Former Johnson & Johnson MedTech leader Ashley McEvoy shared insights on innovation, servant leadership, medtech regulation and the importance of gender and ethnic equity to improve patient care — and the bottom line.
Ashley McEvoy [Photo courtesy of Procter & Gamble]
So it’s no surprise that she drew a crowd of women medtech executives for an interview by medtech veteran Martha Shadan at the MedExec Women 2024 Conference in April.
McEvoy reflected on her career as a female leader in medtech and offered advice and inspiration for leadership in service of others.
As a Johnson & Johnson EVP, McEvoy led 60,000 global employees and grew the company’s medical device revenue fivefold during her tenure. Johnson & Johnson MedTech — the world’s second-largest medical device company, according to Medical Design & Outsourcing‘s Medtech Big 100 rankings by revenue — reported more than $30 billion in sales for 2023.
McEvoy currently serves on the Board of Directors of Proctor & Gamble and on the Board of Trustees of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The following is an edited transcript of the interview shared exclusively with Medical Design & Outsourcing.
Did you have a grand plan for your career?
Fifteen years ago I stumbled into medtech after working in the service industry, consumer products, and then healthcare. Half of my journey at J&J was in consumer health and I apply that experience to my work with Proctor & Gamble now.
I should note that this is my sixth “sabbatical” in the past 30 years of my career. I have five kids. I appreciated the support I received in both my professional and personal life to advance to this stage of my career and be here with you today to reflect on it.
I want to stay deeply connected to healthcare. There is no more noble industry. We all want to have an impact in the world and what you do as medtech executives matters. You make a difference in people’s lives.
Can you tell us what you believe makes a great leader?
Servant leadership. The world needs leaders who are not concerned so much about themselves, but about serving their teams and — in the medtech industry — serving patients. Leadership is about having a purpose and making an impact. You are all leaders shaping future lives of the next generation. We need to ask ourselves how we can make it better. And, like you, I take that very seriously.
Think about what we can accomplish if we can uncover in the people we lead:
- Are they fit for purpose?
- What’s it going to take for them to be at their personal best?
- How can they use their superpowers in their work?
You need to have a vision for people way beyond what they have for themselves. As a leader who was helped by others along the way, I believe you need to pay it forward. My curiosity about people and their intrinsic motivation helps to get the best out of people and this is true in all industries.
What does an innovative culture look like? How do we get there?
It’s about people and all about service. What or whom are we in the service of? In medtech, it is patients.
Innovation is multidisciplinary, we need to look at the state of science, and our choices, and we need to add the art — human capital. We take advancements in biology and bring them to the world of medtech. Sometimes it helps to look outside our industry and look at the swim lanes of healthcare, for example. We are a relatively slow-moving industry. But we have made great progress and today we are on the cutting edge of personalized medicine. And we are refining procedures that are less invasive, improving the patient experience.
We have so many advanced technologies, like 3D printing, data analytics and others with which we should be able to service everybody’s needs.
How do you think about innovation in terms of acquisition vs. organic R&D? Is there a “right” balance?
I think it is best to be agnostic about where you source innovation — inside or outside the company. You may find innovation via acquisition or within R&D. There is no specific ratio.
Disruptive innovation may take a couple of generations. If a technology is truly transformative, we make choices to let it have a life. While a company and its team want to see the return/gratification from a project, you need to allow space for innovations to grow. To achieve success, support those novel ideas over time and give permission for them to fail.
As a female executive in the medtech industry, what is your opinion on the best ways to navigate and promote diversity and inclusion to optimize innovation?
Industries that understand their customer base outperform the S&P. We have blind spots. We need to pay attention to who is making the buying decisions — often it’s women. So, let’s look at our patient population and ask: What can medtech do to better represent the patient population within our companies, and on our boards?
Companies are coming together to talk with each other about this. It’s great to see the numbers here at MedExec Women. This is a great opportunity for women from across the industry to move the needle and better represent our patient population.
I care about the impact of innovation at scale because I care about patient impact. In this industry, we save lives. It will take talent — the right human capital — to dedicate their lives to medtech. We need to have good answers to the questions:
- Can you make a living out of this?
- Can you see yourself contributing your skills to a medtech organization?
- Is there enough science and enough capital to optimize innovation?
- How can we harness the power of the right people, science and capital to optimize innovation in the service of patients?
How can we encourage more women and people of color to choose medtech? And how do we maintain their presence and help them grow?
No. 1: You need a pipeline of good women. To achieve that you need to consider how attractive the industry is. Is it a growth industry? Can I do good for people in medtech? How long does it take to see results of my work (lifecycle management)?
The pipeline won’t come unless they see people like themselves. We are nowhere near other industries in terms of representation of women. So we need to invite allies to help. These allies care about performance, inspire and mentor people. They can provide a balance to a woman’s inner voice, which is likely super self-critical.
