Owning It OUS – The 2020 International Sales Meeting
Alignment can ensure success and to start the year off the International Sales Meeting (ISM) followed the North American Sales Meeting with the theme of “Own It” and the supportive points of “See It, Believe It, Grow It and Become It.”
The 2020 ISM was held in Rome, Italy and a bit of its history was woven into the introduction and welcome by Andrew McCartney. Among those in the audience were Bioventus commercial teams from the UK and Ireland, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands. In addition, Bioventus Distributor Managers for EMEA and AAP and respective Distributor Partners from Australia, Norway, Mexico, Malaysia, France, Spain, the Czech Republic and Italy were also in attendance.
“It took the Romans one thousand years to build Rome,” said Andrew. “And as you visit the city you see much of their work is still around us.”
Andrew then made the analogy of the city being built brick-by-brick to managing our work at Bioventus. “That brick work, done little by little every day, delivers progress,” said Andrew. “Making small changes to your work and habits is something you can build on daily to deliver positive results in 2020.”
To reinforce this approach, all attendees received a copy of Atomic Habits, a business and self-help book written by James Clear that supports the idea of getting 1 percent better every day through small changes to your regular habits at work and home alike.
Day 1 presenters also included John Nosenzo and Tony Bihl along with Harald Weebers, International Finance Director; Winnie Weitsen, Chief Compliance Officer; and Vivek Munshi, VP of Marketing.
By chance a guest speaker who was scheduled to discuss impacting patients had to cancel and Andrew asked Dr. Peter Shaw, our Chief Medical Officer, to stand in. Peter joined Bioventus in late 2018, although an HA expert, he had no exposure to EXOGEN before joining the company. He began by reminding all in the audience that Bayer aspirin, a product still widely used today, first came to market in the late 1800s.
Pivoting to Bioventus products he reminded the audience that although DUROLANE has been in the market now for more than 15 years, it is still one of the most effective HA osteoarthritis pain relievers in its category and there is still room for it to grow and help patients with OA earlier in the continuum of care.
Even though EXOGEN is marking 25 years on the market in 2020, Peter also provided a perspective on that product that only a newcomer with his background could have.
“In my experience in medicine the one thing all can agree on is that never, never happens and always, never happens,” he said and let that hang in the air for a moment.
“But when you look at EXOGEN working 86 percent of the time on nonunion fractures that’s about as close to always as you can get in medicine.”
Later in the day EXOGEN and DUROLANE breakouts were driven by a unique talk show format which changed up the delivery of information and interaction with the audience.
Day 2 included more breakouts for the International team and was capped off by an awards night at the incredible Casina Valadier, which was a home completed in 1837 for a wealthy family. Located in the Villa Borghese Gardens, today it serves as an event space and restaurant. As if that were not enough, attendees were entertained by Gustavo German Oliva and Lucía Elisa Medina, otherwise known as Amare Duo, a young married couple that sing opera and other classic Italian songs.
And lastly, some awards were handed out too. Winners recognized for their achievements in 2019 included:
- Keven DuPont, Canada – International Rookie of the Year
- Christian Relouw, Canada – International Rep of the Year
- Josh Kay, Canada – International Manager of the Year
- Harvey Bhandal, UK/Ireland – $1 Million Achievement Award
- Emre Kartoglu, Germany – EMEA DUROLANE Salesperson of the Year
- Clare Mallan – UK/Ireland – EMEA EXOGEN Salesperson of the Year
2019 Club Awards
- Piotr Sutkowski, Poland – Silver Club
- Monika Szpigiel-Majdan, Poland – Silver Club
- Alison Murphy – UK/Ireland – Bronze Club
- Rick Lee – UK/Ireland – Bronze Club
2019 Quota Achievers
- Emre Kartoglu, Germany – 137%
- Piotr Sutkowski, Poland – 111%
- Clare Mallan, UK/Ireland – 110%
- Rick Lee, UK/I – 104%
- Alison Murphy, UK/Ireland – 104%
- Monika Szpigiel-Majdan, Poland – 103%
- Harvey Bhandal, UK/Ireland – 101%
2019 Luminary Award Winners
- Lukasz Majchrowski – Financial Analyst based in the Hoofddorp office
- James Kuharenoks – Senior Order Management Specialist based in the Hoofddorp office
2019 Special Recognition
- Miguel Estevez – Distributor Sales Manager, Europe
2019 Distributor Partner Winners
- LMT, Australia – Rising Star Award
- Aqvitox, Czech Republic – Distributor Award
- Zambon, Italy – Performance Award