“We have the finest Life Sciences business in the industry, one that is high-margin and fast-growth,” Immelt wrote. “Building this position was facilitated by an ‘expensive’ acquisition that today looks like a bargain… If we had waited for this to be popular, we would have missed the opportunity.”

Immelt noted that in the midst of the transformation GE still “delivered good results.” He said the company grew its Industrial earnings by 19 percent, expanded segment margins by 80 basis points and returned $33 billion of cash to its investors. Immelt said the “strong execution was reflected in our share price,” adding that GE’s total stock return was up 28 percent in 2015, above the performance of the S&P 500, which grew by 1 percent and the industrial index, which declined by 4 percent.


“We have solidly outperformed the broader indices over the past three years, when we grew by 64 percent, and five years, when we grew by 101 percent. GE ended the year as the eighth most valuable company in the world,” Immelt wrote.

He cited many product launches and innovations, particularly at GE Healthcare, that are solving problems for users.

Immelt spoke of a partnership with Temple University Health System in Philadelphia, where GE Healthcare worked with the system “to focus on strategy and collaboration, not just equipment replacement.” As part of the plan, GE Healthcare will provide Temple with “comprehensive service, equipment, analytics and financing, totaling more than $80 million of future growth for GE.”

He also discussed the launch of the GE Healthcare Cloud, spotlighted this week in an HCB News report, that gives radiologists anywhere access to analytics and images. The National Health Care System in the UK will be using it.

“Physicians can deliver superior outcomes by accessing data to spot disease patterns and by collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams. Our Healthcare IT installs are growing by 10 percent,” Immelt noted.

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