Monday, June 7, 2010

Mike DeMane Assumes Leadership Role at LANX

Mike DeMane was named the Chairman and CEO of LANX. Mike brings a distinguished track record to LANX. Formerly the COO, at Medtronic, the Evil Empire Danek (MEED), Mike was solely responsible in building one of the largest global spinal franchises during his tenure at MEED.

Lanx impressive portfolio is made up of numerous "me too" products along with their flagship product, the ASPEN. Fortunately, they are backed by numerous investors which should help Mike develop a strategic plan in executing and taking the company to the next level. Some of Mike's challenges will be to develop the business distribution model with younger direct sales reps. This model may weigh in on the investors patience, considering that it will take more time to ramp up sales in other product segments. If ASPEN accounts for more than 60% of revenue, it will take time, consulting contracts, and realistic expectations as to the time it will take to elevate this company to the next level.

The biggest challenge will be overcoming a reputation within the industry that this is a half-assed operation. Product innovation will not come from Mike, it will come from a creative and experienced research and development team. In closing we wish Mike well and suggest that he not surround himself with all his former MEED friends. It will take out of the box thinking in the current economic and healthcare environment for this company to really thrive. Good Night and Good Luck Mike!

46 comments:

  1. Mm man--Did you previously work for Medtronic and get canned? Or interview and get passed over for a position? The bitterness you have for "MEED" is hilarious! Where does your anger stem from?

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  2. LANX's impressive portfolio? MM, Are you on crack? I swear the double talk that comes from your mouth is at times unbearable.

    If a company is a "me too" in the past you've done nothing but criticize. Now all of a sudden LANX is impressive?

    Get a grip and stay consistent.

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  3. This company has turned over upper management as much as most people change underwear!

    This is just one more step in the game of trying to hold on till the economy gets back on its feet, then sell or go public, make a few people money and then it and ALL the invested docs will go away!

    The longer they wait for others to release an ASPEN / Spire plate design product, they will have nothing.

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  4. Anonymous 7:18: How do you know whether I am angry or bitter? Did you ever think this is part of my writing style, just like a follower has a moniker, MSD's is TEE?

    Anonymous 7:39: Did you really know what I meant by "impressive?" In one breath I say "impressive," and then I write that their portfolio is made up of "me too" products. Would that be a contradiction?

    And the winner is Anonymous 10:21: Thank You for shedding some real light on the real situation that exists at this company. Goldman Sachs or no Goldman Sachs these boys aren't going anywhere.

    In the future, read what I write, not what you think I am writing. Thanks for your feedback and when you run into Mike, let him know that he was "solely" responsible for MSD's success.

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  5. You guys are all flip floppers. Fact is Mike is a strong hire and the other fact is that they are never going to be a top 5 spine company but do they have enough to pass the companies like Globus and Trans1? I would say with the headway they have made thus far. YES. So talk your crap about whatever you would like, but bottomline for you business rookies, upper management is going to have to change when you are backed by VC's. Dr. Mike Fulton cant control that, the board tells him what to do to make the right moves to go public, and thats what he does. To think that Lanx can go out and get a guy like Mike should show that they are at least trying to take things to the next level and most the people on here that bad mouth all the other companies are salesmen, so take everything you read with a grain of salt. Lanx is not the problem with the spine industry its the mom and pops organizations who think they can buy business with a pedicle screw system. Bring something innovative to the market and show that you can have a salesforce that can drive new products business and the rest will come. I dont care if you carry SpineArt or Medtronic, ITS ALL ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIPS MY FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!!!!! So dont hide behind you company name and live by talking bad about other companys and go do your job and be a CONSULTANT!

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  6. Lanx is desperate. They have hung their hat on the fact they were to go public, or launch an IPO every year for the past five years. "Dr. Fulton", who yes, graduated from medical school, but suspiciously left his neuro residency to get into the business world has no experience scaling a business. His residency pal, Jeff Tramann, a now non-practicing neurosurgeon has always controlled the company.

    Jeff has his hands in so many surgeon invested entities, besides his globe trotting marathons he participates inthat he evidently has tired of pressure to replace Fulton.

    A company with one "innovative" product are they. Good luck...Whoever said that doctors made good business people?

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  7. Ya'll sure talk a lot about Michael like you know him ..... 2 things.

    1) Anyone who knows Michael would NEVER call him Mike and....

    2) Anyone who knows Danek, Sofamor Danek or MSD would NEVER characterize Michael as being "Solely" responsible for biulding the franchise. Michael would be the first to admit it was a team effort.

