Illustrator Dennis Balogh

Print E-mail |

William Hawkins

How do you build your brand’s reputation?

Nearly every new Medtronic Inc. (MDT) employee hears the story straight from the chairman and CEO himself: how in 2007, three months after William A. Hawkins became CEO, the medical technology company voluntarily recalled one of its most popular products, a defibrillator lead. “The problem was not black and white,” recalls Hawkins, 56. “A lot of people questioned why we would recall a life-saving product that had such an impact on Medtronic’s bottom line. But it did not meet our quality standards.” That move, says Hawkins, boosted the company’s reputation with doctors and patients in a way that advertising or executive platitudes never could have.

This anecdote is related at the company’s Mission Medallion ceremony, which each new employee must attend. The silver medallion that each employee receives as a reminder of his or her responsibility to fulfill the company mission is engraved with the words “When life depends on medical technology” on one side and “Contributing to human welfare by the application of biomedical engineering to alleviate pain, restore health and extend life” on the other.

As an innovator of implantable medical technologies, such as coronary stents, defibrillators and pacemakers, insulin pumps, and neurostimulators that control pain and movement disorders, Medtronic follows what Hawkins calls a “bedside to bench to bedside” method in which its engineers work shoulder-to-shoulder with medical doctors. Such collaboration, says the CEO, requires trust. “We’ve worked hard to let medical clinicians know we’re a good company to work with if they have an idea they want to pursue,” says Hawkins. “They see we have the means to invest and to successfully distribute products around the world. You get that kind of reputation by earning it.” — Sharon Kahn