Zimmer Returns To Its Roots

Once an implant manufacturer's most valuable asset, independent distributors have taken a beating recently. Now, one major implant company reaffirms the value of independent distribution in a cost-constrained marketplace.

Ten years ago, Bruce Peterson was Vice President of Marketing for Zimmer Inc., the orthopedics implant leader and division of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , preparing to begin a new career as an independent distributor for rival Johnson & Johnson Orthopedics (now part of Johnson & Johnson Professional Diagnostics), a Johnson & Johnson operating company. As he was leaving, Peterson believed Zimmer faced a number of difficult issues in its selling organization. “Despite the fact that the company was very successful and growing fast, there were many territories where we weren't seeing the kind of growth we should have seen,” he recalls.

In 1996, Peterson returned to Zimmer, this time as SVP, US sales and marketing, a newly created post as head...

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