    Signed..... FOM (friend of Michael)

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  8. 8:07 is right. I was shocked to read this. Michael is an extremely impressive guy and was a great leader at MSD. He has tremendous ability to work with customers and internal folks alike. I have no idea why an organization such as Lanx caught his attention, but the true winners here are Lanx investors. As much as i think Lanx is an also ran, this was an impressive feat for them to pull off. they must have given him half the company....

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  9. @ 6:43
    You think Lanx is going to pass Globus?!?! Good luck!

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  10. 9:46, And there's the token comment from the Globus rep! Thanks for chiming in!

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  11. this is a great case study.

    many people (including me) believe that demaine was atthe right place at the right time to harvest the benefits of the multi billion market in fusion before 100 other competitors. danek predecessors created this, not demaine


    At the same time lanx is as dysfunctional lindsey lohan (but without the assets). If he makes this happen then he is awesome.

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  12. DeMane is a talented and proven leader in the spinal/ortho industry. I'm surprised he ended up at a small company like Lanx after previously being the #2 guy in all of Medtronic. That being said, I'm sure the folks at Medtronic Spine and their surgeon customers would have loved to have his leadership back right now.

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  13. I can't believe you would sell Lanx as impressive when they are hanging their hat on what you called a "flagship" product in Aspen! It is neither impressive or innovative. In today's market they will need something "game changing" to garner any real attention and be differentiated. You lose some street cred by saying aything other than DeMane is a good hire

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  14. Lanx certainly must have given Mike a hefty ransom to come aboard. There were rumors around MDT that DeMane was in fact next in line to take over for Art Colins and the Hawkins move surprised a number of people.

    I do agree that there were a number of contributing factors to the success of MSD but Mike was an integral part of that.

    There does seem to be a bit of a bitterness behind MM's words much to his objections.

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  15. News Flash - nobody has anything innovative in spine anymore.

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  16. If it's unbearable, don't read what is posted. Remember, IT"S A BLOG. Besides don't jump off of any buildings because of me.

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  17. MM, once again, exactly. You would think that a few of the idiots on here are confusing TSB with WSJ or NYT. It's a blog and a good one at that.

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  18. MM, I think some of the readers of your blog have a difficult time understanding that you are writing comments with your proverbial "tongue in cheek" Keep your "pimp hand strong" MM and maybe someday they will learn something!

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  19. At what point exactly did Lanx seemingly rise above their mom and pop shop status? Oh that's right, they didn't... carry on!!

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  20. yeah everyone hates Globus. Lanx is no mom and pop more like aunt and uncle. We shall see but Aspen has made a strong push thats for sure.

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  21. It will be interesting to see how Michael reacts when he finds out that many of their top surgeons (CO) have their PA's on the payroll.

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  22. He'll do what his former employer did, pay a fine and promise to post the amount of money that LANX is paying its surgeons to use its product.

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  23. Not sure what Michael brings to Lanx???? I know that he comes with an impressive resume, but I scratch my head and ask is Lanx the best alternative that he can come up with, with his past resume. I'm hearing that two other companies have come out with an exact Aspen kncok off due to patent pending only technology so Michael must really have some insight to the future of Lanx and it must be bright for him to come on board.

    Aspen is a great product and has its place and will continue, after that, Lanx is very very thin.

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  24. I just heard that Michael has already resigned from Lanx WTF?

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  25. Rumor mill says he may have resigned today? What could this signal about what is going on at Lanx??

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  26. It is Michael Fulton who has resigned from Lanx, hold on to your hats things are about to get very interesting!

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  27. So DeMane & the board have pushed Dr. Fulton out of the picture with a scummy back door deal. So be it. They are not taking into account the loyalty factor & respect that Dr. Fulton has from his co-workers, & surgeons using Lanx product. I can't wait to watch this entire thing unfold, clearly this is only the beginning. The greedy ones want their money out of this deal, & will stop at nothing to get it. Say what you will about Lanx, some of it justified, but also say that Dr. Fulton is an honest, & honorable man who will always be respected by those who were with him during Lanx's early, exponetial growth phase. One has to wonder just how unethical this DeMane character is, & how far he will go to line his pockets with money that is the product of so many good peoples hard work at Lanx.

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  28. 3:37 hit the nail on the head. Thank you very much; well spoken.

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  29. Bad things at Lanx. If DeMane and the Board do this type of stuff I am sure many employees there may start to jump ship. It is hard to run and build a company if you have no employees. Loyal surgeons my stop buying as well. No customers - no sales. My guess is that DeMane doesn't care about this. He will sell the place out to someone who wants the Aspen then take his money and laugh all the way to the bank.

