#12. Inside the Machine: What I Learned from Visiting GE HealthCare’s Strategy & Business Development Team
A behind-the-scenes look at how a $19.7B medtech giant is spinning off, scaling up, and future-proofing healthcare.
Earlier this week, I had the chance to step inside the corporate cockpit of GE HealthCare (GEHC) during a Strategy & Business Development trek organized by Kellogg. What I expected was a standard corporate presentation. What I got instead was an immersive crash course in modern industrial transformation, precision health strategy, and the surprisingly gritty reality of spinning off a $20 billion revenue business.
Here are my key takeaways:
GE HealthCare Today: More Than Just Imaging
GE HealthCare isn’t just a legacy imaging shop anymore; it’s evolved into a global medtech platform. With $19.7B in revenue, an installed base of 5M devices, and over 1 billion patients served annually, GEHC has become a backbone of clinical infrastructure across diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring.
Snapshot Stats:
$1.3B annual R&D spend in 2024
85 FDA-authorized AI/ML-enabled devices (topping the FDA list for 3 years in a row)the most in the U.S.)
Operations in 160+ countries
53,000 employees
45% of revenue is recurring
Segment Breakdown:
The TAM for GEHC’s core markets is expected to grow from $90B in 2023 to $110B by 2028, driven by digital health, AI, and aging populations.
The Spin-Off: Escaping the GE Umbrella
GEHC became independent and publicly traded on January 3, 2023. But the road there was complex, costly, and deeply strategic.
Challenges During the Spin:
$500M+ one-time cost for the spin (typical range is 2–3% of spin co. market cap)
70+ shared legal entities and 100+ properties to disentangle
SMO (Spin Management Office) became a de facto internal consulting firm. Moreover, in 2022, GEHC was one of PwC’s biggest clients globally.
Global complexities: Delays in filings due to a new government in Kenya; Indonesia posed a potential two-year licensing delay for product license transferred to a new legal entity.
GEHC’s Spin-Off Playbook
The spin was a full-scale corporate unbundling, with thousands of interdependencies to resolve, including:
Operational Untangling from GE:
Legal entities, payroll, bank accounts, HR, and finance systems
Shared IT apps, infrastructure, facilities, contracts, purchasing systems
Internal Capability Rebuild:
Standalone operating model, cash ops, comp & benefits
Independent governance, brand, tools, and sourcing
External Regulatory Lift:
Standalone audit, capital structure, multiple Form 10 filings
Establishing a board, conducting a debt raise
Pulling off a polished Investor Day + Roadshow
Principles That Anchored the Spin
GEHC’s spin was guided by a clear set of principles and objectives that kept the chaos in check.
Key Objectives:
Regulatory readiness: Meet all governance, audit, and financial reporting requirements for public company status
Operational stand-up: Build the systems and capabilities to function independently
Value creation: Craft a compelling equity story, set up the right capital structure, and define a forward-looking operating model
Guiding Principles:
Keep day-to-day operations stable for most of GEHC
Hit key spin timelines without compromising quality
Minimize Day 1 risk and manage transition costs
Ensure the business is set up for long-term success, including maintaining an investment-grade rating
Business Development That Moves the Needle
GEHC’s BD function isn’t just a deals team, rather it’s a strategic lever driving growth across:
Organic innovation
Inorganic growth/disciplined M&A
Margin expansion
Key care pathways (e.g., oncology, neurology)
Since the spin, GEHC has invested $2.5B in R&D and announced 6 acquisitions (e.g. Spectronic, Impactis, Intelligent Ultrasound). Additionally, it has initiated 50+ strategic partnerships since 2024 (e.g. AWS, Nvidia, Sutter Health).
M&A Priorities:
Products/services that expand GEHC's position
Consumables connected to their fleet
Enterprise & workflow tools
Software that leverages their installed base
Precision therapy enablers (e.g. theranostics)
Final Thoughts
GE HealthCare is one of those rare companies that flies under the radar but is building the future of healthcare. My visit wasn’t just a corporate info session, but rather an immersion into what it takes to execute transformation at industrial scale, and where the future of medtech might be headed.