Riding a Rocket Ship
Being a space buff I enjoy reading and hearing about the risk, opportunity and great rewards of deep space travel. It is amazing to fully understand the character and resolve of these brave astronauts and the quick decisions they have to sometimes make that can often mean life and death on their various missions in space.
While our jobs fortunately are not life and death and in fact our Mission is to improve lives and ultimately help people live active and healthy lives our business has some similarities to a rocket ship;)!!?? Yes it does;)
If you think about a rocket ship it leaves the ground at a very slow speed and then slowly but surely gains momentum as the engines produce more thrust and ultimately gravity is left behind as the ship goes faster and faster.
Our corporate goal of getting to double digit growth is not dissimilar as it will take many different types of engines and employees to drive the business to greater growth. Some of these engines include new product launches, new processes to improve efficiency, M&A through tuck-in acquisitions and overall great execution delivered day in and day out. Once double digit growth is achieved and the levers of growth are intimately defined and understood it does get easier to maintain as momentum has been achieved.
We all play a principle role to ensure our business reaches this strong momentum. Here are some highlights around the business that serve as some examples of engines to our growth.
- Early Motys Launch – The training this week in Durham was a big success and we are off and running with this important pilot product launch that will pave the way for gathering more data on the product and its impact on knee OA. Importantly, it will also allow our sales team to get back in front of physicians that also use our HA products and position the company as progressive and committed to continuous improvement! Terrific job this week on the Motys Training!
- Exogen Order Manager Training – Next week we take the next step in our new Exogen order process with the order management training in Tampa. This is critical training to get our new order management team trained and able to take on the processing of our Exogen orders that will free up our sales team for greater sales time. The efficiencies created with this change should be significant and we will be tracking these metrics carefully.
- CartiHeal Breakthrough Designation – Looking a little further out we received great news last week that the Agili-C implant from CartiHeal was designated as a Breakthrough Technology by FDA! This is a big deal as it will accelerate the FDA approval time and also provide four years of Medicare reimbursement under the new proposed rule for devices that win the breakthrough designation. While we still have a ways to go to gain private payer coverage this step is a significant one and will provide nice tailwinds to our efforts of commercializing this product in the future.
- Continued Acceleration in our Business – Looking near term while the Q3 numbers are still being finalized we saw the highest average daily sales (ADS) in the business this year in September as well as the highest in the door Exogen orders since February! See the pro forma ADS chart below which reflects our recovery over the past four months and a true credit to the leadership in our team and the ability to make decisions quickly to adapt to the new dynamic brought on by the pandemic.
We are on a metaphorical rocket ship that will accelerate over time. Identifying and resiliently focusing on the levers of growth is all of our responsibility. From where each of us sits in the organization we all have our own view of HOW to make the company better each and every day. You should feel empowered to find your own levers of growth that complement the company’s growth levers and take ACTION!
Have a terrific weekend and thank you for all of your great work driving our many Innovations for Active Healing! Our physicians and patients are counting on us!
You are making a difference!
Regards,
Ken