CMF, the good and the bad??

So you miss Gennett, Coburn, Randazzo, Stoney and others. You've got to be kidding me. The good joke days Synthes sold itself. The products and quality were superior to anything out there. Having surgeons AO trained assured success in a territory. How about Gennetts Sims storage unit fiasco. Allowing consultants to actively handle inventory in an account. Remember the ceiling story?? Consultant was stuffing inventory up in the ceiling panels and thus creating new orders. The rep received all kinds of backslapping accolades at meetings for his driving the business. Being in the OR in the middle of the night doing cases allowed him access tdd o stuff inventory in the ceiling when nobody was around. Not until the Central Supply had some wiring issues to resolve did they find 4 years of plates, screws, Ex-Fix parts, extractors, specialty plates . You name it and it was up there. Yes the good ole days.

 

To be fair, Synthes never told reps to steal or participate in unethical activities to drive sales. Those actions fall upon poor choices made by dirty reps. Those actions happen in every company. Synthes was not perfect but was an amazing company before JnJ acquired them. Now, Synthes is a very mediocre company trying to get back to its dominating past. It won’t happen for a number of reasons with very poor leadership being at the top of the list.

 

Yeah man.

 

Horseshit! Gennett and his mafia endorsed and wink wink look the other way if your account ordered an extra 100k a year in inventory. Then the arrogance of Synthes managment stepped in when hospitals wanted to negotiate a contract and Synthes dared purchasing managers to go against the ortho docs. Lots of threats back and forth and as soon as competition got remotely close in quality they started dumping Synthes. This really came to a head in the late 90's. Of course the consultants took the hit and the pressure for management refusing to negotiate. Guys like Gennett would come in on these sessions and leave Materials Mangement seething . Can't tell you how many times Central Sterile Supply,OR, materials management would say first chance chance they get they would dump Synthes. In the late 80's and early 90's hospitals started doubling and tripling inventory in the trauma centers to keep up and consultants and Synthes made out like crazy. When J and J came in and overspent to buy the company and all of Hansjorgs shady dealings were starting to become public he sold company. This was after years of promising consultants profit sharing and stock options. ( never happened) . It eventually all came crashing down and J and J had no clue on how to run a trauma company. What a debacle.

 

I like CMF!

 

okay Gramps -- that was when Reagan and the first Bush were Presidents. any other bombshell complaints from back when Madonna and Michael Jackson were popular?

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oh snap. Reagan era throw down.

 

Yes...it all occurred during a time when Synthes was the leader in the field and talented hard working reps were employed there instead of the lazy millenial posers who are there now

 

J&J is learning a very valuable lesson as the bag holder of the biggest farce in orthopedics, maybe even the entire healthcare industry. Synthes was a sham of a company that used predatory sales tactics to systemically overcharge hospitals for essentially commodity products. Surgeons were brainwashed and used to fight to protect Synthes' monopolistic hold on hospitals that often spent 10X + of what was actually being used in surgery building colossal amounts of hospital owned inventory that kept them hooked on Synthes like crack. With no innovation and increasing competition coming from all directions, DePuy Synthes is pathetically playing the bundled lines game but they lose to Stryker head to head who have a better and more complete overall line. Synthes ignored extremities and now that Stryker owns Wright - Tornier, DePuy Synthes will become even less relevant in the future. The DePuy Synthes (non) leadership team doesn't have a clue. As margins continue to get hammered, J&J could very well pull the plug on orthopedics just like Bristol Myers did with Zimmer and Pfizer did with Howmedica. It's very expensive to operate an orthopedic company and the headwinds of socialized healthcare could remove any remaining profit incentive.

 

shut yer farty fartin mouth

 

No! you shut your farty mouth. CMF rules and our screws crush!!!!!!!!

 

Stryker, KLS has destroyed Synthes CMF which was once number 1. The Biomet rib fixation system crushes Synthes' tired rib fixation system. Trauma Managers were delegated to run CMF teams knowing nothing about the business and having no contacts. Nonsales management was promoted to sales managers. It is all a recipe for disaster for CMF.

 

Yeah we just were to many steps behind. I could never understand how a company that launched rib could lag so long on SD screws. A procedure that was a huge money maker. I made my monthly number at least 6 times because 3 or 4 rib cases rolled in during the last week of the month. Or how they could just not pick a lane? Distraction, maybe try here. 3D printed, let the others go after it. Neuro? Never change. KLS and Stryker always seemed to make things easy on their docs. JNJ just said we can’t do that.