Stryker Communications - BS division or good opportunity

Is this division worth looking into? A recruiter called me and I was wondering if it was a good division...I'm in capital now, so not sure if moving to another long ass sales cycle is worth discussing if the division and products aren't top notch. Thanks in advance for the feedback.

 

Any info? I would like this answer also.

 

I worked in the comm div for 2 years. Very high turn-over. With that being said, it's not a bad resume builder if you can tough it out for a couple years or if you get blessed with a great patch. IMO, if you are already in Med sales I would not make a move to Stryker.

 

I worked for Stryker Communications as well. The previous poster is correct on this division. A few things that I would point out:

Pros:
1.) Having Stryker on your resume . . . if you have no expierience

Cons:
1.) Huge management turnover . . . replaced incompetent management with more incompetent management.
2.) Products are marginal at best . . . none of the current products that they offer are "best in class" in thier category.
3.) You are the step child to the Endoscopy division which is not a good thing.
4.) The vast majority of the communications product line is not manufactured or developed by Stryker, but merely products that Stryker buys, slaps their name on and a hefty increase in cost as well. This is dangerous toward future growth and your success as a sales rep for a few reasons:
a.) competitively they are at a disadvantage
b.) as fast as they bring that product to market, they can discontinue it as well with little damage to their bottomline
c.) this demonstrates that in the communications division the company lacks very little intellectual knowledge which means future innovations should be a concern.

There are better opportunities out there.

 

last post was insightful.....

Who does manufacture Strykers OR stuff? Also, who is the main competition in this space?
I was told that Stryker is the only company to offer a whole suite - only "one-stop-shop" in this arena. If that is the case, are they priced at a premium?

 

Let me answer your questions:

Who does manufacture Strykers OR stuff? Stryker uses varying manufactures. For the equipment booms and flat panel arm it is Ondal out of Germany. The Ondal arms are average at best, and the leaders all build their own. The lightheads are manufactured by a manufacturer in Germany. The surgical table . . . that line got dropped. The integration is a mix of "off the shelf" commercial products and some OEM components. You will find it dificult to follow this with Stryker, they change manufactuerers alot when pricing becones a concern. That is why some divisions have a sudden rash of problems with certain products.

Main Competition:
The main competition is 2 fold: In booms and lights it is Berchtold,Trumpf, Steris, Skytron . . . in that order. In integration is primarily 2 companies Storz, Olympus and Black Diamond.

One company . . . one solution?
This is a great marketing strategy! But nothing more. Stryker is superior from a marketing standpoint, its just sad that the rest of their organization does not keep up. There are 2 problems with this approach: 1.) Service- service is being touted as one of the advantages to the "one" solution approach. However, once Stryker has all of your business, they now will attack you for service contracts. On top of that they profess to have all of these Stryker people in your hospitals surgery department on a daily basis . . . however none of the sales reps knows their counterparts equipment any better than I know how to fly to the moon. This results in lack of problem ownership and continual blame for problems between the endoscopy sales rep and the communications rep. 2.) Product quality- 'one company solution" does not mean anything if your products are not "best in class" or atleast close. There are several major flaws that have been exposed in this approach:
1.) One solution ties you to mediocre equiipment for the sake of working with one company
2.)Your technology is only as good as that company in whole. Who do you think Stryker considers when upgrading/changing their equipment . . . their own. Once you decided on Strykers platform, you need to accept that any product advances or changes are tied to their equipment. What happens when you change . . . which inevitably happens. Ask some customers that have went through this and they will tell you the horror stories of service and expense.

Priced at a premium- YES, they are premium priced, but in this case that does not translate to premium quality or superior technology.

Bottomline . . . in capital choose a company that offers a "best in class" approach rather than trying to be all things to all people.

Last, notice that you will see few, if any, positive responses to your thread. Stryker people read these threads all the time. The reason for the small amount of responses is because Stryker people know these points to be true. This should tell you whether there is any confidence in this division.

Mr. Insightful

 

What are the "better opportunities" if you are in dental and want to cross over to medical? Most companies won't look at you unless you have "experience". Just wondering where might be a better place that either has a small base + good commissions or a good draw? Is Stryker the only commission only place to start? All suggestions appreciated.

thanks

 

Correction: My experience is capital equipment experience in dental...lasers and equipment like Piezosurgery etc...just wanted to get that straight

 

They won't ire you with dental experience. They are stuck in their ways...capital and hospital.

 

Piezosurgery is not capital equipment even though Ken Hasty wishes it was. It is device sales

 

Any changes in this division since these posts from 2010? Wondering what the scoop would be on an opportunity in this division these days?

Is High Turnover, and low quality products really the norm?
What is the projected income for an average territory?

Thanks for any legitimate feedback...

 

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They are still suffering from the same problems. The incompetent management issues mentioned earlier are much worse. Their current tech support manager was imported from HR with no technical experience at all. The director of the entire integration branch was promoted from the warehouse. All of the B&L products are still purchased from 3rd party suppliers. The video stuff is claimed to be "home grown", but it is actually manufactured by a 3rd party who follows dated schematics generated years ago by contract workers. The division definitely has potential but I would caution agains a jump until they get their management structure figured out.

 

You aren't far off on the management issues. B&L are evolving. The video stuff has always been home grown. So what if they used expert contract workers to get the initial designs done ? There is still plenty of expertise in-house that understands how the stuff works. I'm also not sure why it matters if the outsource the manufacturing of the circuit boards. Most companies do this. Actual final assembly, testing, and shipping is done by Stryker.

If they would just let Comm be its own division and maybe rename it because the name no longer fits and put some strong management in place it would be a good long term place to work.

 

Management is an overall problem for Stryker, especially sales managers. The strongest are let go because they are too tough--just ask HR. The deadwood stays because they don't make waves with the lazy sales reps.

 

You wanna join a college frat house or be back in highschool fully equipped with jocks and rah rah cheerleader types then it's a great place. Seriously...if that sounds all right then you will get along great and could have a nice career there. If you have any sort of spine or independent thought then it will not be a good fit

 

Good division with good products - Market Leader. Products weren't that great to begin with. Comm division isn't like other divisions as far as that Jock personality.

 

Stryker just acquired Berchtold who sells surgical lighting, Booms, and surgical tables. Will be interesting to see if they continue the with Berchtold lights and booms, or just keep the surgical table division.

 

If you can tell lies with a straight face, I think you have a chance at Stryker