What is it like to be at the top?
Peter Nicholas, co-founder and chair of the board of Boston Scientific Corporation, discussed this question in his keynote address at Wednesday's Entrepreneurship in Health Care Conference.
The conference, organized by students at the Fuqua School of Business, featured guest speakers and panels that addressed questions and concerns facing entrepreneurs in the health care industry.
Nicholas, former chair of the Duke Board of Trustees and major University donor, reflected on the success of Boston Scientific, a medical supply company he co-founded in 1979 with 58 employees that is now the world's largest medical device company dedicated to less invasive therapies.
The corporation earned more than $5.6 billion in 2004.
Nicholas discussed the various successes and challenges Boston Scientific has endured since he co-founded the company after leaving a post at the Millipore Corporation. He stressed the importance of good relations with associates.
"It's not only liking the people, it's having a strategy for partnership," Nicholas said. "Once you rise, you need an understanding of how things are going to work out."
Boston Scientific first made its mark about a decade ago after a major investment of its resources in the development of the now famed Taxus Express coronary artery stents-tiny devices inserted in arteries to hold them open and allow blood to flow through the vessel.
The investment almost immediately placed Boston Scientific among the likes of Johnson & Johnson as a supplier of medical tools.
Nicholas described success as a "mixed blessing," stressing that top sales in a single day do not guarantee a company's long-term sustainability.
"You have an incredible increase, and what will you do next?" he asked. "We're having standards applied to us that we can't meet, you're being viewed by the market as a melting ice cream cone."
Even after sales of stents garnered his company billions of dollars of revenue, Nicholas noted that the company did not establish clear enough communication with its former chief supplier, Medinol, Ltd.-an Israeli company Nicholas said had different priorities than those of Boston Scientific.
"When you put money as your sole focus, your company falls apart, and your business fails," Nicholas explained.
Boston Scientific faced a publicized conclusion to a 10-year contract with Medinol after a legal settlement formally dissolved the partnership in September.
Despite challenges, Boston Scientific remains a top marketer of various medical devices, as hospitals continue to favor less invasive procedures.
Nicholas attributed Boston Scientific's success in part to "the times" in which the company made certain relations-based decisions.
"The same way you invest in sales, partnerships are just as valuable to build up strength," he said.
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