Is this the end?

Anyone else take note of the mass exodus of in-house staff in recent weeks? Most of marketing is gone and lots more are moving on from training, customer solutions, regulatory and customer solutions. What’s going on? To see longtime employees with the company for 10+ years heading for the exits, in these numbers, should be cause for alarm. Surprised management has not made a statement as there sure are more than a few rumors circulating around my territory. Wonder when the owner is going to take notice that his cash cow is in dire straits. Or perhaps this is intentional slimming in advance of a sale.

 

Commission cuts, expense freezes that persist despite record setting sales, unrealistic EAs, "slimming" of headcount - what do you think?

 

Relax, everything is fine. They are just making some room for new additions.

 

Oh, you mean more "friends" from BSC? The boat is kind of top heavy already, how many more VPs can it endure before she capsizes?

 

If it’s the Disney Cruise Ship it can hold many more VPs...c’mon over!!!

 

That is funny

 

They already did this drill with St Jude VP’s and then got rid of them all

 

Is this the end for BTK??? People have been calling for the end of BTK in the United States for 20+ years... I doubt it is the end as they are ramping up vascular and neuromodulation in the states as we speak but who knows. At some point, Max has to realize that without a full CRM/EP line there is zero leverage within contract negotiations with the larger hospital systems which are getting bigger and more powerful by the day. The opportunities for BTK to go into smaller hospital groups and indpendent hospitals to make a splash with pricing and relationships are dwindling.

Every 3-5 years, BTK seems to go through an entire management shuffle. Obviously, RW is putting his thumbprint on the BTK landscape. It it working? Who knows. There are some managers out there that really have no clue.

As for the mass exodus.... There are/were a lot of people that birthed BTK from nothing in Lake Oswego. Their roles included everything... inventory, clinical studies/research, product management, etc.. They were loyal and tight knit. BTK, as a company, does not offer much more than average healthcare and a 401k plan. Currently, there are a lot of EP and heart failure companies out there. Many of which with previous BTK employees in leadership positions that value the skills and knowledge that many of the current and former BTK folks bring to the table. These companies are offering better pay and benefits with a culture that values them.

Add all of this up and yes..... BTK continues to be a cash cow for Max, for now, but flounders mightily in the US market.

 

Max is a great leader!! Who are you to call him out? People work at Biotronik because they want to help patients. Other companies don’t do that...

 

Please... please show us where the poster that you are calling out said anything negative about Max? They are stating a fact.... BTK USA is a cash cow. It is but how long can it sustain itself as margins get tighter, overhead goes up, the price to play in the states gets more expensive and their overall market share has never dipped into double digits?

Also, do not put BTK on a pedastal and say that they are the only CRM, EP and/or IC company that cares about patients. You must take your head out of the kool-aid bowl from time-to-time.

 

This one time at band camp

 

Bio is the only company that cares about patients as they donate so much product to people in need

 

All companies donate product. But not all companies are facing whistle blower lawsuits which talk about donating that product in a criminal way.
Just saying.

Biotronik is good at lawsuits though. They know how to settle them.

 

Commenting on your own posts again?

Me thinks law firms are hired to be “good at lawsuits” and defend/settle on behalf of the crooks (while running up millions in fees). Who’s defending the Junk this turn? Great job on scoring the gig! Bill as much as you can $$$!

 

Looks like the whistleblower case has 100% merit and validity. 486 pages of proof is hard to deny.

 

You have proven nothing...

 

first time I commented on this thread. But go ahead and think only one BINC troll exists. I read the whole refile. Doesn’t look good for that rep or BINC. That rep should go to jail. Creating clinics and monitoring patients and billing Medicare without md license. Oops. Looks like Bio knew about it. Didn’t care. Revenue.
As far as Max. What does he care. Lake Oswego is a distributor. They buy all the devices from him. He doesn’t care if they lose money. It’s separate

 

Max cares about patients, not his distributorship...

 

Is this the end??? No, It is not the end. However, certain facts must be acknowledged....


1) BTK is a player in a 5 player CRM market. Sorin is essentially non-existent and BTK is in the #4 position wayyyyyyy behind #3 and the market leaders fart more into R&D then BTK makes in and entire year in revenue.


2) Without a full portfolio that includes vascular (yeah…… I know, they have a stent), a full line of EP (yeah……. I know, they have a marketing agreement with Acutus in Europe which doesn’t amount to a wet dream in the states) and even Neuromodulation (YES……. I know, they have a few folks that carry around business cards with Neuromodulation somewhere on the card) but all of this ends up meaning NOTHING. BTK is a pacemaker/ICD company with absolutely ZERO contract leverage to bring to the table with the larger national GPO’s and IDNs.


3) Does BTK have a solid CRM bag? Yes…. Yes, they do but that will not get them anywhere without the items listed in #2.


4) Do people (customers) believe in BTK? Sure, some do. Some do, in fact, see benefit in some of their technologies and rightfully so….. DX (If MDT had this, they would absolutely OWN the single chamber ICD market) and CLS (for a certain patient population is beneficial). But….. NONE of this amounts to a hill of beans at the end of the day.


5) Do customer believe/trust BTK’s management? Absolutely…… NO. Why? It changes every 3-5 years. Every 3-5 years, a new ‘savior’ is given a high-ranking title to right the ship and take BTK to the next level. They soon realize that it isn’t as easy as they thought. They place their own cronies into leadership positions and within 5 years or so it all falls apart and Max gets impatient and then a new team comes in. This scenario has played out for about 20-30 years now.


So, is this the end for BTK? No, it is not but expectations have to be realistic. Competitors AND the healthcare market will not give them the wiggle room to be anything more than a single digit market share player.


Is there anything wrong with that? I don’t know, it’s not for me to answer.