Roy Morgan | CEO, Eagle Medical | Innovation in Medtech, Intentional Leadership, & the Importance of Creativity

Roy Morgan, CEO of Eagle Medical, shares his unique journey in the MedTech industry, starting from a pivotal one-question interview in 1997 that set the trajectory of his career. He reflects on his experiences in leading groundbreaking projects, emphasizing his deep-seated desire to improve and save lives. Roy's approach to leadership is both inspiring and intellectual, demonstrating a commitment to excellence and a profound understanding of the impact of his work. 

Guest link: www.eaglemed.com

Charity supported: Sleep in Heavenly Peace

Interested in being a guest on the show or have feedback to share? Email us at podcast@velentium.com. 

PRODUCTION CREDITS
Host: Lindsey Dinneen
Editing: Marketing Wise
Producer: Velentium

 

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Episode 030 - Roy Morgan

[00:00:00] Lindsey Dinneen: Hi, I'm Lindsey and I'm talking with MedTech industry leaders on how they change lives for a better world.

[00:00:09] Diane Bouis: The inventions and technologies are fascinating and so are the people who work with them.

[00:00:15] Frank Jaskulke: There was a period of time where I realized, fundamentally, my job was to go hang out with really smart people that are saving lives and then do work that would help them save more lives.

[00:00:28] Diane Bouis: I got into the business to save lives and it is incredibly motivating to work with people who are in that same business, saving or improving lives.

[00:00:38] Duane Mancini: What better industry than where I get to wake up every day and just save people's lives.

[00:00:42] Lindsey Dinneen: These are extraordinary people doing extraordinary work, and this is The Leading Difference.

[00:00:51] Hello, and welcome back to The Leading Difference podcast. I'm your host Lindsey, and I'm so excited to be speaking with my guest today, Roy Morgan. Roy has had a distinguished career at multiple medtech corporations. His experience includes team building, platform strategy, intellectual property filings, project management, budgeting, and scheduling. His project design and engineering skills are highly sought after in the medical device field, and Roy has a BS in Mechanical Engineering, a BA in Semiotics from Brown University, as well as a degree in project management from the University of California at Berkeley. Roy currently serves as the CEO of EagleMedical.

[00:01:32] Roy, thank you so much for being here.

[00:01:34] Roy Morgan: Well, it's wonderful to be here, and thanks for having me.

[00:01:36] Lindsey Dinneen: Course. Well, I would love if you don't mind starting off by sharing a little bit about yourself and your background and what led you to MedTech.

[00:01:45] Roy Morgan: Sure. So, my journey into medtech started in 1997 with a one question interview phone call. And it was an amazing moment in my career. I'll never forget it because it was only one question, and the question was, "Can you invent?" And I'll never forget it because I'd never heard that question asked before. You know, looking back now on a 30 plus year history in med device, I think I answered the question right. But some days I'm still not sure.

[00:02:15] I started out after that working for the Stryker endoscopy division of the Stryker corporation, was the lead innovator commercializer of their, I guess it's currently called the Crossfire Electrosurgical System. So I drove, you know, those things into market. I worked on their sports med team for a while, went on from there to work for some small startups doing other RF innovations in you know, tissue excision spaces, treatment spaces, then did some interesting work for Abbott diabetes care that launched I think people can see that now on television, it's called Freestyle Libre, it was originally known as Navigator. I was part of that development team in the early 2000s that got that off the ground and into the market

[00:03:07] Subsequent to that, went to do additional in vitro diagnostics and diabetes work for some startups in florida And then came back to the Bay Area, and found myself kind of wanting to do something a little bit different, and chose to work with a company called Eagle Medical to drive sterilization, packaging, and innovations in assembly technique and you know, speed to market from the last operations process standpoint. And that's where I find myself today.

[00:03:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Very nice. Well, thank you for sharing a little bit about your background. Did you always think that you might be an inventor or was this something that kind of came about over time?

