History

This is purely a historical document being posted in 2019.

On 1st June 1996, I had joined the German company of the USA, Jacksonville, Florida based medical device (as opposed to pills & potions) company, Xomed Surgical Products.. They were one of the two leading such companies in the worldwide Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) business.

However, in the USA, this relatively small company, run by highly enthusiastic, dedicated ENT engineers & businessmen had gone through lots of financial and business control problems which had meant it being sold off/rescued/re-sold/bought back and all sorts of unsettlement. With their eyes off the ball, the biggest market outside the USA had been Germany which was run by a German distributor. As a result of all the upheaval in the USA, there were major consequences in Germany which led to more confusion and a dramatic loss of business and the German market became smaller than the subsidiaries in UK, France, Canada & Australia.

In 1995 the subsidiary Xomed Deutschland GmbH had been set up with a handful of people previously with the last German distributor with the offices in a new building in the Munich dormitory town of Gilching. I think it was the town in Germany with the highest family/children ratio. It was convenient to me as it was on the autobahn I lived on about 50km away, although back then it was in the process of being built & there were many traffic problems for years - but at least I avoided having to go to/through Munich.

Things started to pick up very slowly. Although I was taken on to be "Manager of Stores & Distribution" (Dept. of one - me)  to fill the role of someone who was leaving, the German MD who interviewed me, seemed to have an inkling I could do more.

However the MD was sacked in a coup in December 1996 and I can't say that I was without any involvement but to my credit, a few months later, the ex-MD did try to recruit me for a senior job in his new company, which I turned down.

So by January 1997, I was Finance & Logistics Manager working for a new MD. An American born in Munich of American father & German mother but left at the age of about four to travel the world with his parents & father's many international jobs. I think Japan was his next stopover.

Tino had been in the background 1996 working for a further part of the Xomed business as European marketing manager, based in Germany but not employed there. When he became MD we formed a strong business partnership & a friendship which still exists.

By December 1997, we had got the show on the road & things were really buzzing. For 1998 we had been set the target of coming from bottom to top of the non-USA subsidiaries. Exciting, exhausting times ahead.

The article was for Xomed's in-house employee magazine. I think Tino redacted most of it. Nice to see that the dozen employees were described as a young team, average age 32 - I was 43 & the eldest!