07.31.12
$1 Billion
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Michael P. Mogul, President and CEO
Vickie L. Capps, Exec. VP, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Donald M. Roberts, Exec. VP, General Counsel and Secretary
Stephen J. Murphy, Exec. VP, Sales and Marketing, International Commercial Business
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 5,110
GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS: Vista, Calif.
Laurel Touby couldn’t stop herself from laughing at the media reports that branded her an overnight millionaire.
“I thought it was a total joke,” she told journalist, career coach and book author Debra Shigley, reporting for Psychology Today.
The stories might have been amusing had they not taken on a solemnity usually reserved for the most hard-hitting news. “CNBC Gets the Scoop on the Boss’s Big Bucks,” announced one headline, which ironically, came from Touby’s own company—mediabistro.com, a content-related resource site she sold to Jupitermedia for $23 million in 2007.
“Tonight…she [Touby] shares her story of instant millions on the premiere of CNBC’s ‘Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich,’ “ read a promo from TV Newser, a mediabistro.com-owned website that reports on television news.
Perhaps most entertaining (or troubling) about that promo and other reports of Touby’s “instant” wealth was the lack of details about the 12-hour workdays and middle-of-the-night anxiety attacks that defined her 14-year road to “overnight” success.
“Nobody really took note that from the point I committed to it full-time, it was an 8 in the morning till 8 at night job—with waking up in the middle of the night for years,” she said. “It was non-stop. No vacations. Nobody—including my family—understood any of it and they still probably don’t.”
Maybe not, but those who have traveled a similar path to Touby certainly empathize with her long workdays and nocturnal neuroticism. Unlike the instapreneurs, Facebook-inspired computer prodigies and reality star-struck wannabes now colonizing the corporate world, the established industrialists of yesteryear realize that overnight success actually is a myth perpetuated by Hollywood filmmakers and pipe-dreaming novelists.
“Most of us are seduced by the idea of overnight success. We want to believe the myth that success is easy to come by,” Barrie Bergman, a entrepreneur, author, public speaker and self-proclaimed “empire builder” argues on his website, barriebergman.com. “But success in business takes time, energy and hard work—lots of all three. Personally, I’ve never met an overnight success. I’ve met people who’ve done something well for a long time and were suddenly discovered. Then everyone assumed they came out of nowhere, that their fame happened overnight. But the real truth is that it takes a long time to be an overnight success.”
For DJO Global Inc., success has taken more than three decades. Born 34 years ago in a Carlsbad, Calif., garage to founders Mark Nordquist (a Philadelphia Eagles offensive line captain at the time) and Ken Reed (a San Diego, Calif., attorney), the company spent its formative months making support sleeves for the knee, ankle and elbow. It has undergone several identity changes in its lifetime—initially calling itself DonJoy (a reference to the founders’ wives, Donna and Joy), then DJ Orthopedics, DJO Incorporated and finally, DJO Global. Its product portfolio has evolved to include bone growth stimulators, cold therapy devices, medical equipment and most recently, therapeutic footwear.
“Nothing ever goes in a straight line, but it’s been exciting,” Vickie L. Capps, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, told The San Diego Union-Tribune in April. “We’re in a very fun space in the market, and we’ve had a lot of opportunities to expand geographically and acquire more products—that has been key to our growth.”
Such a simple strategy helped the Vista, Calif.-based firm top $1 billion in sales last year for the first time in its history. The $1.07 billion in revenue represented an increase of $108.7 million, or 11.3 percent compared with 2010. Gross profit rose 5.8 percent to $656.6 million and interest income climbed 11.3 percent to $345 million, according to the company’s 2011 earnings report.
DJO executives attributed the historic achievement in sales last year to favorable currency exchange rates and the purchase of several companies within the first 100 days of 2011. The first acquisition occurred shortly after the year began: On Jan. 4, bigwigs announced the $46.4 million buyout of Asheboro, N.C.-based Elastic Therapy Inc. (ETI), a designer and manufacturer of private label medical compression therapy for various venous disorders. Its device portfolio encompassed anti-embolism stockings, sheer products, surgical weight stockings, and compression socks across multiple compression levels. Executives said the move gives DJO a stronger foothold in the estimated $1.5 billion global medical compression market.
