RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Congrats RR!!!!!!!!!!@ Jason: like you said, love him or hate him, RR will be our CEO for another year. So if you are a supporter of the company or what VP4 can do for patients, let's drop this trash talking on our CEO and try to support what he does??
These are undeniable facts: Ric joined TSO3 in Oct 2008. When he arrived, TSO3 had a me-too product (i.e.: no differentiation vs. competitors) that actually was disadvantaged in equipment compatibility (i.e.: equiment life)--the 125L. In the last 10yrs under RR's leadership, the company has changed the 125L completely into the VP4--a FDA approved sterilizer that has a unique dual sterilant code, and it is the only FDA approved sterilizer that can sterilize complex endoscopes (gastrocopes, colonoscopes, duodenoscopes). We must remember RR's genious in going after these scope claims, as these were never done before by any manufactuers. Ric saw the inevitable demand from the super-bug infections, as well as insights that his VP4 can actually do the job and its ability to prove that to the FDA. We must remember how much bigger and better resourced JNJ, Steris, Cantel, Getinge are, and none of them were able to come up with anything close to what we got!! (how much are those CEOs getting paid??)
To your comments that Ric is perhaps a brilliant scientist: this proved you never talked to him in person. Yes, Ric is very well versed in the science behind sterilization (from all his years in the industry), but his strength is in sales. RR was GM at Steris from 2000-2004, where the company's sales grew from $760mm to $1.03b, after stangnated in the $700mm range from 1998 to 2000. If he is able to deliver a few firm hospitals VP4 orders by the end of June (like he said on the conference call), then TSO3 accomplished the task of selling 5+ VP4s in its first 5mths of sales operation. Compare that with <10 sold by Getinge in 1Q18 after 2.5yrs of selling. I strongly believe Getinge's CEO should be the one getting all this heat from you, Jason, and not RR.
Finally, if we look at our biggest customers (VGH, the two at the analyst days, etc.), how many of these do you think RR had a hand in? I can confidently tell you that RR is the reason why they are onboard, and not Getinge. Do you know that Getinge actually tried to hire RR away from his CEO role to become Getinge's head of North America not too long ago? It is a good thing that Ric has great confidence in where TSO3 is going, hence he turned down Getinge's offer.
This is my last post here trying to defend Ric, as the point is now moot after the AGM. Whatever our view was, it is time to move on, and try to support our CEO in whatever way we can.