What GE HealthCare Learns from the Marines: Cultivating a Culture That Lives Every Day

In 2023, General Electric spun off GE HealthCare creating an independent company with 50,000 employees. Within a year, the new entity generated nearly $20 billion in revenue. But its success is not just financial: according to Glassdoor, GE HealthCare now ranks as the highest-rated organization among its peers in terms of culture.
Respect, fairness, development opportunities — these are the themes employees mention most often.

The Marine Corps playbook for culture.
Behind this cultural performance is Adam Holton, Chief People Officer, who applies lessons learned in the Marine Corps to the corporate world.

1. Translate values into observable behaviors

In many companies, values remain slogans. The Marines — and now GE HealthCare — translate them into concrete behaviors:

  • How should a leader act under pressure?
  • How does cooperation translate into daily life?
  • How do you decide quickly while staying consistent?

As Holton puts it: “Behaviors are the secret. Once defined, I can recruit on them, train on them, promote on them.”

2. Train behaviors, not just impart knowledge

The Marines train until mastery. GE HealthCare follows the same principle: learning by doing. Each cultural principle is broken down into skills, and training is based on role-play, not PowerPoints.
Holton’s reminder: “Knowledge without application changes nothing.”

3. Align recruitment and promotion with culture

The biggest lever for embedding culture isn’t speeches, it’s HR processes.

  • Recruit profiles aligned with expected behaviors.
  • Promote those who embody the culture, not just those with short-term results.

Holton is clear: between “developing behaviors” and “selecting the right profiles,” he favors selection. Organizations learn faster when they rely on predisposed personalities.

4. Simplify to make culture actionable

“When you have 72 leadership skills, you don’t have any.” GE HealthCare used its IPO as an opportunity to simplify its processes and retain only the essentials. Culture thrives on clarity and consistency, not complexity.

What leaders can learn from this

The GE HealthCare case shows that culture is not a “nice to have.” It is a training system, embodied in behaviors, HR processes, and daily rituals.

Three keys for any COMEX:

  • Don’t just talk about values — define the expected behaviors.
  • Don’t just train your teams — have them practice.
  • Don’t complicate benchmarks — simplify them to make culture actionable.
Références utiles :
  • MIT Sloan Management Review