[00:03:53] Roy Morgan: Well, you know, it's interesting. That question, if you can imagine yourself taking a phone call and thinking like the recruiter building this up as like, "Wow, this is the next greatest company since, you know, I don't know, Johnson and Johnson" or something like that. And you feel all this pressure. And then it's one question. And I can't tell you exactly how I answered it. It was something to the effect of, "Well, I can't be 100 percent certain, but I believe with every cell of my being that I can do it." And I guess it was good enough to get the next round of interviews. It worked out.

[00:04:29] And today I'm blessed to have been part of just an amazing industry. The things that I have been able to participate in, that I've seen done that are going on today, and that we continually, through Eagle, help produce for the greater global community, just amaze me. It's remarkable what we are able to do. It's even more remarkable the things that we're targeting to do in the coming years.

[00:04:56] And so all of that just kind of makes me think: I hope I can continue to invent and do things. I've been blessed and fortunate to have more than a few patents to my name at this point. So I think there's some truth to the answer I gave, or at least I, you know, I kidded myself into believing it and it worked out.

[00:05:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Well, yeah, you believe it and then you do it, right? So hey, you're just...

[00:05:19] Roy Morgan: There's lots of phrases for that. I won't use them here, but you know, it worked out is what I'll say.

[00:05:25] Lindsey Dinneen: Fantastic. Well, if you wouldn't mind sharing just a little bit about your work today with Eagle and just share a little bit about your heart behind it. I know you're very missions and values driven, and I would love to hear more about that too.

[00:05:39] Roy Morgan: Sure. I'll start with our why, because I think that's the biggest and most important thing to understand. Our mission here at Eagle is to provide just the absolute best quality of service to our customer base, and our customer base comes in layers. But I always try diligently to remind our staff at every level in the company that the most important layer of customer that we have is the end recipient of the products that we package here.

[00:06:15] They, as I like to tell them, they don't get a say. They're under anesthesia. They're unconscious. They can't see the quality of our work. They don't know, perhaps, even that it's part of the surgical process that there'll be receiving on any given day, of course, there's an implicit faith in our system that these products will be delivered in sterile conditions, that they are able to provide all of the benefit that surgeons, clinicians and support staff say that they can, and because our patients don't get a say, we have to do it right every time, all the time, without exception.

[00:06:56] And that's something that we really try to drive home here to, to everyone that works at Eagle. It's part of what we do, and the other thing that I remind people about is that everything that comes through our facility has UDIs and part numbers on them, but that's really a misnomer. Each and every product that comes through here really has a name on it. And that name could be a sister, a brother, father, mother, could be your own name. And so remembering that, I think, really brings home the importance of what we have to get right every day.

[00:07:33] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Yeah. And have you had any particular moments where it just really stood out to you as confirmation that you were in the right place at the right time in the right industry? This awareness of, "Oh, wow, yes, this is why I do what I do here."

[00:07:51] Roy Morgan: Wow, that's a great question. It's I don't know that there's like one moment. There are strings of moments that, that I can piece together in my mind. Most of it I think comes down to something that's deep seated in myself that has to do with desire for spreading good health to everyone around me, and I think it's... how do I say this? It's really something that's almost unconscious for me. There's a desire to see healing in people.

[00:08:28] Without going into it really in my own background, there's healing that's had to go on for me and others in my family that are important things to support, to encourage, and to help along in the world. And those I think are, they're just very powerful beliefs for me. And so the moments in my career that kind of lend themselves to that, have been moments in operating theater with patients that are conscious.

[00:08:58] Without getting too much into it, some very high profile athletes that have thanked me for the innovations that we brought into that operating theater that would enable them to continue their championship level sports endeavors. So it's about giving people a continued opportunity in life to do what they love to do to restore the life that they want and to have second chances when injury or misfortune might befall us, as it does all of us.

