Earlier this month, we published Success Stories in Medical Device Innovation: SurgiLance™ Safety Lancets. This is the first of a series of success stories (and more detailed, complimentary case studies) that we’ll be publishing on a regular basis in coming months.
Our inaugural success story is a brief examination of the launch of the medical device that put MediPurpose on the map: the SurgiLance™ Safety Lancet. Check it out; you’ll hopefully find parallels to the launch of your first medical invention or the challenges you might be currently facing if you are in a pre-launch stage. (If you find them, please don’t hesitate to share them with us!).
As the co-author and co-editor of that success story and others that are in the works, I am in a privileged position to get first-person accounts of what it takes to be truly successful in business. For instance, with this success story, my research primarily consisted of a series of interviews with MediPurpose’s founder and CEO Patrick Yi.
I’m not ashamed to admit that I often find myself in awe of people like Patrick and the leadership of the Medical Device Innovation and Medical Product Distribution teams at MediPurpose. In fact, I find it invigorating to be inspired by people that demonstrate the kind of intelligence and ambition it takes to be successful in this business.
I’m also not ashamed to admit that I’m sometimes intimidated by Patrick and his team. I’m certainly humbled. Don’t get me wrong: Everybody is very nice at MediPurpose. However, my educational and professional background is in communications, not business management, healthcare, or engineering. Despite my confidence in my abilities and my track record of success in marketing and communications, I very much feel like an eager college student listening to a wise professor when I work with Patrick and his teams.
Yet, as I’ve learned more about Patrick, the more I’ve discovered that I am not that much different than him.
Like Patrick, I already had a thriving career in other industries before I started focusing on healthcare and medical. Like Patrick, I migrated into healthcare and medical because an intriguing opportunity presented itself. Moreover, like Patrick, I’ve remained—and thrived—in healthcare and medical because it’s a challenging environment that requires one to consistently put their skills—and intelligence and ambition—to a major test.
One key difference between Patrick and me is that Patrick’s pre-medical device career was in developing and marketing new businesses. Another difference, of course, is that he launched a very successful line of medical devices and a medical product company.
At times while listening to him recount the story of launching his medical device—or while crafting his story in the aforementioned success story—I realize that I’m doing much more than my job. I’m essentially getting an accelerated education in business…and arguably, an on-the-job MBA.
Think about it: What is an MBA degree? According to Wikipedia, “the core courses in the MBA program are designed to introduce students to the various areas of business such as accounting, marketing, human resources, operations management, etc.”
Now look again at the success story (or sign-up to be notified when further success stories and related case studies are published). For that matter, look at some of the blogs written by Patrick or Randy Prather or Mark Stoppenbach.
What you are looking at is an invaluable collection of content that examine those “areas of business”—but focused on medical devices and medical products, and written by true “masters” of this kind of business.
In time, this Website will become much more than a collection of blogs, case studies, promotional pages, etc. Instead, think of it as a textbook, a manual and a road map for how to get your medical device funded, developed, launched and distributed—or most simply, how to become a successful medical device entrepreneur.
There’s no tuition fee either!
Derek Rudnak | Communications Specialist | MediPurpose™
Over the past few months, MediPurpose has implemented several changes to make our medical product distribution customers’ experiences easier and more efficient.
For instance, last January, we began e-mailing invoices and statements, thus eliminating the 2–3-day delay for customers to receive their invoices and statements. (An additional benefit is that it also is reducing paper consumption.)
Last month, we introduced our new online Customer Care Center, and we have already received some very positive comments from the customers that have taken advantage of it. They especially seem to appreciate:
- Its ease of use
- Having immediate access to their accounts
- Being able to place their orders online
- The ability to check orders and review past orders
In addition, they can review their AR, print invoices and statements, and review all transactions. No longer is it necessary to make a phone call to place an order or check on an invoice—all of their information is immediately available.
With so many advantages and benefits, I can’t imagine why anyone would not take advantage of our online Customer Care Center. That is why I encourage our of all medical product distribution customers to try it out. Once you do, I’m very confident that you will be pleasantly surprised with its ease and convenience.
The new online customer center is a particular point of pride for me. As MediPurpose’s customer service manager, I and my team are constantly striving to make our customers’ experiences pleasant and efficient, and we are always searching for the best ways to serve you.
However, despite the exciting new opportunities with online technology, we will never eliminate any of the other ways to assist our customers with any issues. Our main goal is to always be friendly and helpful, and to provide our customers with the best possible service.
As MediPurpose continues to grow and expand, we will also continue to look at more ways to better service our customers. Please contact us anytime with suggestions that would help us better serve you.
Cheryl Channell | Customer Service Manager | MediPurpose™
Have you used our new online Customer Care Center? What features do you like or would you like for it to provide? How else can we improve our customer care experience?
