What do we know? I’ve been told it’ll be big and we may know more as early as tomorrow
83 replies (most recent on top)
@1jt it’s more than ten years.
@1n1 Still a laughable comment. Not in the least any better. Many faults, lack of setting direction and making a decision in a timely manner, too large a group making decisions (leading to the former comment of too much time to make decisions), lack of understanding product and market dynamics, lacking in motivating teams properly, lack of leadership to provide needed support from other functions to support their own decision when they finally made them. It goes on and on.
@a7 well this didn’t age well
@1jv relative term…. Comparing to earlier leaders….
@10y,
Correct ! Boston will be ground zero for RIF's. R&D engineers will no longer be needed as HOGO upgrade is on hold. North Haven will be hit in addition. A HUGO life support system team could be retained to support current daily activities. The best of the best could be reassigned to enterprise roles in MDT and out of Surgical. This is only IMO, I have NO actual knowledge of what might happen.
Best of luck to those impacted and so sorry for all affected in the coming months.
@1en Strong leadership?!?!? Lol. Seriously. What strong leadership? I must be missing something. :face palm:
@18q "You cannot have 10 year development cycles. "
Where are you getting 10 year development cycles from? How did you come up with that?
@1j9 then it sounds like you were part of the problem.
@18j they actually said that there will be impacts?
@1en Anyone who experiences Hugo understands how "rough around the edges" it is. It's too bad because if there were actual designers working on Hugo so many issues would have been avoided. $1 in UX investment = $1000 saved in 'fixes'.
Every large company seems to understand this outside of MDT. Intuitive employs dozens of employees for one robot. Hugo employs about 3 and was developed with 1. The current Hugo experience is what you get when you don't include designers in the R&D process (UX and ID). Instead the robot was "designed" by engineers. The outcome is not surprising.
Live by the engineer : Die by the engineer
@a7 It's not fear mongering when they announce layoffs. You may need to face reality and be a bit more generous to your co-workers in times like this
@e4 I think this is the prevailing sentiment. However, you may be puting too much value on MDT instrumentation. If they can compete on a robot, then they can also complete on instruments. All MDT has to do is select a few dozen folks to bring our instrument knowledge to the newer, smaller, sleeker company.
Of course, for this to happen the Cornerstone investment would need to become a clean purchase.
@18q 🎯
Right on the money with that synopsis.
That arrogance laid the crumbling foundation for the (many) poor decisions that followed. Only recently has there been strong leadership at the top of RAS. But as you said, the die was cast, so they are on a recovery mission.
You cannot have 10 year development cycles. Hugo was much longer. It starved all other development and innovation in North Haven of people and capital. Paul Hermes, Entrepreneur in Residence (?) was a smooth talking empty suit. No depth. But up on every trend. I have no idea how the leadership performed once he left, but the die was cast.
Coming layoffs in US-based Surgical Robotics were confirmed by senior leadership today. Individuals affected will be notified in 3-4 weeks.
Good luck everyone. I hope we all land well on the other side of this.
RIP Hugo
@vn Nailed it.
My opinion - the Hugo team will be restructured within a few weeks, people will be transferred to sustaining roles or other Hugo-related projects, and the rest will be laid off. Layoffs will particularly affect North Haven and Boston, only sparing a few employees, mainly those with deep knowledge of Hugo.
Morale is very low. Most people in Surgical Robotics are already applying for jobs elsewhere. Some have already left. If my opinion is wrong, senior leadership needs to get in front of this fast, or their best people will be gone.
@nr Because there's cheaper competitors on the market that you can lose a customer to. The cheaper competitors can get FDA approval on their own. And if your product is $2MM and a competitor's is $500,000, how do you win that customer? MDT clearly feels they can't compete on price, hence this acquisition.
They may have struck a deal to NOT get FDA clearance for Sentire. Why sell a cheaper robot when you can sell a more expensive one? And the US market is the golden goose.
@ks I’ve been told there will be layoffs across the company in December
@hn my ire for Minnesota based management is not irrational
I heard rolling through December... surgical hasn't been consolidated like the other OUs yet. Should be happening soon IMO.
Waiting for the big reveal, OP - since we were supposed to hear by now. Any layoffs?
Everyone not located in Colombia, India, or Southeast Asia will eventually be laid off.
@b2 No. they're only saying they're keeping Hugo for US because it has FDA approval and to not completely panic the current Hugo team. That won't last. They'll get FDA approval for Sentire in time and then it's game over for Hugo.
@af if there's an all hands to announce acquiring a competing product and to tell you everything is ok, then it's definitely not ok. You don't invest $700MM into a competing product and keep your own existing product. I'd be expecting to be laid off if I was part of Hugo, it's likely full on-panic. If you're not seeing that, you're super naive.
Any other Surgical teams impacted
@hh there’s a disturbed individual on here who irrationally hates everyone in Minnesota. Just ignore them.
@ed what is this? Anyone over 250lbs gets laid offf...?
@e8 Any idea how many Business Update emails will be issued from Digital Surgery?
@ed don’t be jealous that Minnesotans are paid enough to afford good food and have beautiful homes that they don’t want to leave for a soulless office building. God has blessed Minnesotans because we are in His favor.
People that are not doing 4 days in office get laid off first. Then anyone over 250lb in Minnesota.
Layoffs confirmed @ Digital Surgery in the London office this Friday....get ready
Am I the only one who thinks the $700M cornerstone/sentire deal could be a bigger deal for Hugo than MDT is letting on?
MDT gets a stake in a competing robotic platform without having to carry all the R&D burden themselves. Sentire has significant international approvals and if they pursue FDA clearance, it would give MDT a lower cost alternative to Hugo and Intuitive.
Maybe the plan is the keep pushing Hugo for now while they see how Sentire performs. If cheaper/equally capable, why fund two robotics R&D programs? Integrate MDT instruments onto Sentire, leverage it as the platform and plug its existing surgical portfolio into it.
No idea if that’s the actual strategy, but the deal definitely makes me wonder
All-hands meetings are being sent out today! Not sure what's happening but it doesn't look good
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the bulk of surgical MFG/Operations now part of MDT GSOC or Corporate roles?, Robotics and R&D fall under the Surgical Umbrella. Regardless I'd say all is Safe in the Surgical OU. I have no real information except my opinion.
Was there any projects to develop a cheaper cost Hugo for international markets? If so, Im sure those projects will be shuttered with the news. Hugo will stay targeted towards wealthy countries.
@af ok Matt
@ac surgical had an all hands today dummy. No foreshadowing of RIF like in previous years. Remove your tinfoil hat