“As evidenced by the size of the global compression therapy markets, the addition of static compression products to the DJO product line has been a high priority for our international teams for several years,” former President and CEO Leslie H. Cross said when the deal was announced. Cross stepped down from his position in June 2011 and was replaced by Michael P. Mogul, former group president of Orthopaedics for Stryker Corp. (Cross, however, has not sat idly by since leaving DJO; he has been chairman/CEO of Alphatec Holdings Inc. since Feb. 28, 2012).
“DJO’s channels of distribution in most developed international markets are very well positioned to add the ETI range of products and we view this as a significant growth opportunity moving forward.”
Other growth opportunities arose from the winter acquisitions of BetterBraces.com ($3 million for certain assets) and Circle City Medical Inc. ($11.7 million), a Carmel, Ind.-based firm that markets orthopedic soft goods and medical compression therapy products to independent pharmacies and home healthcare dealers. Growth also came from the $254.6 million cash purchase of therapeutic footwear maker Rikco International LLC, D/B/A Dr. Comfort. Industry analysts claim the deal gave DJO top market share in the “large and under-served diabetic footwear market,” a sector that rapidly is growing for podiatry practices, orthotic and prosthetic centers, home medical equipment providers, and independent pharmacies.
Last year’s acquisitions most benefited DJO’s International and Bracing and Vascular segments, where sales ballooned 14.2 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively. Executives said DJO’s first-quarter shopping spree boosted International segment sales by $10.5 million, pushing its total FY2011 revenue to $279.2 million.
Similarly, the new additions contributed an additional $75.6 million to the Bracing and Vascular segment, which changed its name from Bracing and Supports to better reflect its more diverse product lineup. The Bracing and Vascular segment posted $388 million in 2011 sales (year ended Dec. 31), though part of the 24.5 percent increase in overall segment revenue also can be attributed to robust sales of the VenaFlow Elite dynamic compression therapy pump, a device that treats deep vein thrombosis by mimicking ambulation and accelerating venous velocity through rapid inflation and graduated sequential compression.
Recovery Science segment sales fell 1.3 percent last year to $342.5 million, due largely to considerable reimbursement price changes for home electrotherapy, iontophoresis and home traction devices.
DJO’s reverse shoulder products and its new Turon Modular Shoulder System advanced Surgical Implant segment revenue by 3.5 percent to $65 million and helped offset declines in both hip and knee implant sales. Launched in July 2011, the Turon Modular Shoulder System incorporates the company’s IMIN (Intrinsic Modular Indexable Neck) technology, a patented clocking feature that allows surgeons to dial in the humeral neck shaft angle position, thereby enabling them to fit a patient’s anatomy without using adjunctive screw fixation and complex jigs and back table fixtures.
Knee sales were disappointing last year despite the introduction of two new products. In April, DJO announced the first U.S. implantation of the e-plus total knee replacement, an artificial joint with Vitamin E blended into the resin of the polyethylene comprising the insert. The company described its e-plus product as a next-generation formulation of high density polymer blended with the natural anti-oxidant of Vitamin E. According to executives, the Vitamin E improves the implant’s strength and helps prevent wear from the polyethylene component.
The Empi Active Knee TENS System, made its debut in September, shortly before the company signed a distribution agreement with Exos Corporation, an Arden Hills, Minn.-based device firm that has developed a thermoformable external musculoskeletal stabilization system. The agreement gives DJO exclusive rights to sell Exos upper extremity products in North and South America.
The Empi Active Knee has an electrode built into its specialized wrap that delivers a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) waveform to the knee to manage acute, chronic and arthritic pain. Available with a doctor’s prescription, the Empi knee delivers a similar physiologic response as pain medication but has none of the side effects.
“The Empi Active device can be helpful in decreasing the amount of pain medication that a patient may take,” Melisa Estes, M.D., a physiatrist and board certified pain medication physician, said in a news release about the Empi product. “I also find it very useful for patients who have difficulty tolerating usual medications such as muscle relaxants or non steroidal anti-inflammatories.”