So here’s an interesting situation with which you might have experienced or even be currently experiencing. Say that you manage a sales representative that is a consistent top performer…but unfortunately is also disrespectful to others in your office and disliked by virtually everybody at the company. This rep knows that he or she is an asset to the company—and possibly thinks of him or herself as irreplaceable.
This is precisely the type of paradox that was recently shared by member of a LinkedIn Group to which I belong. It was a compelling question, and I thought I’d share my response with you because it’s certainly an issue that challenges sales managers at medical device companies, as well as businesses in virtually every industry.
I wrote:
“Most behaviors are learned and reinforced through a system of rewards. Unfortunately, the bad behavior ‘reward’ most typically plays out with the manager not doing anything ‘for the good reward of his/her bottom line.’
The unintended consequence of doing nothing is reinforcement of that bad behavior in that person—coupled with the company-wide reinforcement that bad behavior will be tolerated at the company. As noted earlier by another discussion participant, that is a seriously destructive cancer within a team.
Now the world of HR must also be addressed. If the ‘bad apple’ has always been rewarded for his/her bad behavior with good reviews, someone has to start the process to ensure that all are treated equally.
I would immediately and definitively address the problematic performer with observations that very specific examples with dates, times, etc. If that ‘history’ has not been built, it would need to done quickly. In no uncertain terms, the understanding and acknowledgement that such actions are not acceptable must be relayed in writing.
I might also suggest involving HR in a thought process if that ‘problematic performer’ is high profile. A little FYI and CYA are never a bad mix!
My experience has been that most good HR department managers often wonder ‘Why didn't somebody do something with that person earlier?’ and are very supportive when these types of matters are brought to their attention.
After the process and documentation has begun, how it plays out will and should always be determined by the actions of the employee against the fair and equal expectations of the organization.
The result will hopefully be a good message for the rest of the team...and a better message for the ‘problematic performer.’”
Randy Prather | President | MediPurpose™
Have you ever experienced a similar situation? Was it in medical device sales or another industry? How was it handled…or was it “tolerated”? What other recommendations can you provide?
Ever since people began testing their blood sugar by utilizing a finger stick with a lancet device more than 30 years ago, discomfort has been a major issue.
There’s no mystery: It just plain hurts to intentionally stick your finger, or for that matter, to have someone do it for you. That is why patients and clinicians alike have demanded the smallest and sharpest lancet possible.
Although there are devices galore that can do the job, few that can offer the safety and minimal discomfort of a SurgiLance® Safety Lancet.
Now, I’m told that a good blog should avoid explicit “sales talk,” but it’s hard for me to resist. After all, I work in medical device sales and marketing!
Naturally, a good day for me at work is when I get a big sales order or I read a positive sales report. But a great day is when I read something that reminds me that what I sell is more than a medical product—it’s something that is changing lives for the better.
So, imagine how satisfying it was to receive this letter from a medical center’s RN:
“More facilities need to use your lancets, because as far as I am concerned, it is a quality of life issue.
“The SurgiLance® lancets decrease or eliminate the pain and anxiety associated with finger sticks for our patients—especially for those that resist taking regular blood glucose tests. They usually do so because it HURTS.
“By eliminating the pain and anxiety, their quality of life is improved because they stop resisting the procedure. That is a BIG PLUS for me, and I feel this is a key component in our decision to use the SurgiLance® lancets. No other product that I have used in any of my buildings has been able to deliver a painless experience for the residents.”
Ever heard the expression “no pain, no gain”? You might say that for us—and our valued customers—no pain is all gain!
Mark Stoppenbach | VP–Marketing & Sales | MediPurpose™
Do you have an idea for a medical product that can change lives? Let us know! MediPurpose offers funding, development and distribution support for medical device inventors and companies!
Casual filmgoers, professional film critics, and academic film professors often have markedly different perspectives on what makes "great" cinema, but there are a handful of films—and filmmakers—in which there is often little debate about their greatness. Francis Ford Coppola is certainly one of those filmmakers, and The Godfather is certainly one of those films.
Yet, despite producing one of film history's most fabled movies in 1973, by the end of the decade, Coppola would be facing complete financial, professional and personal devastation while making what would become yet another of the virtually indisputable cinematic masterpieces, 1979's Apocalypse Now.
To make a long story very short, the film's allegory of a man's descent into madness as he attempts to track another man (that also descended into madness) ultimately became an accurate description of the filmmaker and his film's development and production. (In fact, an award-winning film about the film—Heart of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse—was released in 1991).
Medical device inventors and innovators can probably very easily relate to Coppola's saga. After all, how many of you have invested or risked innumerable hours and dollars—as well your reputation and sanity—while trying to create, launch or distribute a medical product that you believe in as much as Coppola believed in his film?
