Due to greed of marketing very large number of Cognis/Teligen, you must have manufactured for stock a huge quantity of Cognis/Teligen Devices. What happened to these devices which were held in store? Did you scrap them or have secretly started reworking them? If you rework and ship them for sale and if you persuade physicians (Payola) to use them; most will fail due to their reduced reliability b/c of major rework involved.
Are you bracing for a series of Class I recalls this time?
This is not a dig, but it is obvious you do not work in CRM, and that's cool - allow me to fill you in.
The C/T inventory in storage is not in any danger of expiring. Despite the stench surrounding these devices, they are still being sent out to reps for implant - so there is no reason to scrap or "rework" them.
Payola? Well, what you call payola some would call reimbursing a physician for his and his staff's participation in advancing CRM (clinical studies) and others would say that dinners and in-services were just status quo. I think all would agree alot of these things are just expected now, and therefore their impact on motivating physicians is negligible.
The reality is that physicians will continue to use this company for a couple of reasons:
1) Physicians deal with so many variables in their practice that they resist moving away from a product line that they have become comfortable with. They rationalize exposing themselves and patients to higher potential for negative outcomes because they feel that their implant results are better with tools they are used to handling, and that learning a new system would mean throwing away that security blanket.
2) It is human nature to develop a close relationship with a person who you grow to depend on for: referrals, insight into CRM and access to hotel rooms in Vegas that will never appear on the family credit card. For these reasons, legitimate and otherwise, a physician's implanting preference rests as much (or more) on how well they get along with a company's local team. I cannot stress this point enough. If it were not the case, then why would be STILL discussing C/T?
<If device quality and reliability were foremost in a physician's decision making process, how could Boston CRM still be in existence?>
<Relationship. Relationship. Relationship.>
This is why company's are willing to essentially pay a strong local rep to sit on their ass for a year while they burn off a non-compete. If relationships were not the primary component, then non-compete's wouldn't exist, and employers wouldn't be willing to wait them out with a new-hire.
Finally, you ask if they are bracing for a Class I recall? If you have worked at Boston anytime in the past 7 years, you are in a constant state of "brace". Your company's name is synonymous with "recall" - reinforced by your own marketing department's recent "(Re)" campaign, by the way.
But, honestly, none of us are free from that sense of forboding. Scrutiny is up, and each company has its share of skeleton's that must inevitably come to light. As a rep, you just do the best you can, and try not to have the patience and wisdom to control the things you can - and recognize the things you can't.
