Article preview from IN VIVO - December, 2012
Building on the triple pillars of execution, globalization, and innovation, Medtronic’s new CEO Omar Ishrak is positioning the company for a new medical device marketplace.
Innovation And Globalization In Medtech: An Interview With Medtronic’s Omar Ishrak
Building on the triple pillars of execution, globalization, and innovation, Omar Ishrak is positioning Medtronic for a new medical device marketplace.A year and a half ago, when Omar Ishrak was named CEO of Medtronic Inc., the largest pure-play medical device company and second in size in therapeutic devices only to Johnson & Johnson, it was safe to say few of the executives who move in Medtronic’s orbit knew much about him. The announcement of his hiring noted his past experience at General Electric, a leader in capital equipment and diagnostic imaging, and early reports that he was very smart and a strong manager simply stated the obvious – would Medtronic recruit someone with any other profile?
Over the past 18 months, as he has spent his time learning more about Medtronic and its diverse holdings, Ishrak himself has become a more familiar and better-known figure in the therapeutic medtech world. Interestingly, there have been grumblings in some circles that Ishrak has yet to make any real changes to Medtronic; in fact, the reality is much closer to the opposite: the soft-spoken CEO has begun to articulate a vision of where medical technology companies must go in the future that is markedly different from visions of the past, and he has specifically charted a course for Medtronic that not many other companies are pursuing.
To be sure, Ishrak is building on many of Medtronic’s historic strengths and accelerating strategies put in place by his predecessors. Thus, he didn’t launch Medtronic’s efforts at globalization. But just as certainly, Medtronic will, if Ishrak is successful in implementing his vision, go further and faster in tapping opportunities in emerging markets like China and India than his predecessors and, indeed, than any other device company is likely to go. Ishrak’s strategy is built on three legs: improving execution, accelerating globalization, and optimizing innovation, the last two linked by the idea of “reverse innovation,” a concept developed at GE that Ishrak brought over and that is gaining greater currency now that he’s at Medtronic.
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