Like a film, a developing medical product needs support at all phases, from conception and pre-production phases through development and distribution. This is why MediPurpose has expanded its scope to provide funding and distribution services for medical device inventors and medical product innovators.
Although the process is by no means willy-nilly—in fact, there's a carefully structured methodology for selecting and developing the "right" medical product—it is led by somebody (company founder Patrick Yi) that has experienced many of the challenges (and risks) that you have faced.
Derek Rudnak | Communications & Marketing Specialist | MediPurpose™
Although the MediPurpose business model is primarily structured to distribute our medical products through a multitude of domestic and international healthcare distributors, over the years, MediPurpose has become completely proficient and skilled as a distributor in its own right.
This notion of being able to facilitate, manage and direct all areas of medical product distribution is something that Webster might say makes us a master distributor.
However, calling ourselves a "master" distributor is a pretty strong claim—especially when considering the magnitude of our competitors and the strength of our medical product distribution partners—but I believe it is an appropriate label, particularly in the context of our medical product distribution capabilities. For instance:
In a previous blog, I wrote about our ability to enter multiple channels through multiple medical product distribution partners for the same medical product, thereby increasing market penetration, eliminating channel conflict and maximizing our products' availability.
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Our medical product acceptance has driven the inclusion of our products within most major
medical GPO contracts.
So, as I discover what it truly means to completely proficient or skilled at marketing medical products, MediPurpose will continue to develop its position as a master distributor.
Randy Prather | President | MediPurpose™
Over the years, I've worn both distributor and OEM hats—and whether for my own company or for the numerous other companies that we have assisted, I have routinely been faced with the same difficult decision: Which company can best serve me in getting my medical product to market?
To resolve this quandary, I typically consider a number of key concepts and criteria, including:
The product: For example, is it a unique medical product with specific features that requires detailing, or is it perhaps more of a "me too" product that would likely be intuitive to the typical end user?
Available margin: Some medical product dealers and/or resellers require very high margins, while others are more eager to sacrifice some of that margin, particularly if the product offers them marketing advantages and/or fills a product gap within their segment product offering.
Channel conflict: For instance, Distributor A—who is a major player and has consider cache in medical product distribution—agrees to take on your medical product, but with one condition: They want exclusivity or don't want you to do business with their competitor, Distributor B. Is the reduction in market potential and access worth the compromise?
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End user: Every company has their "best call points" within the facilities on which they call. Choosing a company that "services them all" or does not currently call on the "best call point for your product" is clearly a formula for "no sales," or at best, "less than desired sales."
I recently used this very set of criteria to develop a "market launch redo" for a medical product company that was in an unfortunate agreement with a large "box mover."
The company's limited-margin availability had compelled them to participate in an exclusive agreement-which drastically diminished their anticipated market/unit sales and handcuffed them after their product languished on shelves.
Randy Prather | President | MediPurpose™
What have you seen or experienced in regards to new medical product introductions and making the best choices that maximize selling time, profitability and market access to the right end user?
"Seems like just yesterday" to coin a phrase, but that is how fast 10 years can fly by—as it has since MediPurpose first launched the SurgiLance® Safety Lancet in 1999.
Once just an idea for an innovative healthcare safety product and today a solid market leader in safety lancets, it almost seems unlikely—considering the dominance of some large companies like Roche and B-D—that a small medical product startup like MediPurpose could not only exist, but actually be successful.
I'm not the first author in this blog to say it, but it can't be stated enough: MediPurpose's good fortune is not only a credit to not only the product, but also to the founder, Patrick Yi, for his unwillingness to allow the company to fail.
Achieving this success has meant providing a quality product at a competitive price. It has also meant his personal sacrifice of moving his family halfway around the world...and then asking people that had never heard of this product to "trust me."
As with all small and young organizations, there were the usual struggles early on (some of which will soon be revisited in this blog), but having weathered them, MediPurpose is now spreading its wings to help new and exciting medical device inventions, products and companies discover their own success.
Ten years is something very few startup companies ever experience, and being a witness and participant to some of that growth is something for which I am very proud.
Changes are happening all around us, but this organization continues to stick with its original philosophy of quality products and great customer service. I can only imagine what the next 10 years will bring, but am excited to seeing it unfold!
Mark Stoppenbach | VP of Sales & Marketing | MediPurpose
As MediPurpose celebrates its first 10 years in business—and perhaps because this is also the end of the year and the close of a decade—there's been a lot of reflecting around the office.
Like with MediPurpose founder and CEO Patrick Yi's recent blog, my contemplations have toggled between reviewing our company's success and the trajectory of my own career—including the last four years that I've spent at MediPurpose.
