Executives from Stryker, Smith+Nephew and Medtronic spoke about mergers and acquisitions and strategy at a virtual panel for this year's Musculoskeletal New Ventures Conference in October, according to a Dec. 4 report by the Memphis Business Journal.
The panelists were: John Speer, senior director of business development and strategy at Stryker; Eric Heinz, director, business development at Smith and Nephew; and Kip Roberts, senior directors, strategy and business development at Medtronic.
Here are three key takeaways from the discussion:
On advice for early stage companies and how they interact with large strategics: "...It's incredibly important to start those conversations early," Mr. Roberts said "I've seen many startups or early stage companies begin to approach strategics as they're approaching or see a cash crunch coming into the future. And, they feel that sense of urgency to shore up their capital position so they're operating on a tight timeline. … The reality is, we are very large complex organizations. We would like to move the decision making a lot faster but it takes time."
On big companies investing in medical technology: "I’d say a long-term trend," Mr. Speer said. "At some point, the boundary between what they do and what companies like the three of us do will start to become clearer. Right now, it's fuzzy."
On where their companies stand in robotics: "I think the NAVIO Surgical System was our first inning at Smith & Nephew [we] are now in the second inning with the CORI [Surgical System]. So, we have a pretty good runway ahead of us. It's going to be exciting to see what happens."
Read the full discussion here.