No. 2: Help these women imagine lives they never expected. Give them the encouragement and mindset to achieve their goals. Help women believe in their capabilities to take on new challenges. Encourage them to embrace opportunities and not say, “I don’t know if I can do it.” If we all say, “Yes you can,” there will be a multiplier effect.
The theme of this conference is innovation. Can you share your personal experience leading innovation within a traditionally male-dominated industry?
I had trusted colleague who ran R&D. His mantra was, “Innovation is a company sport.” Innovation is about a mindset and orientation where everyone feels like it’s their job to tackle big unmet medical needs. We need to look at the science, technology, supply chain, total addressable markets and the physician’s perspective on a problem. You can create a five-person super agile team and make them accountable for creating a stream of new products for customers within the verticals of your organization.
We need to do innovation at scale, while maintaining robust clinical acumen and taking advantage of AI, visualization, 3D printing and Big Data. We need to think about where we are on that innovation S-curve. I think it’s super fun to work in this industry. And we can make such a great contribution to the world when we remember there are 8 billion patients on the planet whose needs we are addressing.
Diversity of thought is important in an organization. The data shows that male-female ratios are equitable at entry level in industry. However, as scope of work and responsibility increases, the presence of women decreases. When you get to the C-suite, it’s 80% male and fewer than 10% of CEOs are black or women of color. We need to improve our representation of the patient population at all levels of our companies and encourage upward mobility.
We can each contribute to increasing diversity by thinking about whether we are perpetuating biases through our choices and even the words we use. More of us need to recognize and advocate for a diverse team. Be self-aware, then change how you behave. When you are in a position of power, challenge biases and model what it takes to ensure a merit-based approach to growth.
It’s not equitable yet. Smart companies are sticking by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) until we get equity. Public companies have to perform. We need a talent base that reflects our customer or patient base.
Medical Design & Outsourcing analysis: Women hold less than a quarter of executive roles in medtech
Do you believe there is a difference between how women foster and drive innovation versus men?
To foster innovation, we need to run to the opportunity! Listen with big ears and an insatiable curiosity — lead with that. It’s a mindset of hunger and growth. Then invite others in. Everyone in the company is a value creator, not just R&D. We all need to be customer obsessed.
In medtech, the competency and credibility bar is high for us women. I’ve learned that you have to be clear on your mission and purpose. And, you have to do your homework. When people are comfortable talking with you, you can listen, learn a lot, and get unique insights. Then, use what you learn to translate that into value for patients.
What are some of the headwinds to innovation that the medtech industry faces? We have talked about developing and nurturing technologies, but what about the regulatory challenges that are unique to medtech?
I really believe that a strong regulator is good for the industry. The FDA needs talented, qualified staff and they need to modify their system to better address innovative products like software as a service and digital health. We need to explore the best uses of AI and visualization to support product development.
As we consider some of the shifts in the industry — especially around data collection and analysis — we can consider how to take advantage of them to create more durability. One example is by incorporating real world evidence into our innovation.
A healthy relationship with regulators can ensure compliance and methods that are sustainable and improve patient outcomes (e.g. sterilization in operating rooms, which industry initiated). We need to consider all the data and review the benefits and risks with the FDA as we move towards a more predictable regulatory process.
What has your experience been serving on boards? Any advice for how to be considered and placed on boards?
If there is a good balance of male-female on a board, the company will be more successful. Studies show that total shareholder return exceeds the competitive composite when you have diverse boards.
While women represent over 50% of the US population, they hold fewer than 33% of the board seats in Fortune 500 companies. And individuals from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups (40.6% of the population) hold only 22.2% of board seats across Fortune 500 companies.
So, it’s clear that we need to increase the number of females and people from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups on boards.
One way to support this effort is for companies to allow their high-achieving employees to serve on boards of other organizations. While they contribute their perspective and capabilities to a board, they also gain insights from other accomplished leaders and learn about how other organizations are managed. Of course, there should be guiding principles for this to work. Organizations that see the benefits can create guidelines that ensure there are no potential conflicts of interest for an employee.
There are a wide variety of board opportunities, including civic groups, schools, non-profit and cultural organizations as well as industry associations, like MassMEDIC and AdvaMed.
Some folks are on multiple boards. Once you are on one, you are more likely to be invited to join others. I often find opportunities to recommend other women to boards that I am invited to join.
If you are interested in serving on a particular board, think about what you, with your unique superpowers, can contribute to a particular organization. Then get to know the people on the nominating and governance committee and invite them for coffee. Get active in the C200, which champions the advancement of women to leadership roles. Participate in organizations like MedExec Women and network at meetings like this.
Board participation can help you become a better leader.
Editor’s note: While Medical Design & Outsourcing does not offer pre-publication review to interview subjects, MedExec Women allowed McEvoy to review and approve all quotes before publication.
