I have been thinking about writing this post for a while but hoped that by now some things would have changed for the better, but they have not. I have been in the industry for years, my entire career actually which spans over 2 decades. I have worked for small start ups and been with MDT for half of my career now. When I came to MDT we were still at the top in regards to quality and product innovation. Unfortunately around that same time Omar Ishrak came on the scene and it has been nothing but downhill ever since. Omar brought with him the ideas generated by GE and his mentor, Jack Welch. Omar also put all his chips on Hillary winning and Corp taxes stating high in the US, he was dead wrong on both. If you want to look at the future of MDT just look at the last 2 decades of GE.
Omar took all of the profits and plowed them into earnings not into R and D, Medtronic is now faced with the hangover of this gluttonous endeavor. MDT and Geoff Martha have decided that it’s time to be a growth company again. Again, our leaders are wrong…we are far from a growth company and in some divisions we are actually looking at a decade of decline both in surgical reimbursements and in surgical volumes.
MDT has reduced clinical support, outsourced customer service to such places as India and Costa Rica, manufacturing to 3rd world countries, and payroll to a 3rd party. We have more FDA federal corrective actions than the next largest 3 med device companies combined, take a look at the 2 articles that the Minneapolis Star Tribune did towards the end of 2022. The Dominican experiment has officially failed Geoff, you know it, the board knows it, and according to our stock price the street knows it.
If you are thinking that MDT is anything like it was even 6-7 years ago, it is not. If you are a young person who is thinking about getting into Med Device, I would not. This industry in general is falling apart due to horrific leadership among the big 4 and a broken health care system that will ultimately end in Medicare for all.
Geoff Martha is a truly horrible leader. I guess it’s not his fault, it’s seems like he has been told his whole life how good he is at hockey and how handsome he looks in his Christmas sport jackets. Unfortunately we need real men and women of industry to correct the decisions made by a few that have affected the many.
The benefits for those coming in today are no better than what a manager at a local Kroger gets and in some cases worse. Our car reimbursement is laughable, $450/mo plus a pittance per mile is so bad that even Motus will tell you we are in the bottom quartile for what they pay out to other companies field personnel. If you don’t believe me please call Motus yourself, I did and I was shocked when the person laughed when he looked at what we get reimbursed.
Pensions, yeah those ended a while back for any new employees. Last year our 401k match was .66 on the dollar, like I said Kroger managers get more. Healthcare, well, not great either. We have been driven to mediocrity.
Obviously I am looking to leave MDT as soon as possible and hope that all of the talented folks I work with can do the same. We are in very dark times here, and the light that we are seeing is not the light at the end of the tunnel but the light from a train getting ready to run us over.
Oh and Intersect is truly horrible. Thanks Brett Wall you egotistical fu-k for flushing over a billion down for this trash.