Similar to most senior sales and marketing professionals, I have worked for a range of companies that span a spectrum of sizes, scopes and requisite responsibilities. Although I don't have any illusions of having complete clarity with how MediPurpose achieved its success, I do believe that my experiences have given me some perspective.
More specifically, my current perspective is that there are three fundamental reasons for why MediPurpose has not only survived, but has thrived and is poised to continue doing so for another 10 years and beyond. After all, an estimated 50 percent of startups fail, and MediPurpose has had the additional challenge of being a single-line medical device company in a field of Fortune 50 healthcare titans.
Reason #1: MediPurpose has Always Been Customer-Centric
This exceeds the standard "the customer comes first" credo. Any business that doesn't put the customer first is doomed.
A company that wants to do more than "not fail" and truly achieve success must be customer-centric. To me, "customer-centric" sensibilities means:
- Embracing an honest, straightforward approach to problem solving that simultaneously puts in a fix to prevent the problem from resurfacing.
Reason #2: MediPurpose Founder CEO Patrick Yi has Never Forgotten His Experiences as a Struggling Entrepreneur
Remaining grounded to those early years-in spite of our 10-year success-has produced a unique workplace culture.
Not only is there still a sense of excitement and discovery in our ongoing business our first product, the SurgiLance® Safety Lancet, but it's fostering a sense of empathy and understanding for new medical device inventors within our Medical Device Innovation division, as well as with medical product companies looking to bring medical product innovations to the market through our Medical Product Distribution Services division.
Reason #3: People Come and Go in All Companies
The litmus test for a company that claims to provide the nurturing environment for the good to get better is when its talent comes back after spreading its wings.
I've seen it at MediPurpose quite recently with the return of VP of Sales and Marketing Mark Stoppenbach. His return reinforces the notion that although we will always learn from our mistakes, we fortunately make more wise decisions than not.
Pleasin' Reasons
Although I would agree that this is certainly not an exhaustive list of factors for success at our company, I will say that they are essential elements.
In my entire career, I have seldom seen them all come together as consistently and effectively as they have at MediPurpose, and that alchemy has me very excited for the next 10 years.
Randy Prather | President | MediPurpose™
What do you think? Based on what you know about MediPurpose or perhaps about your own company, what do you think are the critical components of a successful medical product business?
There’s an old saying that “the fi
rst million is the hardest.” Presumably, that “million” refers to money and wealth, accumulated by individuals, businesses, or both.
For MediPurpose, the first million in medical product sales was achieved quickly. I started MediPurpose (then known as SurgiLance Pte Ltd) in Singapore in 1999 to sell SurgiLance® Safety Lancets (then known as One-Step Safety Lancets).
By 2001, the first full year of sales, MediPurpose had made its first million; by the end of the next year, that figure had tripled.
I can’t say which million was easier or harder to make as every million and every year in business has presented its own unique challenges.
Reflections on the 10th Anniversary
Yesterday, we published a news release that officially announced our recognition of our 10th year in business, and that has put me in a reflective mood. Ironically, the more I think about the past, the more I think about the future. It also has me thinking about that old saying.
Although money is always on the mind of most people, it is only a small part of the motivation for medical device inventors and medical product innovators and entrepreneurs—or at least myself and the successful ones that I’ve met or read about.
Both then and now, my motivation has mostly been in the quest to achieve something meaningful.
For me—and for that matter, MediPurpose—that has meant solving the riddle that we like to call “from concept to commercialization.” More specifically, it involved taking my brother-in-law’s innovative safety lancet from the “good idea” phase in 1999 to what it is now: one of the world’s most popular safety lancets.
Prior to MediPurpose, I had zero experience with medical products—developing them, marketing them or distributing them. However, I did have experience in taking things “from concept to commercialization” such as the Singapore NETS debit card service. The opportunity to test my intuition and the versatility of my problem solving skills with my brother-in-law’s innovation was too tempting to resist.
Ten years later, after selling millions of dollars and more than a half-billion SurgiLance® Safety Lancets, that urge to test myself has never faded. In fact, it’s as strong as ever, especially as I look back on the past 10 years and continue to focus on the next 10 years and beyond.
It may be true that the first million was the hardest. The same can be said for the first years. During that period, I was too busy trying to get MediPurpose into the black to think much about whether I was doing things right, and the thrill of achieving each milestone sustained my efforts.
Now that I have some security and confidence with what I do in the medical product arena—especially as I now guide MediPurpose into new directions with our Medical Device Innovation and Medical Product Distribution Services divisions—I don’t expect the next 10 years to be any less difficult, stressful or challenging. Then again, I wouldn’t be doing this if it weren’t!
Patrick Yi | Founder and CEO | MediPurpose™
If you are a medical device inventor—or any kind of inventor or entrepreneur—share your thoughts on your first million or first year or first deal. How difficult was it for you?