Don’t Talk about Great CX Culture if You Don’t Know MED

Quelle: eglobalis.com

Medtronic, the Human Experience & Innovation Giant

Recently, my insulin pump – which injects insulin in 24/7 mode – had a problem, after approximately 10 years of working perfectly. I believe the problem was related to the COVID-19 prevention procedures we adopted in our house and the constant cleaning of my pump with alcohol and disinfectant. The coil that injects the insulin pressed against the wall of the pump and opened it, as you can see in this photo. It could become a nightmare for any diabetic to have an issue like that with a pump, since your life depends on insulin.

The pump is made by Medtronic, a medical technology company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s the largest medical device company in the world. I was initially worried about whether the company would meet their decades-long high standard of commitment and dedication toward their customers. From the top executives down, since Medtronic was founded, they have delivered the best customer and employee experiences in the world. The founders of the company – Mr. Earl Bakken and Mr. Palmer Hermundslie (both now deceased) – started off with the right culture. All of the ensuing CEOs, including the new CEO, Geoffrey S. Martha, have kept all the fundamentals based on the founders’ defined mission.

That’s what makes Medtronic stand out from other brands. They have never failed me, and this holds true for many customers I know. In the U.S., it often happens that there are limitations due to the country’s complex and inefficient healthcare system, so people mistakenly attribute the U.S. system’s limitations to Medtronic. It is important to note that Medtronic is the same company that acted very altruistically to open-source its ventilator design during the pandemic, as written about here.

Customer Experience, Starting with a Mission

While many in the CX field like to talk about Amazon, Apple, and Starbucks, the company I am writing about is often overlooked because it is 100% focused on health and medical devices, which are less sexy. As a Type 1 (T1) diabetic, I am very familiar with the medical devices industry and its leaders. Below are some of the key clauses in Medtronic’s 6-part mission statement:

• Part 1: “To contribute to human welfare by application of biomedical engineering in the research, design, manufacture, and sale of instruments or appliances that alleviate pain, restore health, and extend life.”
• Part 3: “To strive without reserve for the greatest possible reliability and quality in our products; to be the unsurpassed standard of comparison and to be recognized as a company of dedication, honesty, integrity, and service.”
• Part 5: “To recognize the personal worth of all employees by providing an employment framework that allows personal satisfaction in work accomplished, security, advancement opportunity, and means to share in the company’s success.”

The above-mentioned parts are the ones focused on Customer and Employee Experience. Additionally, as I learned from conversations I had with some of Medtronic’s executives (when writing the first version of my book that will be published next year), they do not prioritize revenue generation over customer needs. In C-suite board meetings, they always balance customer needs with company needs. Not everything is about revenue – although revenue is obviously the result of the company’s consistently great work, its customer centricity, and its focus on enhancements in their product lines. Medtronic also has something that very few companies have: a vision that was defined by the founders in the 1960s – called the “100-year plan” – which showed all the areas of the human body where electrical implants could enable healing from chronic disease. Sixty years later, with $30 billion in annual revenue, Medtronic remains focused on the original founders’ vision.

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