KEY EXECUTIVES:
Michael P. Mogul, President and CEO
Vickie L. Capps, Exec. VP, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer
Donald M. Roberts, Exec. VP, General Counsel and Secretary
Stephen J. Murphy, Exec. VP, Sales and Marketing, International Commercial Business
NO. OF EMPLOYEES: 5,110
GLOBAL HEADQUARTERS: Vista, Calif.
Laurel Touby couldn’t stop herself from laughing at the media reports that branded her an overnight millionaire.
“I thought it was a total joke,” she told journalist, career coach and book author Debra Shigley, reporting for Psychology Today.
The stories might have been amusing had they not taken on a solemnity usually reserved for the most hard-hitting news. “CNBC Gets the Scoop on the Boss’s Big Bucks,” announced one headline, which ironically, came from Touby’s own company—mediabistro.com, a content-related resource site she sold to Jupitermedia for $23 million in 2007.
“Tonight…she [Touby] shares her story of instant millions on the premiere of CNBC’s ‘Untold Wealth: The Rise of the Super Rich,’ “ read a promo from TV Newser, a mediabistro.com-owned website that reports on television news.
Perhaps most entertaining (or troubling) about that promo and other reports of Touby’s “instant” wealth was the lack of details about the 12-hour workdays and middle-of-the-night anxiety attacks that defined her 14-year road to “overnight” success.
“Nobody really took note that from the point I committed to it full-time, it was an 8 in the morning till 8 at night job—with waking up in the middle of the night for years,” she said. “It was non-stop. No vacations. Nobody—including my family—understood any of it and they still probably don’t.”
Maybe not, but those who have traveled a similar path to Touby certainly empathize with her long workdays and nocturnal neuroticism. Unlike the instapreneurs, Facebook-inspired computer prodigies and reality star-struck wannabes now colonizing the corporate world, the established industrialists of yesteryear realize that overnight success actually is a myth perpetuated by Hollywood filmmakers and pipe-dreaming novelists.
“Most of us are seduced by the idea of overnight success. We want to believe the myth that success is easy to come by,” Barrie Bergman, a entrepreneur, author, public speaker and self-proclaimed “empire builder” argues on his website, barriebergman.com. “But success in business takes time, energy and hard work—lots of all three. Personally, I’ve never met an overnight success. I’ve met people who’ve done something well for a long time and were suddenly discovered. Then everyone assumed they came out of nowhere, that their fame happened overnight. But the real truth is that it takes a long time to be an overnight success.”
For DJO Global Inc., success has taken more than three decades. Born 34 years ago in a Carlsbad, Calif., garage to founders Mark Nordquist (a Philadelphia Eagles offensive line captain at the time) and Ken Reed (a San Diego, Calif., attorney), the company spent its formative months making support sleeves for the knee, ankle and elbow. It has undergone several identity changes in its lifetime—initially calling itself DonJoy (a reference to the founders’ wives, Donna and Joy), then DJ Orthopedics, DJO Incorporated and finally, DJO Global. Its product portfolio has evolved to include bone growth stimulators, cold therapy devices, medical equipment and most recently, therapeutic footwear.
“Nothing ever goes in a straight line, but it’s been exciting,” Vickie L. Capps, executive vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer, told The San Diego Union-Tribune in April. “We’re in a very fun space in the market, and we’ve had a lot of opportunities to expand geographically and acquire more products—that has been key to our growth.”
Such a simple strategy helped the Vista, Calif.-based firm top $1 billion in sales last year for the first time in its history. The $1.07 billion in revenue represented an increase of $108.7 million, or 11.3 percent compared with 2010. Gross profit rose 5.8 percent to $656.6 million and interest income climbed 11.3 percent to $345 million, according to the company’s 2011 earnings report.
DJO executives attributed the historic achievement in sales last year to favorable currency exchange rates and the purchase of several companies within the first 100 days of 2011. The first acquisition occurred shortly after the year began: On Jan. 4, bigwigs announced the $46.4 million buyout of Asheboro, N.C.-based Elastic Therapy Inc. (ETI), a designer and manufacturer of private label medical compression therapy for various venous disorders. Its device portfolio encompassed anti-embolism stockings, sheer products, surgical weight stockings, and compression socks across multiple compression levels. Executives said the move gives DJO a stronger foothold in the estimated $1.5 billion global medical compression market.
