As we look to finish 2010 strong, I want to convey my appreciation to all Company employees for their efforts during the year. All in all, we continue to make progress on our strategic initiatives in 2010 and create value for our shareholders. While we have accomplished a great deal in 2010, I want all of our employees to now focus on the new year and what we need to achieve in 2011.
Last week we held a meeting of 80 leaders from across the company. As a team, we identified our strategic initiatives for 2011. The Leadership team is aligned on these initiatives and what each of us needs to do to achieve them. With the Leadership team aligned, I now want to share with you our strategic initiatives for 2011 so you can begin to focus your efforts on achieving them as well.
The overriding initiative for Company in 2011 is to act as One Company. We have and will continue to evolve as a company. Yet we need to work in unison to achieve our strategic and “High Five” financial goals. Company is evolving from a holding company with businesses in many different markets to a pure play medical company. And this transformation requires us to evolve into an operating company. As an operating company, we need a better and closer working relationship between our medical and corporate organizations. These organizations must work together as One Company.
It’s easy to talk about becoming One Company. But this will require changing our behavior and structure and raising our level of accountability throughout the organization. Our meeting last week was a critical first step forward in this process where it was made clear to all of the participants what is expected from the Leadership team in 2011. They in turn will set expectations for their respective groups for 2011.
Our next strategic initiative is to improve quality in 2011. We have had too many quality concerns in 2010, and significant improvement in quality is expected in 2011. Quality is a company-wide issue and not just a challenge for our Global Operations and RA/QA teams. Improving quality means all of us communicate to our teams our commitment to follow procedures that insure our customers’ quality expectations are met.
We all need to be cognizant of the impact each of us have on quality. From our customer service departments to our shipping departments, we must focus on the customer. We want to gain our customers’ loyalty to Company because our products are of the highest quality. Therefore, 2011 starts with quality.
Our next strategic initiative for 2011 is to drive profitable sales growth across our portfolio. Our need to be internally focused over the last few years has resulted in sales growth below expectations. With many of our internal challenges behind us, we can now shift our focus and resources on driving profitable sales growth. We have set the “High Five” financial goals, and we need to make progress in attaining these in 2011. I am confident that many of the investments we have made in sales, marketing and R&D will get us closer to these financial goals and will begin to show a return for our investors in 2011.
Another important strategic initiative for 2011 is to create innovative products which meet the needs of our customers. It is nice to see the many new products that have come from R&D in 2010. But we need more innovation and more products that we bring to market faster. During last week’s meeting, the Leadership team committed to using the “Voice of the Customer” (VOC) to identify unmet needs that can make a difference in patients’ care.
Company has evolved from a component supplier to a kit supplier to a solutions provider for our customers. Our focus on infection prevention with both products and clinical education means that we are now selling services, not just products. These services create a different value proposition for our customers. Supplying them with products and services creates a level of customer loyalty that will make it difficult for our competitors to compete against us. We must, however, continue to raise the innovation bar to provide more solutions for our customers’ needs.
And the initiative that is key to achieving all the others in 2011 is maintaining a dedicated workforce who understands the direction of Company and their impact on Company’s ability to succeed. I remain very impressed with the skills and commitment that are displayed everyday at Company. The passion that our employees bring to work everyday will help us to achieve our stated goals. But we must insure that we are all working together to achieve our goals. Again, thinking and acting as One Company will help us accelerate our forward progress.
We can all be proud of our many accomplishments in 2010. As we set our focus on 2011, we need to take the next steps to becoming a world class leader in the medical device field. I want to again thank all of you for what you have given to making Company what it is today. As we continue to grow and evolve as a company, our best days are still ahead of us!
I hope that you have a safe and happy holiday season with your families.
This is one great speech delivered by one anonymous president of a company.Thanks John for this altered article.