[00:09:30] So I think those moments really stand out in my mind as, "wow moments" where, you know, you may not be expecting it, you, it catches you off guard and it gives you a little bit of introspection about your own why. Why am I doing this? What's my mission? So, yeah, those are the kinds of things that, that count.

[00:09:51] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, and I love the way that you put it earlier where you were saying how-- and I think it's very human nature-- we get into the nitty gritty of the details and, and sometimes it does feel like, well, it's just, it's a component, it's a part number, it's whatever. And I love the way you put it about how actually those are, they get assigned to people. Those are humans who are affected by each and every one of the things you produce. And I love your emphasis in general, just listening to you speak, your care for human life and bettering it and helping the next generation.

[00:10:26] So I just want to say thank you for your perspective, because it's easy to lose sight of that when you're having to do such detailed work, I think, and I love that you continue to remind the folks that work with you and yourself, I assume, too, about how important this is, and it's, it's not just another day for somebody who's affected directly by what you're doing. And I think that's pretty cool.

[00:10:49] Roy Morgan: Yeah. Yes. Thank you. It's really my honor to serve in this role.

[00:10:54] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Well, what are you excited about next as your company continues to grow, you continue to invent and innovate. What's exciting for you?

[00:11:03] Roy Morgan: Well, so, you know in our industry, the past couple of years with the pandemic and other industry related challenges have made it a difficult time for a lot of med device manufacturing . Just to, to name a few, you've had supply chains that have gone upside down and sideways and every other way you can imagine. You've seen sterilization modalities come under intense environmental pressure, forcing closures throughout the industry of certain types of modalities, and putting pressure on the balance of the system to rise to the occasion and meet the excess demands, which of course, something like a pandemic raises to an entirely new level. I don't know if we understood it, prior to 2020, in the visceral manner that I think we do now that a strong healthcare supply chain, a strong healthcare technology sector is really a matter of national security. It's really a matter of being able to sustain our population and sustain our society at a level that is functional.

[00:12:14] I think the events of the past two years have highlighted for everyone that importance. So, I speak about those things in terms of how it's raised awareness. The excitement that it creates within me for the coming years is that I see tremendous innovation in how we're going to make things more resilient, how we're going to make them more capable, more scalable. And here at Eagle, what we're doing specifically, is implementing new digital transformations of this last operations process workflow so that we are able to spool up to demand levels that might seem insane. But to do it without breaking the machine, if you will.

[00:13:02] And I think a lot of a lot of companies out there, a lot of my compatriots that I speak to, CEOs across the industry, I hear the same echoes that, wow, there was just so much that had to be done that it was very difficult and nearly broke us to try and reach those levels of production. So I think building those systems now and putting those in place for us, really is exciting to look at the future to say, "Okay, we'll be much more ready next time around."

[00:13:32] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah, I mean, fingers crossed and all, there won't be that same. But I love that you are actively working towards it because I think you're absolutely right. It took so many people completely off guard and without having come up with a way to handle it ahead of time, it was very difficult for many people. So I love that you're going ahead and putting those systems in place to be prepared and, tackle it head on in the future.

[00:14:00] Roy Morgan: One, you know, one of the things that we're doing just as part of evolutionary innovation in the packaging space, we've developed a new system that's called the "PATH System." It's our Packaging Accelerated Timeline Help. And what it is, it really represents the first step of digital transformation of packaging validation. Traditionally packaging validations have been thought of as the rigor that terminally sterilized device has to be subjected to, to get all the way through distribution to actual operating theater, and it is and has been so for many decades. But, we have continually been testing the same types of packaging for decades.

[00:14:43] We, Eagle, just ourselves within our own production database, we've got millions of test data points that we can mine and use to our advantage. And in fact, we've done that. And what we've created is our own engineered proxy device that we validated inside of a packaging solution. So, PATH is really, I call it a time machine because what you're buying is not a pre validated sealed package that contains nothing but air. You're getting a full digital data package of a validated proxy device.

