General Electric Wants to Act Like a Startup

In a Manhattan office, a small team of engineers, marketers, and product designers is plotting the future of medical devices. With hopes of “disrupting” the market, the group is using a limited budget to streamline the development of a new PET/CT scanner while addressing customer concerns over price, performance, and ease of use. “The reason why TurboTax became so popular is because you didn’t have to become an expert in tax regulation,” one person says during a brainstorming session. “TurboTax for oncology!” another shouts.

It sounds like a challenge to the status quo by an underfinanced but quick-thinking new enterprise. Except this group works for General Electric, one of the world’s largest corporations. The company founded by Thomas Edison in the late 1800s is taking a cue from Silicon Valley with a program, dubbed FastWorks, that’s designed to get GE acting more like a 21st century startup.