I attended the Plastics News Executive Forum “Managing for Recovery” held March 7-10 and heard many interesting insights on the state of the economy, emerging markets, M&A activity and best practices.  Of all the great information presented, I gained the most insight from the panel discussion on “Challenges & Opportunities” in the medical devices market.  Alex Mastorakos, Global Sourcing Director – Plastics, Boston Scientific, was particularly insightful laying out what he felt defined a strategic partnership:

Common Vision – You need to align yourself with a partner that has a similar strategy and growth plan.

• Trust – In order for the relationship to be successful, you need to establish and maintain a level of trust, including full disclosure.
• Performance/Continuous Improvement – The culture has to be metrics-driven and focused on continuous improvement.
• People – The relationship has to be easy.  You need to put the right people in front of the customer.  Just because Ms. Jones has a PhD from MIT, doesn’t mean she should be the one in front interacting with customers.  Either the relationship is easy, or it isn’t.  The relationship needs to be easy. Period.
• Proactive Culture – Don’t just sit on your hands.  Add value to the customer relationship by educating, reducing costs, or providing more value to the customer.  The firms that are proactive and out in front with their customers are going to be the most successful because they are truly acting as a partner, not a vendor.

Great advice from a marketing leader in the medical device arena. I left the conference invigorated, as it reinforced my conviction that Kaysun is already on the right track building strategic partnerships with our clients.

- Ben

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