[00:15:21] It can be adopted as a worst case for any product family that's out there. The short story is, you're buying time, which helps a lot of companies out there that are trying to bring life altering technologies to market. They can save that time and that money, of course, because they both go hand in hand, getting to market sooner and being able to deliver that life altering technology to potential patients so they can benefit from it.

[00:15:47] We saw this as a natural innovation in the space of time compression, of the utilization of massive amounts of data in the historical canon that we have, and that other companies also have. So really, it just kind of made sense for us to move forward with it. It's now available. And we're seeing lots of interest and we expect to see a few companies take advantage of it in 2024 to get to market much more rapidly.

[00:16:12] Lindsey Dinneen: So exciting. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Thank you for sharing about that. I'm excited to look into it a little bit more too, but it's great to see all the innovation coming out of this space and keeps the hope very much alive that there continues to be passion and innovation moving forward. So, you know, throughout your career, you've held multiple leadership roles, of course, and I'm wondering how you view leadership. What is your own leadership style or philosophy and what's your advice for someone who might be looking to get into a more of a leadership role in the medtech industry for themselves?

[00:16:50] Roy Morgan: Sure. I'd say my leadership style is, I lead with inspiration and I follow with intellect. So it's pretty straightforward, but not easy to do. The inspiration is, I think, been popularized lately by Simon Sinek, who talks about start with "why." Well, that's what it is. Inspiration is the why. The intellect, that's what I call the mechanics of how to get it done. And that's really how I've gone throughout my career in tackling the various leadership roles that I have had the privilege of being a part of.

[00:17:30] I guess what I would say is to anyone looking and thinking about how to be an effective leader, it's a, it's as much an exercise in vulnerability as it is an exercise in your commitment to your own mission. You've got to know what that is. If you're going to be a leader, you want to be a leader in some particular endeavor, it's going to require a personal commitment to believe in that, to move toward it, and to live up to it. You're going to lead by example, which is generally the best way. But you're going to put your own success in the hands of others.

[00:18:16] I can't say that as a leader, the success is all mine, it's not. I've worked with some of the most amazing teams, the most talented engineers, the most amazing people who help make things happen in a way that leads to that success. And so that's the exercise in vulnerability. I often tell people being a leader means that you're willing to underwrite failure after failure without loss of enthusiasm.

[00:18:43] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes.

[00:18:45] Roy Morgan: And if you're, you know, if you're able to do that you'll get there. So.

[00:18:49] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. Thank you so much for that advice. I really appreciate your perspective too. Yeah. And so how do you see that play out especially nowadays where, you're in this obviously top leadership role, and one of the things that you are so passionate about is this sense of mission and core values and why we're doing what we're doing. And so I'm wondering, what are some ways that you have found to be effective in shaping culture to reflect the core values and help ensure that alignment, because I know sometimes, it's lovely to write those statements and we believe in them and we want them to be true, but it can be hard in the day to day operations when things get tough and difficult decisions have to be made to really adhere to them. So I'm wondering, how do you go about that particular component of leadership?

[00:19:43] Roy Morgan: You've caught me at an opportune juncture in my career. Let me give you the setup and then I'll tell you what's going on. For the past 20 plus, 30, almost 30 years now, I guess, yeah, 30 years, I have used a performance management system, a goal system, which most people are familiar with, that I'll work with individual team members, my direct reports and their sub teams, et cetera, to establish a set of goals. That's worked very well. It's been successful and has provided a great amount of accomplishment over that time period.

[00:20:17] But recently I felt like I was getting stuck in a rut, that the goal system as effective as it is has become-- I'm not sure what the best way to put it-- other leaders out there who go through this sort of self check in or appraisal, if you will, will understand what I'm getting at. You're just wondering if, "Gosh, I haven't innovated myself in a long time." And I would say that this is the other challenging thing about being a leader: if you let yourself get stuck in a rut, you develop complacency. Just like teams, just like company, it all happens, but it can happen to you. And I think in 2023, I took a look in the mirror and I said, "You know what? I'm feeling a little complacent. I'm feeling a little bit like this goal system is just my go to thing. I've done it for 30 years."

