Out with the old
When Patrick Sullivan took over as CEO for Insulet (NASDAQ:PODD) and said he was going to make changes he wasn’t kidding. Today the last vestiges of the old regimen are gone with Patrick Ryan, former Chief Operating Officer, resigning to pursue other interests and David Colleran, J.D replacing R. Anthony Diehl as Vice President and General Counsel. According to a company issued press release Mr. Diehl also resigned. The company also announced that “Mark Licari has been promoted to Vice President of Global Manufacturing and Operations, effective immediately.”
Now that there is no one left from the previous management team and Pat has put his people in place the question remains the same can they turn things around. Perhaps looked at from a different perspective will the Board and street give Pat the time he needs to turn things around. As we noted the last time we wrote about Insulet Pat has no one left he can throw under the bus. He can no longer place all the blame for how the company is doing at the feet of the old management team. It’s time for Pat and his new team to accept ownership for how the company is doing.
Since we have written extensively on the issues facing the insulin pump market and the many issues facing Insulet we will not regurgitate previous material. All we will add is market dynamics have not improved and in some respects have gotten worse.
To Diabetic Investor it’s becoming clearer with each move Pat makes that he wants out of this wacky world. That he wants Insulet to be a drug delivery company not an insulin pump company. That’s all well and good but the problem is it will take time and money to transform the company. The harsh reality is the insulin pump business must not only survive but thrive if this transformation is going to take place. Should sales of the OmniPod continue to fall below expectations Pat will not be given the time nor the money to transform the company.
To Diabetic Investor all these changes in management while necessary don’t deal with the core problem facing the company. How do they sell more OmniPod’s? They can talk all they want about being a drug delivery company but without OmniPod sales they cannot survive. We have seen smoke and mirrors with the previous management team and had hoped Pat and his team would be different. Guess the more things change the more they stay the same.
