Cheetah Speed

COVER STORY

Early in its growth, NuVasive realized that it would take more than innovative surgical tools and techniques to transform the company from a niche player into an industry leader. Executives at NuVasive understood that, beyond offering the best products, medical device companies have to be extremely responsive to the demands of the hospitals and surgeons that rely upon their tools.

With this in mind, NuVasive developed a corporate culture around the trademarked theme of 'Absolute Responsiveness' at 'cheetah speed.' The objective was twofold: bring new products to market faster than the competition, and provide the utmost in service to the company's customers.

"The underlying theme is speed," says NuVasive CEO Alexis Lukianov. "Everything is speed. How fast can you get it done, how fast can you get a new product to market, and how quickly can you get back to the customer?"

Signs that the strategy is working have been apparent over the past several years, but were especially evident during 2006. During that year, NuVasive generated total annual revenues of $98.1 million, representing a year-over-year increase of 57%. Further, the company launched nine new products, and was able to initiate enrollment for its NeoDisc clinical trial ahead of schedule.

The company also surpassed its goals for training surgeons and developing an exclusive sales force focused solely on NuVasive's spine surgery products. During 2006, NuVasive trained more than 500 surgeons on its maximum access surgery (MAS) platform and grew its sales department to more than 200 professionals.

NuVasive has also built its culture of responsiveness into its customer service offerings, with the belief that superior service is the difference between sustained growth and a promising device that sees little adoption. "We sell to hospitals, but we market to spine surgeons," Lukianov says. "Surgeons want things done very quickly. It's immediate just because of the nature of their business." According to Lukianov, NuVasive is the only orthopedic spine company that turns around prototypes for surgeons in a matter of days and delivers true 24-7 availability to surgeons.

To ensure that responsiveness is at the core of each employee's daily work, NuVasive relies on a balanced scorecard that measures individual performance against the company's goals. The objective is to create an unambiguous vision of NuVasive's values and to ensure that each employee is clear on what he or she must do to be successful.

"What we are most clear about at our company has to do with Absolute Responsiveness at cheetah speed," says Lukianov. "Everybody in this company is completely clear on what that means."

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