Passion helps bind Hologic and Cytyc
Merger created one the largest women's health companies
Hologic Inc. became one of the world's largest women's healthcare companies when it bought Marlborough-based Cytyc Corp. last year for $6.2 billion. Bedford-based Hologic was already the biggest supplier of mammography machines to detect breast cancer, while Cytyc was a major supplier of pap smear tests to spot cervical cancer. Together, they have $1.7 billion in annual sales and 2,800 employees, including about 850 in Massachusetts. Globe reporter Todd Wallack recently sat down with Hologic chief executive Jack Cumming to talk about the merger and other issues.
I get the sense you like to needle people.
I do. As we're getting to know the Cytyc people, and they sit in a meeting and watch us pick at each other, you realize there are rules: Never say anything malicious. But we're not immune from having someone make fun of us when we do something silly. We all pick on one another. It makes for what I think is a more relaxed environment. Business is serious enough without having to play staunch business guys. Does it ever rub people the wrong way?
Sure. I've learned the whole being politically correct thing has gone so far the wrong way. I want to say: "C'mon, America, let's get our sense of humor back." It's hard not to offend today.
Any examples?
I speak before a lot of women's groups. And I'm always saying you have to get a mammogram. I'd say, "God forbid, you ever have breast cancer and you don't survive. Just the thought of your husband raising your children. Isn't that frightening enough to go out and get a mammogram?" I'd say, "Ladies, we're not capable of this." I usually get a lot of laughs. But I had somebody take offense because they thought I was taking a shot at single parents.
Has it been hard to merge the Cytyc and Hologic cultures?
The passion that both companies had for women's healthcare is the common link that binds us together. A company like ours would disintegrate to have somebody just chasing the sales of widgets, chasing the bottom line. There are so many stories of people here who are breast cancer survivors, who have lost relatives. That's one reason I'm in the business, having lost a very close friend.
I didn't know that
It's not a secret. My wife and I had a close friend that we watched battle breast cancer for about seven years and finally died.
A lot of CEOs say it becomes harder to manage a company as it becomes larger.
If nothing else, it's logistics. Since we bought out Cytyc on October 22, I have been to Asia twice to meet with people there, to Barcelona to meet with all the folks from Northern and Southern Europe, to Costa Rica, all the facilities here. It's very important for people to get to know you.
With the merger, you now have significant facilities in both Marlboroughand Bedford. Any talk of creating one unified campus?
I don't see that happening. You are disrupting too many lives.
Any concern that a possible recession or cuts in government spending could crimp the amount of money hospitals spend on new equipment?
I am much more worried about the economy affecting healthcare than more (government) cuts. The more people who are out of work, the more pressure on the hospitals. People won't have insurance. Our 41 million uninsured is going to go up. The hospitals will still give the service, unreimbursed, and then they will have to postpone or delay some of their projects.
You talked about your passion for women's healthcare, but I noticed your executive officers are all men.
The medical industry has been a boy's club for a long, long time. When women wanted to go into the imaging business, they were told that they could go into ultrasound - pigeonholing, slotting those women. The other issue you have is that women are not going to engineering schools. When you go to engineering schools, they are almost all men, and you hire men. We have a conscious program to try to identify women within our company who can move up to leadership roles. Our chief medical officer, Dr. Ellen Sheets, leads it. But from the reporting officers, it's men. On the board of directors - and I count the independent directors - we have three women and four men. But we have not done as well as we should have and we're trying. Quite frankly, if you have daughters first, you have a whole different perspective. You find very quickly that the girls get the worst baseball fields because I had girls who played softball. It has to change.
Are you planning more acquisitions?
We will remain opportunistic. I don't see us changing that pattern.
I heard you were here at 3 a.m. I don't sleep much. I don't.
Do you start work early and leave early?
Yeah. I still have a couple kids at home. I like to see them at the end of the day. I will work again at night. The best times to talk to people (overseas) are really at early hours in the morning. 