While he’s only been on the job for about six months, Olympus CEO Bob White already has the company executing on multiple fronts.
White took over the corner office at Olympus in April. He previously spent 14 years with medtech giant Medtronic before departing last year amid a reorganization effort, bringing significant medtech experience to his new position.
With that experience, White has had to tackle things head-on in his early days at Olympus. He joined with the company dealing with multiple instances of FDA scrutiny surrounding Olympus devices made in Japan. The agency sent Olympus a warning letter in 2023 related to adultered endoscopes following an inspection of the company’s Tokyo facility. The company received two separate letters at the end of 2022 as well.
However, since White’s appointment, the company has hit a series of milestones. Those include the company’s noteworthy endoluminal surgical robotics play, called Swan EndoSurgical. Olympus said in July that, with private equity investment firm Revival Healthcare Capital, it co-founded the new company with a focus on developing a novel endoluminal robotic system for gastrointestinal (GI) patient care. (Read more about White’s thoughts on the Swan EndoSurgical move here.)
Speaking to MassDevice Senior Editor Sean Whooley and DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in San Diego, White outlined some of the recent developments at Olympus and how he plans to bring the company forward.
The following has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
MassDevice: How have the first few months been on the job?
Bob White: “Coming into Olympus, there’s a couple of things I knew. There were three warning letters with quality things that we had to kind of sort out. There was, I think, somewhat of a dearth of innovation happening organically. And, yet, offset by amazing customer relationships, an amazing brand and a group of people that really connect with the purpose. With everything I’ve done in my career, I looked at Olympus and said, ‘There’s nothing here that’s not solvable. We can address all of these.’ The first 100 days have gone by in the blink of an eye. Coming out of that, our priorities are pretty clear. It’s innovation and growth. It’s really focusing on that, it’s addressing the quality issues, and it’s making sure we continue to earn our customers’ trust.
“I would say it’s, it’s probably three things. It’s executing with urgency, doing what we do with speed. Second, it’s pivoting our attention to an obsession with our customers and, by extension, their patients, because that’s where the magic is. It’s the difference between what we make and what our customers need. That’s where we’ve got to focus. Third, it’s going to be a passion for execution — just doing what we say we’re going to do, delivering every quarter, delivering month on month.”
What have been some of the most significant developments in your tenure so far?
BW: “Well, you step back, you come into Olympus, and the thing that strikes you right away is just the amazing men and women of Olympus. They are passionate, they are talented, they are focused. You’ve got to love that. That struck me, first and foremost. Then, when you think about us as a technology company, it’s really clear. You think about the role of AI in healthcare. It’s going to be central to what Olympus does. There won’t be a GI suite anywhere around the world that’s not impacted by AI. We announced Olysense, an AI-enabled ecosystem for the GI suite. It’s not just technology. Yes, the polyp detections through AI allow the docs to see polyps better. But, it’s more than that. It’s connected workforce.
“If you step back and look at Olympus, you see, we’re going to invest a lot in innovation and technology along the continuum, but we’re going to do that both organically and inorganically, so you should expect to see both.”
Do you view AI as a big part of the roadmap going forward at Olympus?
BW: It really is [part of the roadmap going forward]. I view it central through a couple lenses. The first one is, we can get better as a company using AI internally with what we’re doing now in terms of our R&D, as well as in our quality systems, leveraging AI across that platform. Then, how do we put it in our products? That’s what you see with Olysense, which is just the beginning. You’re going to continue to see us launch AI-enabled technology and services moving forward. We’re excited about it. We think we have the right to lead in it, and we’re going to continue to embed it in our offerings. It’s real, it’s happening.”
What appeals to you about Swan Endosurgical play?
BW: “When you think about endoluminal robots in the GI tract, first off, nobody’s doing that. There’s a lot of activity in the space because nobody’s doing what we’re setting out to do here with Swan EndoSurgical.
“What we did with Swan was, I think, the best of both worlds. You create a company with Revival Capital that can operate with the speed of a startup, yet with the strength of a company like Olympus. So, you’ve got Olympus proprietary technology involved, and yet you’ve got a standalone company developing this robot that can move with the speed with which we want them to move.
“We own this space. So, of course, this is going to be central to our strategy going forward. You’re going to continue to see me invest in robotics technologies, and I’m super excited about where Swan is going to go.”
Read the rest of the conversation about Swan EndoSurgical here.
Anything else to be excited about at Olympus?
BW: “We’ve got great internal plans in single-use endoscopy. You’ve got robotics, you’ve got single-use endoscopy, you’ve got innovation on our traditional lines of scopes. This fall, in a couple of months, we’re launching the whole new strategy for Olympus in terms of our bold new future and where we’re going, which I think is tremendously exciting, because it starts with, where we see the future. You’ll have to wait a little bit, but we’re super excited. That’s the amazing thing about Olympus. We have this incredible 100-year-old company that invented the first camera to go inside the body. Now, we’re taking that and bringing that same pioneering spirit back and saying, ‘here’s the next future for Olympus.’ That’s going to be bold and compelling.”
As you lead Olympus forward, how do you go about addressing the culture at an established medtech giant?
BW: “I’ve found that teams respond to good leadership. Good leadership and the right people around the table. You shift your telescope from inside-out to outside-in and you look at how fast the marketplace is moving, then people want to move that fast. I believe in small wins that create momentum and drive the ability to change, but understand it’s building on the things that made Olympus great anyway. Right now, we just need to do that with a sense of urgency. Now, we need to do it with a focus on the outside customers and their patients. Now, we need to do it with a passion for execution. We’ve just got to do that.”