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  30. When DeMane came on at Lanx, he wouldn't elaborate about his management style, said we would see as time went on. Well, now we see Mikey, that you are a lying backstabber. Anyone who thinks that Dr. Fulton would walk away from a company that he BUILT, doesn't know him. Best guess is that they arready have a sellout in the works. Given what I've seen so far, don't be surprised if they pull a fast one to hose employees out of their option packages. H.R. at Lanx is most certainly going to have their hands full in the coming weeks. My only hope is that enough key people get out while they can, & make DeMane's & the boards life as miserable as possible while they try to sell out the last 7 years of our lives.

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  31. I see certain people on this blog hailing Michael DeMane as doing so much for Medtronic. He oversaw the largest scandle in Orhopedic history is what he did. This puts him in the same categories as leaders such as Berny Madoff, Ted Haggard, Kenneth Lay and so on. And after he got cuauht he got canned for it and Medtronic (Sofomor Danek) is doing no worse since his departure - good riddins. I'm glad I don't work at Lanx.

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  32. Nice thought 5:41, but not likely. When DeMane & the board pulled this stunt, they must have thought out a couple of different scenarios. The economy is too bad for people to be jumping ship, or is it? Certainly would serve DeMane & the board right to sweat a little before they pull whatever stunt they have planned. Don't count on any damage control from H. R. on this one either. The company changed for the worse on 6/25/10, & will never be the same again. We will miss you Dr. Fulton!

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  33. Now that this is getting interesting, listen up, all of you Lanx people. Lanx has been hiring ex Medtronic people in key positions for over 3 years now. Mike Fulton got played like a stratovarious. Michael DeMane was the final piece to the puzzle. What did you people think was going to happen when Goldman Sachs came on board, that they were patiently going to wait for their investment to pay off? Need I remind you that these are the same people who took 100's of millions in Federal Stimulus Money (aka taxes from the next 4 generations of Americans). Now all we can do is sit back & wait & hope that they will throw us a crumb or two when the buyout takes place. Aspen should fill out Medtronics product line quite nicely.

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  34. Play with snakes and you get bitten. However, there are existing and new Spine companies hiring people everyday.

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  35. Why would Medtronic need Aspen? They've had Spire for years.

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  36. I have no stock ownership in Lanx nor do I work there. I have known Mike Fulton since Lanx was a concept looking for funding. He is honest and a man of his word. However, anybody with an MBA will tell you, once you take VC/private equity money you have lost all control. The clock is ticking for a liquidity event and no person is allowed to stand in the way of an alpha return. Remember this all small company CEOs with visions of glorious IPO returns that the sound VCs sing is of the siren on the rocks...

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  37. DaMane just resigned today. Lanx is redonkuless and quite frankly the laughing stock of spine.

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  38. Hey, 4:58, are you by chance a former, disgruntled Lanx employee? Sure sounds like it. What happened today is quite possibly the best thing that has happened to Lanx since Aspen. A morale raising appearance by Jeff Thramann, dispelling all of the rumors that have been floating around the company, & this blog. How many of you people can say that you work for a company that would call a company wide meeting with a co-founder, & member of the board, along with all of his senior staff, & hold a no-barred Q & A session? Not too many I think. Fact of the matter is that the company that I work for (Lanx) has always done that, & I've been here for a while. So for those of you who couldn't cut it there, tough. You can continue to laugh at Lanx. I will do my laughing when we go public, & I cash in my vested shares!! Game on!!!!!

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  39. Tim go take some more HGH.
    You & your company are a laughing stock.
    Signed, one of the 35 x-Managers who have been hosed by you, Fulton, or Billy Boy.
    BTW, every other Spine Company worth their salt was closing the Quarter out with dollars today not holding "so-called company wide meetings", but since you didn't have any cases to cover or revenue to record, I guess you had time for this pr stunt.

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  40. Ouch about DeMane. I was wondering if this post would get new life. Anyone know why the state of Ohio invested $1M to develop the Lumbar Motion Monitor. Did the device come out of The Ohio State University? I think I did a bit of work with that product in graduate school, or a very similar prototype unit, some 15 years ago. How are they planning to position in commercially?

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  41. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  42. Alot of things have happened at Lanx over the past few weeks. It was funny during this time how some so-called "loyal to Fulton/Lanx" people in key positions were just swooning like little high-school girls over Mike DeMane when he got here. Now that he (DeMane) is gone they are acting as if they are happy he is gone. I guess he is no longer "the best thing to ever happen to Lanx" anymore. It is funny how some people change their loyalties to save their hide.

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  43. Is it not obvious to all that DeMane left Lanx after being exposed to their gross lack of compliance to the ethical guidelines that our industry must operate under? If this doesn't scare all the Lanx employees, they are too ignorant to know that they should be afraid of what this means for those left behind. DeMane is a "class act," and everyone was thrilled to have him on board until he bailed out so as to avoid being guilty by association.

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