Brian Taylor was one of the founding partners of Medical Distribution Solutions, Inc. (MDSI) more than two decades ago. Today, he looks back with pride on how far the organization has come, all the while remaining true to its original mission and focus.
“If everything we do is aimed at helping suppliers gain market share, no matter what it is—whether it’s through our magazine advertisement, whether it’s through our data services—whatever it is we do, as long as it’s focused and we keep that focus about providing them tools that help them move market share, we’ll be successful. I think we’ve held true to that pretty well… it’s a good measuring block for us.”
When talking about MDSI’s flagship product, Repertoire Magazine, Taylor explains that it was the magazine’s intentionally focused mission that made it stand out within the industry, a factor that has significantly contributed to its continued success.
“Our first tagline for Repertoire was ‘the industry’s only focused publication for medical, surgical reps.’ And our major competitor, MPS, couldn’t make that claim because they were essentially saying, ‘No, we’re everything to everybody.’… We would tell manufacturers, ‘Hey, you’re spending all this money to advertise in MPS, but it’s going to home healthcare reps and you’re a surgical product. What good is that? That’s wasteful. Advertise in a focused publication and your message will be much more impactful.’ And you know, reps really liked it because it was about them and not about homecare reps and pharma reps and so forth, so it worked, and it really was kind of fun.”
The fun didn’t end there, as Taylor puts it, “We probably have way too much fun. People in the industry who know us just shake their heads at some of the stuff we do… we have fun.” He went on to explain, “I think it’s really important to our people to create an atmosphere and a culture, if you will, that isn’t all about making the sale and so forth… Even if you’re successful, if it’s not fun, that’s not the journey you want to be on.”
The leadership of MDSI certainly puts great emphasis on the importance of their company culture, and truly values their people; as Taylor says, “It’s all about our people.” Taylor describes himself as “a people guy,” confessing, “I want to know way too much, probably, than they want to share with me about their personal lives. I want to know about their families, what their hobbies are, what drives them, because I think it helps me understand what makes them tick business-wise.”
It is evident that Taylor is very proud of his team at MDSI, saying,
“I get no greater pleasure than when I hear—and I hear it a lot—compliments about our people to me. People drop me a note, pick up the phone, say, ‘Oh my gosh, that Alicia, she’s great,’ or ‘Geez, Blake did this,’ or whoever it is, and it just brings a grin to my face and it makes me prouder than I could ever imagine.”
When asked to describe some of MDSI’s current priorities and challenges, Taylor listed three things:
- Improve as a team in executing on our strategy. “We’re all great idea guys. We have meetings, and we come out saying, “Gosh we’re smart. Really, what a great idea.” Then it doesn’t get executed on. So I think we need to focus more on that.”
- Stay deeply invested in understanding the changes that reform is having on our industry. “To me, I think that’s our role. We’ve become trusted advisors, and people call us like, ‘Hey, what do you guys think?’ So I think it’s really important for us.”
- Continue to hire smart and develop people to handle the two things above.
Taylor concluded by saying, “If we try to keep it pretty simple, I think that we’ll stay true to our focus of continuing to provide tools that help folks gain market share.”