Incubate new businesses and models. Part of marketing’s mandate at GE is to find ways the company has not thought of before to promote ongoing innovation. That can be as simple as creating a “protected class” of ideas that are therefore given more time to prove their value. This kind of treatment gave rise to the Durathon battery, which provides backup power for cell towers in parts of Africa where the electricity supply is intermittent. The technology began life as a project to create a battery for a hybrid locomotive; only later was it adapted for other applications. Another boost to innovation via marketing has been FastWorks, a program designed to integrate startup culture into our DNA. It simplifies development and gets products to market faster.
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