[00:21:09] And so this year, I am trying something very different. We're trying the Four Disciplines of Execution, the 4DX approach, to how we're going to run our team goals. So, people out there who are familiar with it will know what it is. I'm not going to go, it's not going to go into the details of it here. But Lindsey, what I'll tell you is, for me, it's terrifying at the outset because it feels like I'm taking my hand off the wheel. I'm entrusting my teams to develop their goal set, to set their timing, to set their commitments.

[00:21:50] Sure, I took part in setting the what they call the "WIG," the wildly important goal for the year, right? But I didn't set it by myself. I had to call the team in and say, "Look, guys, this is where we are. This is the struggles we're going through. This is what we want to achieve going forward. Is this the right goal for us to focus on?" I created a proto goal, but it was modified and I was okay with that. So, it's basically a starting line, a finish line and a deadline, right?

[00:22:21] And so we did that. They changed it. It's now created and I'm uncomfortable. I'm in that, I'm in that gray space of uncomfortableness where I'm trusting that the system, which has many successful reports is going to work for us in the same way. It's knocking me out of my comfort zone. And I did that to myself on purpose. I'm doing this because, for me, I know that's a growth zone. I'm going to have to stretch. I'm going to have to grow. I'm going to have to think differently moving forward. It's terrifying.

[00:23:00] And I would say to other leaders out there, this is what you have to do. This is what you have to do to achieve growth, having mentors, having other inputs, those are valuable, and they work for me too. But really this is a question of courage. It's a question of courage. You have to step up to the plate. I'm taking a swing. I'm hoping I hit the ball and if I do, I hope it goes over the fence.

[00:23:28] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. I I really appreciate first of all, you being willing to talk about that because it is uncomfortable when you're going through a growth season maybe whether it's your choice or not, but even more so, when it's your choice and you're going, "I'm doing this because it's like you know taking your daily vitamins or whatever, maybe something you don't love, but you know it's for your benefit in the long run," and, but I understand that curve of, "Oh boy, this is, there's a lot of change and we're gonna, we're gonna see how it goes." But I commend you for that. I really do. And I'm excited. I hope we get to check back in a year and all things, "Say, hey, how's it going?"

[00:24:08] Roy Morgan: Great. Yes. I hope to have great reports for you.

[00:24:11] Lindsey Dinneen: I love it. Well, that was great. I really appreciate that. Pivoting just a little bit for fun. Imagine someone were to offer you a million dollars to teach your masterclass on anything you want. What would you choose to teach and why? And also, it doesn't have to be in your industry. It can be, doesn't have to be.

[00:24:31] Roy Morgan: Sure. I think for me it would be it would be about creativity. It would be about, it would be about how to organize your life to have creative moments at as many turns as you possibly can, because creativity in itself, people ascribe for whatever reason, I guess in Western culture, we talk about it as a, an element of productivity or an element that's woven into capitalism, if you will, in a way that I don't think it's necessarily-- no, in fact, I know this-- it's absolutely not meant to be that.

[00:25:11] Creativity is a source of fun by and large at its core, at its absolute core. It's like being... How do I say this? Well, this happened to me the other day. I was out on my, my, on my bicycle and I came over this hilltop after a long, hard climb and I began this descent and it was it was so overpoweringly filled with joy, that for a moment, you forget what you're doing. You have to get back on task quick 'cause it's a mountain road and you don't wanna make mistakes. But in that moment, it's, it's just about the joy and the fun.

[00:25:45] I think I would teach about that because there are so many, I guess, so many challenging moments in human life for so many people, that to have a structure to help themselves to bring themselves joy, well, that would be really rewarding. Yeah, so I think that would be what I would talk about: how those elements in, in my own life got me through some difficult periods and, saw me through to the other side.

