The medical device industry has been confronted with many uncertainties in the last few years with intense scrutiny given to the cost of health care, unknown effects of legislation and the general reluctance from the investment community to fund for early stage firms.
Nonetheless, what has been certain is that subject matter experts and executives with essential skills continue to remain in short supply for those firms that urgently need them.
Should you be in need of executives with expertise in the sphere of the medical device field and you require an executive search firm that will understand your distinctive needs, your market and the goals you are trying to attain, the following client case may be of interest to you.
Recently the leadership of an emerging pre—IPO firm was confronted with a dilemma. The CEO had been successful in raising funds in spite of somewhat difficult economic environment. For the next 1-2 years the company had operating capital. The development timetable for their Class III implantable device products had been dealt a major setback.
Clinical trials for their marquee product were showing less than favorable results and unforeseen effects. Product modifications were being contemplated and an action plan for integrating the recent clinical test data into a new design was being formed. Materials could be at the root cause. Possibly product biocompatibility needed to be re-examined. Any number of factors is now on the table to be considered for change. What became clear was that reliability and safety was not at all acceptable.
The costs of design changes at this stage of the product life cycle would be considerable. The ensuing FDA resubmission and documentation was going to be expensive as well.
Concurrently, a competitor developing a similar device dealing with their own capital challenges had just announced that they have been acquired by one of the major public firms. Now armed with the financial resources to go the distance in the race to capture market share their primary competitor has become substantially more formidable. Now it becomes imperative to accelerate the advance of the clinical and get their core technology approved for sale.
The core management team meets and reviews all of the factors that have led to this situation. A detailed investigation reveals that tough decisions need to be confronted. One of the original company founders currently runs R&D and product development. A genius for new ideas, a prolific inventor and a credible representative with the physician community, he is an invaluable member of the company.
However, a structured approach to product design is not his strongest attribute. Rather, he comes from the old school of the trial-and-error approach to device development. In another time or different context this might be appropriate but time and funding are not infinity available and the risk of losing what has taken a long time to build may be in jeopardy. It may be a better application of his talents to be redeployed as a high-level technical advisor and consider new R&D direction.
Considering the entire range of options one pathway could bring in a third-party design firm and turn a portion if not all of the problem over to them. A viable alternative, but it could get expensive and very time consuming. This looks attractive, but may not be the most acceptable long-term solution.
Another proposal suggested hiring independent consultant to trouble shoot the difficulties that led to the current results. Though the time to acclimate could be a factor, the investors did not want a consultant to leave suddenly after considerable time and financial investment had been made. The board did not feel comfortable putting their hard-won intellectual property at risk by placing it in the hands of an outsider who could leave at any time.
The decision ultimately was made to go to into the market and recruit a top level VP of R&D, who had experience bringing products to market, streamlining the development process and had subject matter expertise adept in the use of mathematical models to accelerate device development to minimize errors at the clinical stage. The management and the investors felt that recruiting a product development leader to join the senior executive team would represent the best long-term contribution to improving the equity of the company.
Moving forward the question then becomes next steps. Should they undertake an executive search of this stature in house? No potential candidates would appear to be available through board contacts or within executive team's network. Human Resources was not staffed or equipped to take an executive search of this type on as it would require considerable research and time consuming direct sourcing.Blueprinting the next round of financing, the CEO needed to be efficient with his time. Filtering scores of resumes would greatly dilute his attention to the job. Therefore, enlisting local staffing firms did not seem feasible since this could result in receiving a flood of marginally qualified candidates. The activity of monitoring resume submission conflicts alone could become another administrative job.
The board and management decided to retain the services of an executive search firm that can take ownership of the process and deliver timely and effective results in a professional and confidential manner. They agreed the firm should possess domain expertise in the medical device field; could research, recruit and assess elite candidates and be capable of presenting the company's opportunity in a compelling and persuasive manner to viable prospects. A big firm wouldn't do because of too many hands-off conflicts with existing medical device competitors precluding the recruitment of likely candidates.
Their choice became clear. They moved to engage a niche executive search firm—one possessed experience recruiting high level candidates in the medical device market, had strong research capabilities and state-of-the-art data mining tools; would professionally represent their opportunity and had the know how to motivate and persuade indifferent but qualified prospects to arrive at the table.
Selecting a recruitment firm which fits your organizational culture, that understands your distinct market environment and provide results in a timely way, can be invaluable. In the realm of professional services, bigger is not necessarily better and in some cases may be a hindrance. Hiring the task out to multiple firms only serves to overflow your inbox with resumes which only pushes the assessment task over to you.
If the selection process that this firm has gone through is important to you. We invite you to contact us online or call us at: 847-221-2744 to explore how we can be an asset to your organization.