“As evidenced by the size of the global compression therapy markets, the addition of static compression products to the DJO product line has been a high priority for our international teams for several years,” former President and CEO Leslie H. Cross said when the deal was announced. Cross stepped down from his position in June 2011 and was replaced by Michael P. Mogul, former group president of Orthopaedics for Stryker Corp. (Cross, however, has not sat idly by since leaving DJO; he has been chairman/CEO of Alphatec Holdings Inc. since Feb. 28, 2012).
“DJO’s channels of distribution in most developed international markets are very well positioned to add the ETI range of products and we view this as a significant growth opportunity moving forward.”
Other growth opportunities arose from the winter acquisitions of BetterBraces.com ($3 million for certain assets) and Circle City Medical Inc. ($11.7 million), a Carmel, Ind.-based firm that markets orthopedic soft goods and medical compression therapy products to independent pharmacies and home healthcare dealers. Growth also came from the $254.6 million cash purchase of therapeutic footwear maker Rikco International LLC, D/B/A Dr. Comfort. Industry analysts claim the deal gave DJO top market share in the “large and under-served diabetic footwear market,” a sector that rapidly is growing for podiatry practices, orthotic and prosthetic centers, home medical equipment providers, and independent pharmacies.
Last year’s acquisitions most benefited DJO’s International and Bracing and Vascular segments, where sales ballooned 14.2 percent and 24.5 percent, respectively. Executives said DJO’s first-quarter shopping spree boosted International segment sales by $10.5 million, pushing its total FY2011 revenue to $279.2 million.
Similarly, the new additions contributed an additional $75.6 million to the Bracing and Vascular segment, which changed its name from Bracing and Supports to better reflect its more diverse product lineup. The Bracing and Vascular segment posted $388 million in 2011 sales (year ended Dec. 31), though part of the 24.5 percent increase in overall segment revenue also can be attributed to robust sales of the VenaFlow Elite dynamic compression therapy pump, a device that treats deep vein thrombosis by mimicking ambulation and accelerating venous velocity through rapid inflation and graduated sequential compression.
Recovery Science segment sales fell 1.3 percent last year to $342.5 million, due largely to considerable reimbursement price changes for home electrotherapy, iontophoresis and home traction devices.
DJO’s reverse shoulder products and its new Turon Modular Shoulder System advanced Surgical Implant segment revenue by 3.5 percent to $65 million and helped offset declines in both hip and knee implant sales. Launched in July 2011, the Turon Modular Shoulder System incorporates the company’s IMIN (Intrinsic Modular Indexable Neck) technology, a patented clocking feature that allows surgeons to dial in the humeral neck shaft angle position, thereby enabling them to fit a patient’s anatomy without using adjunctive screw fixation and complex jigs and back table fixtures.
Knee sales were disappointing last year despite the introduction of two new products. In April, DJO announced the first U.S. implantation of the e-plus total knee replacement, an artificial joint with Vitamin E blended into the resin of the polyethylene comprising the insert. The company described its e-plus product as a next-generation formulation of high density polymer blended with the natural anti-oxidant of Vitamin E. According to executives, the Vitamin E improves the implant’s strength and helps prevent wear from the polyethylene component.
The Empi Active Knee TENS System, made its debut in September, shortly before the company signed a distribution agreement with Exos Corporation, an Arden Hills, Minn.-based device firm that has developed a thermoformable external musculoskeletal stabilization system. The agreement gives DJO exclusive rights to sell Exos upper extremity products in North and South America.
The Empi Active Knee has an electrode built into its specialized wrap that delivers a TENS (transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation) waveform to the knee to manage acute, chronic and arthritic pain. Available with a doctor’s prescription, the Empi knee delivers a similar physiologic response as pain medication but has none of the side effects.
“The Empi Active device can be helpful in decreasing the amount of pain medication that a patient may take,” Melisa Estes, M.D., a physiatrist and board certified pain medication physician, said in a news release about the Empi product. “I also find it very useful for patients who have difficulty tolerating usual medications such as muscle relaxants or non steroidal anti-inflammatories.”