Collaborative Culture of Innovation

Innovation is the lifeblood of Medtronic. Whether developing new products, expanding the use of therapies to treat new conditions, or addressing the growing global burden of chronic disease through cutting-edge partnerships and distribution models, innovation drives our ability to significantly improve the lives of those who suffer from chronic health conditions.

For us, innovation is fundamental to creating a vital, thriving, and sustainable business. It is also essential to maximizing the social impact of our products and therapies, which improve the quality of life, increase personal productivity, and, in a growing number of instances, reduce healthcare costs for individuals worldwide.

Medtronic has a long legacy of innovation, having developed the first battery-powered external pacemaker in 1950 in conjunction with Dr. C. Walton Lillehei, a pioneer in open heart surgery at the University of Minnesota Medical School. We recognize that innovation relies on an interconnected web of collaborators, ranging from doctors to engineers to regulators to patients. The scale and breadth of Medtronic also provides substantial opportunity to leverage expertise across the company. All of which reinforces our dedication to continually foster collaboration wherever and whenever possible.

To keep that process alive and well in a corporation that today encompasses seven business units and 40,000 employees, Medtronic has a vice president of Innovation Excellence charged with creating, strengthening and maintaining a culture of innovation across the enterprise.

In response to employee requests for greater visibility to projects and market opportunities across the corporation and broader access to resources and colleagues regardless of business and geography, we significantly increased our cross-functional communications and invested in internal collaboration and social networking tools.

For example, we launched an internal problem solving system that allows employees to post challenges in an open online forum and garner ideas from colleagues around the globe. In addition, we access external networks of experts worldwide to solve technical problems.

As collaboration with our clinical customers is essential for the development of new products and therapies, we’ve taken a leadership position in ensuring that transparency exists in all our relationships with healthcare providers. Our physician registry reflects the impact collaboration has on bringing new and improved technology to patients.

Innovating for Life articulates our commitment to pushing the boundaries of medical technology and changing the way the world treats chronic disease. For example, we recently launched the first MRI compatible pacemaker, a breakthrough for heart patients who may require access to this important diagnostic imaging technology.

Measuring innovation is a challenge. Medtronic evaluates outcomes by market share, the contribution new products make to our revenue, and our ability to deliver projects on time and on budget. We are also developing measurements for our emerging social networking systems related to the level of activity and degree of employee connectedness.