sued for breach of contract.
From cosmetic surgery to ENT
By this point, risk-taking and pushing the envelope were deeply
ingrained in my personality, but I was disappointed with the decision
to strike the deal with the spa distributor. The risk-taking I enjoyed
was in executing novel sales and marketing strategies that were based
on sound analysis and could result in big market-share gains.
The kind of risk-taking associated with the spa channel distribution
deal represented a different kind — the kind primarily associated with
achieving financial targets. Although it stood out in my mind because
I felt it was a bad business decision, it was consistent with other
"pushing-the-envelope" activities whose main purpose appeared to be
meeting the numbers. Another topic that fell into this bucket was
expired and obsolete inventory. When inventory no longer has a
chance of ever being sold, it should be written off, which creates an
expense and reduces earnings. There was a lot of discussion about
this and it seemed to me that there was inventory that should have
been written off but wasn't. Since I had no specific expertise in this
area, I figured the finance and accounting people knew what they
were doing. Looking back on it, I am no longer sure. Regardless of the
legality of all of these financial transactions that pushed the envelope,
what I should have realized was that I was working in a company that
would do whatever it took to meet Wall Street expectations. Given my
background and personality, this was exactly the wrong kind of com-
pany for me to work in.
Shortly thereafter, a change occurred that would put many of these
issues in the background. It became clear that the cosmetic surgery
business was not a good fit for ArthroCare. I recommended that the
business be shut down.
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