Cordis

My career has been largely based in the Cardiovascular, Endocrinology and Neurology specialty areas in various Sales and Marketing capacities. I began to focus on interventional medical devices in 2004 and was involved in several venture capital funded companies in a Marketing Leadership and Commercialization capacity. These early experiences presented opportunities to get deeply involved in the commercial, clinical, product development and regulatory functions of these organizations. In 2014, private equity was beginning to make significant investments rolling up small Contract Manufacturing organizations into consolidated strategic suppliers to support the medical device industry. These newly formed companies were funded on the assumptions of aggressive future growth to fund a future exit. Commercial leadership in these organizations became a highly critical function. My background was well suited for these types of Commercial Leadership challenges in the industry. I subsequently spent 10 years leading Creganna Medical’s/TE Connectivity’s commercial business in the Americas and Integer Holdings Global Cardiovascular Business before joining Cordis. In both roles, my business philosophy was to focus on the needs of the customer and building sustainable business partnerships among the world’s leading medical device organizations.

Product markets and R&D investment dictate the technology landscape of the industry. Contract manufacturers must be aware of these trade winds and align their capabilities accordingly. Every company must have a competitive advantage in a manufacturing process, raw material or cost position to build from as a starting point. Targeting these capabilities to companies investing in high growth markets is critical to the mission. Adding adjacent capabilities to expand a position in an account provides bolt-on revenue opportunities per transaction to increase the “share of spending”. Customers value consolidation of projects under one supplier, one supply agreement and one external quality system. Add to this strategy a philosophy of not running from, but towards problems as they occur and actively working to resolve them on behalf of the customer. Finally executing and delivering on what’s promised builds lasting trust in the relationship leading to future business opportunities. It essentially comes down to knowing what your better at than everyone else, developing intentional adjacencies, pricing to win, owning and resolving setbacks, earning trust and aiming in the right direction from the start. It’s a simple playbook that has helped me scale sequential commercial businesses successfully in the medtech industry.

Innovative technologies require speed and talent in combination. Legacy product lines depend more on scale, quality and cost. Commercially speaking, one side is offense and the other side is defense. Business is won based on capabilities, know-how and the ability to achieve a launch timeline to scale. Business is maintained by delivering on time, in full, to request and efficiently. Understanding the economics of the industry and the end user hospital system is fundamental to driving an effective business strategy. Pricing pressures from the end user are passed through the value chain starting with our customers and often ending at the global supply chain. As a result, it’s imperative to understand the economic trickle-down effect and planning appropriately. The most effective ways are either through developing new technologies which drive cost savings for the end user by improving productivity or implementing lean manufacturing initiatives that support value sharing among price sensitive legacy product lines.

Bringing focus to the short-term horizon, learning how to read the market or situation quickly, failing fast, course correcting and adjusting without assigning failure are the most critical leadership skills.

The foundations of leadership are emphasized in Fortune 500 companies. Essentially, large businesses and publicly traded organizations are run through formalized strategic and business processes. Commercial Leaders build teams, set goals, develop incentives, measure results, coach, develop and adjust plans as needed within the formalized processes established. Leadership encompasses working in teams and across functions to a shared outcome. There are many cogs in the wheel and everyone plays a part in managing predictability and performance.

The opposite of this is leadership in a venture capital funded company. In a VC company, there may not be tomorrow if today doesn’t go as planned. Everyone is in the same small boat rowing together, sink or swim. As a result, there is great emphasis on adaptability, flexibility, execution and focus on a short-term timeline. Setting goals and aligning resources with a high sense of urgency to achieve the next milestone is typically the task of the day. Bringing focus to the shortterm horizon, learning how to read the market or situation quickly, failing fast, course correcting and adjusting without assigning failure are the most critical leadership skills.

Private equity is a combination of both. It is managing an established business with known processes and procedures to an aggressive performance result. Timing is finite and so adaptability, flexibility and execution are paramount to achieving single minded objectives largely focused on growth. As a leader in a Private Equity organization, it’s important to remain fluid, read and respond to the market while not losing focus on the deal plan and investment thesis. The organization is large enough that it depends on process and procedures to operate, but entrepreneurial enough to recognize the mission is critical, short term and dependent on execution with a high sense of urgency.

Teamwork is critical to supporting the commercialization of new technologies. Everyone plays a role and alignment to goals, objectives and shared incentives is paramount to success. Assuming the right players are in position across R&D Engineering, Manufacturing, Project Management, Quality/Regulatory and Commercial, amazing things can be achieved. What matters is selecting the right opportunities within the capabilities of the organization, accounting for setbacks upfront and resolving them tenaciously and partnering with customers (internally and externally) to garner the resources and collaboration required to succeed. Often out of the box solutions or reasonable compromises can alleviate insurmountable barriers if the teams are working together, the customers trust the process and the endpoints are clear and aligned across all shareholders.

Project selection is critical to developing a pathway to revenues. One must know their competitive advantages and play within their capabilities. A production driven business that must scale quickly should not participate in early development R&D projects that may take 3-5 years to complete and are loaded with pending regulatory and reimbursement headwinds. Key to scaling a manufacturing business is generating revenue growth from both existing manufacturing and low risk new product launches annually. Some opportunities may be successful and others not and so multiple shots on goal are required to balance the risk. As a result, consistently building the pipeline and generating near term new product launches, defending and growing existing business currently in production and driving profit margin through lean initiatives typically creates the compound growth required to overcome the volatility of regulatory and economic pressures in the market.