repair. "The most important thing is to help users to use the machine well, improve operation and management ability, and serve patients better. Therefore, in the product sales at the same time, GE invested a lot of money, free of charge for domestic hospitals to train the six sigma green belt, and even black belt (Note: green belt, black belt is the six sigma management system that indicates the level of the professional staff of the title), to help hospitals to improve the workflow, improve the ability to improve the medical services; through the long term to organize the dean of the learning class, combined with the case of the introduction of the hospital management of the most advanced mode of operation, so as to enhance the overall level of management of the hospital. GE also intends to support domestic medical academic activities and improve China's status in the international academic community, invite domestic experts to go abroad, or invite the best foreign experts to China to communicate with Chinese academics, *** with the research topics, write high-level papers to be published in the international arena, in order to promote China's medical and health sector as soon as possible to meet the international standards and international understanding of China gradually deepen. The company is also working on a number of new projects, such as
GE believes that it should be a partnership with hospitals, and should provide them with the best and most complete solutions. In foreign countries, they have long had such a comprehensive service program, and even the management and operation of the hospital is outsourced to them, the hospital is only engaged in professional treatment. GE's operation, from the extension of the product to the management, from the extension of the technology to the service, so that the good things to share with the customer, these activities in fact, not only has been the enterprise to sell their own products, but also importantly in the dissemination of an advanced service technology and higher health care professional concepts. The important thing is to spread an advanced service technology and a higher medical profession concept. If we dig deeper into the change of social and cultural concepts, it is not difficult to understand why it is called the "new culture movement" by the medical profession in China. In its commitment to the success of its customers, GE Healthcare has naturally become a diversified company that integrates technology, manufacturing, management and services.
Be sure to be a good citizen, something George Chen has emphasized over and over again. GE Healthcare is not only a major taxpayer in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Zone, but over the years GE employees have voluntarily donated to and helped with China's Hope Schools, the training of female teachers in poverty-stricken areas, and schooling for the children of migrant workers in the city. Ms. Wu said: In doing so, we can let our employees know more about the meaning of work and form the cohesion of the company; we can do our little to help people around us and let them also know the meaning of GE's work in China.
Most Chinese and most international
GE proudly proclaims that we are both a global and a local company, the most Chinese multinational and the most international Chinese company.
GE Healthcare not only provides global products, said George Chen, "We are also the most diverse employee composite, we have returnees, we have local people, we have French, Japanese, Americans, Chinese, completely all over the world. Who do we look for in management? That depends on who understands the country and your business better." Chen, 49, seems to have a natural ability to adapt to any environment, and Welch once wryly said that he "stays in Pittsburgh as much as he stays in Beijing". Not long ago, he was honored with the GE Outstanding Leadership Award and promoted to global vice president of GE, largely due to the outstanding performance of GE's healthcare division in China. When asked about his leadership style, he said: "The opportunity given to me is very important, I have three thanks: thanks to the reform, thanks to the country, thanks to the customer. GE in China is not a smooth sailing, through a lot of adjustment, but GE is a very good company, the product is very good, the management is very good, which is the most basic thing, we have different approaches in different environment. "
GE entered China with excellent cooperation with the Chinese government and a deep understanding of China's reform and opening-up policy, which of course greatly helped GE to advance its pace of development in China. Ms. Wu has this wonderful exposition: "We feel that China's traditional culture, China's reform and opening-up ideas, in fact, with GE's culture is not at all contradictory, and there are many **** the same. The simplest example, Deng Xiaoping said step a little faster, GE said to talk about speed; Deng Xiaoping said the idea of a little more emancipation, GE said to be less red tape, less bureaucracy; Deng Xiaoping said a little more bold, GE said to be confident. Seeing these, we feel very close. We are here to invest in cultivating talents and introducing cutting-edge technologies, as advocated by the state, and to generate more foreign exchange for China's exports. We will make our own contribution as China grows by leaps and bounds; at the same time we seek our growth in China's rapid development."
GE's products are locally thought and globally promoted; GE's talents are locally improved and globally utilized; GE's technologies are locally innovated and globally introduced; GE's markets are locally developed and globally occupied. In fact, for an international enterprise, globalization, is localization; the deeper the localization, the stronger the globalization.