Article preview from IN VIVO - June, 2012
Given the importance of rapid and persistence technology development in medical devices, why is it that so few medtech CEOs come from R&D? Michael Kaschke, president and CEO of Carl Zeiss, is the exception that proves the rule. Kaschke joined the company in 1992 and began a steady ascent through the management ranks. In an interview, adapted from a recent session in the Innovator’s Workbench series sponsored by the BioDesign Program at Stanford University, Kaschke talks about Zeiss and its strong R&D culture, about how his own background in technology development shapes his approach to decision-making and about the challenges the company has faced in the past and the ones it faces going forward.
Article preview from IN VIVO - June, 2012
At ophthalmology and optics giant Carl Zeiss, innovation is king. Could it be because the CEO is the former head of R&D?
Given the importance of rapid and persistent technology development in medical devices, why is it that so few medtech CEOs come from R&D? Indeed, finance chiefs and sales and marketing types are rife in the small community of device CEOs; R&D execs are scarce. Maybe it’s because boards lack confidence that the technology types have broad enough skills and expertise to run a large company. Maybe it’s that R&D chiefs themselves tend to stay in R&D and rarely aspire to the top spot.
Michael Kaschke, PhD, president and CEO of Carl Zeiss AG, is the exception that proves the rule. And Kashcke’s R&D bona fides run deep. A graduate, with a degree in physics, from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, Kaschke holds two doctorates, and did early research in the generation of ultrashort laser pulses. After leaving Schiller University in 1986, he spent time as head of the research laboratory at the Max Born Institute in Berlin and was an invited visiting scientist at the IBM Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY in 1990.
Two years later, Kaschke joined Carl Zeiss as a research scientist in its Surgical Microscopes unit, eventually becoming development director. By the mid-1990s, he had moved up into the management ranks at Zeiss, having been appointed first as vice president and general manager of the Surveying Instruments division in 1995 and then, in 1998, as vice president and general manager of the Surgical Products division. The next year, Kaschke was named executive vice president and general manager of the Medical Technology business group, and joined senior management as a member of the executive management committee. In 2000, he was appointed to the Carl Zeiss board of management, and in 2008, he was named president and CEO of Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, a post he held for two years before becoming president and CEO of all of Carl Zeiss in 2011.
In the following interview, adapted from a recent session in the Innovator’s Workbench series sponsored by the BioDesign Program at Stanford University, Kaschke talks about Zeiss and its strong R&D culture, about how his own background in technology development shapes his approach to decision-making and about the challenges the company has faced in the past and the ones it faces going forward.
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