4 Time CEO Keith Grossman on Turnarounds, Culture, and Boardroom Truths скачать в хорошем качестве

4 Time CEO Keith Grossman on Turnarounds, Culture, and Boardroom Truths

In Episode 1 of Season 1 of No Spotlight Needed, Sheetal sits down with Keith Grossman, a four time CEO and MedTech operator known for building and turning around companies through focus, urgency, and team first culture. Keith walks through the arc of his career, including becoming CEO of Thoratec at 35 with the company nearly out of cash, engineering a major merger to secure future technology, leading through the personal and organizational tragedy of 9/11, stepping away at the right time, and later returning to reignite execution and regain market share. They also dig into what makes boards helpful instead of harmful, why CEOs should not try to manage boards like a management team, and what Keith believes is the most repeatable lever in leadership: recruiting great people and creating energized cultures that win. What you’ll learn • How Keith prioritized when the company had almost no cash and everything was urgent • Why he pushed a merger even while winning near term market share • Leading through loss and keeping an organization steady in a crisis • The difference between growth through new customers vs getting to standard of care • Why decisive leadership and fewer projects often unlock performance fast • Board best practices for CEOs: collaboration, education, and honest dialogue • Keith’s “leadership superpower”: recruiting and building high performance cultures Timestamps: 00:00 Cold open: outcomes, what boards should do, and leadership focus 01:03 Intro to Keith: 4 time CEO, major exits, non linear path 02:16 Welcome + rapid fire begins 02:41 Where Keith was born and raised 02:50 Parents and early influences 03:13 “Nothing happens until somebody sells something” 03:46 College path: Miami of Ohio to Ohio State 04:17 Athlete, music, and team sports as leadership training 05:46 First jobs and earning early 06:30 Why Thoratec at 35 with $1M left and a massive challenge 08:56 Early priorities: capital raise, team, manufacturing, commercialization 10:44 Building the market while the plane is in the air 11:34 The hard truth: bridge to transplant market was too small 13:36 The merger strategy and why it worked 15:33 Negotiating control and why the deal was possible 17:37 The roller coaster: 9 11 and losing COO Tom Burnett on Flight 93 19:41 Leading through crisis: restructure and communicate immediately 21:40 Company mission and recovery 22:43 Why Keith initiated succession planning during a “magical” period 25:10 Results from first run at Thoratec 26:14 Joining TPG and learning the industry from the other side 28:34 Why Keith didn’t want to be a venture capitalist 29:08 Operator at heart 29:19 Taking the CEO role at Conceptus: why it was compelling 31:49 Diagnosis: growth stalled due to execution and culture 32:41 Fixing the model: standard of care vs chasing new customers 35:03 Fixing culture: urgency, analytics, accountability 36:04 Shrinking the sales force and returning to growth 37:33 The 1.1B exit and what came next 40:09 Watching Thoratec round trip and competitor pressure 43:04 The board asks Keith to return 44:07 Coming back: moving faster with a ready playbook 45:49 Turnaround principle: vision, speed, and top down focus 47:55 Cutting initiatives, reorganizing leadership, reasserting customer value 49:21 Momentum returns fast 50:32 The 3.4B sale and why consolidation made sense 53:39 Retirement, board work, and the next chapter 55:03 Nevro turnaround attempt and what Covid changed 01:01:32 Why the market may not have come back 01:03:29 Single product risk when growth stops 01:08:04 CEO advice on working with boards 01:11:22 What Keith is most proud of 01:13:31 Keith’s leadership “superpower”: recruiting + energized cultures 01:15:17 Closing