GE Oil & Gas: Innovating in the Centrifugal Compressor Industry with a High Pressure Ratio Compressor

The case highlights the role of innovation in the conservative oil and gas industry. A team of Italian engineers in the turbomachinery solutions unit in GE Oil & Gas division, based in Florence, build a centrifugal compressor that is half the weight and a third of the size of a traditional compressor. However, getting the industry to accept the innovation is not going to be easy since most customers will only buy compressors that have been tried and tested.

After reading and analysing the case, students should understand the barriers to innovation, how to overcome them, and why the customer should be involved in the R&D process from the very start of the process that leads to the commercialization of innovative products. The case offers a look at innovation diffusion from the inside.