[00:26:26] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah. I love that.

[00:26:28] Roy Morgan: That would be it.

[00:26:30] Lindsey Dinneen: I would totally take that masterclass. I'm all about creativity and joy, so, yeah. That sounds like a fabulous class to teach. How do you wish to be remembered after you leave this world?

[00:26:41] Roy Morgan: Ooh, wow. That's, that's a question that combines both austerity and optimism in the same note. How would I like to be remembered? I guess if I had to put it in one sentence, as a song. I don't know, I don't know that, yeah, I don't know that song is fully written yet.

[00:27:04] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.

[00:27:06] Roy Morgan: Yeah, I think that's how.

[00:27:07] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. Now, would it be instrumental or would it be a lyric-ed song?

[00:27:15] Roy Morgan: It would probably have few lyrics and it would be mostly music.

[00:27:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Okay. I'm digging it. That's by far the most creative answer I've ever gotten for this question. So I I'm loving it.

[00:27:29] Roy Morgan: Well, it's, there you go, creativity, right?

[00:27:32] Lindsey Dinneen: There you go.

[00:27:33] Roy Morgan: That's what it's all about.

[00:27:34] Lindsey Dinneen: Reoccurring theme. I love it. Yeah. And, and final question, what is one thing that makes you smile every time you see or think about it?

[00:27:45] Roy Morgan: Oh, wow. One thing, there's so many things I'm lucky like that, that do that for me. I, well, the one thing that pops into my head right now is the sunrise. And I guess that, that kind of ties it in for me. I have this saying that I tell people, in fact, I was just doing a whole bunch of it here on New Year's Day. I say this all the time to myself and to others, "Well, here is another 365 chances to be great."

[00:28:15] Lindsey Dinneen: Yeah.

[00:28:16] Roy Morgan: So with each sunrise, a new chance to be great.

[00:28:21] Lindsey Dinneen: Yes, and that's definitely a reason to smile. There's new hope every day. I love it.

[00:28:28] Roy Morgan: May sound a little corny, but it works for me.

[00:28:29] Lindsey Dinneen: I'm all about the corny when it works. Sometimes even just the corny for corny's sake. Let's be real. Yeah, well this has been an amazing conversation. I really appreciate you. I love the work that you're doing, but I especially resonate with and so value the emphasis that you put on remembering that what you're doing and the work that you're producing matters so much and it matters to humans and it's not just another part coming out. And so I just want to reiterate again how much I appreciate the way that you talk about that and the way that your company actively works to change lives for a better world.

[00:29:09] So thank you for what you're doing and what you're bringing to the world. And I just really appreciate it. And we're excited to be making a donation on your behalf, as a thank you for your time today, to Sleep in Heavenly Peace, which provides beds for children who don't have any in the United States. So thank you for choosing that charity to support. And thank you again so much for being here. This has been a wonderful conversation.

[00:29:36] Roy Morgan: It's been my pleasure, Lindsey, and I wish you and all your team there a wonderful 2024.

[00:29:42] Lindsey Dinneen: Thank you. And thank you also to our listeners for tuning in. And if you're feeling as inspired as I am right now, I'd love it if you'd share this episode with a colleague or two, and we will catch you next time.

[00:29:55] Ben Trombold: The Leading Difference is brought to you by Velentium. Velentium is a full-service CDMO with 100% in-house capability to design, develop, and manufacture medical devices from class two wearables to class three active implantable medical devices. Velentium specializes in active implantables, leads, programmers, and accessories across a wide range of indications, such as neuromodulation, deep brain stimulation, cardiac management, and diabetes management. Velentium's core competencies include electrical, firmware, and mechanical design, mobile apps, embedded cybersecurity, human factors and usability, automated test systems, systems engineering, and contract manufacturing. Velentium works with clients worldwide, from startups seeking funding to established Fortune 100 companies. Visit velentium.com to explore your next step in medical device development.