Pedro Magalhăes, Managing Director, InnoBioTech
Setting up own business, calling all the shots, hustling to hit the goals— for many, entrepreneurship is something they always felt destined to do. However, not all entrepreneurs set out with the goal of running a company. In fact, some of the most successful and inspirational business leaders don’t have the entrepreneurial itch in the beginning. But, being so personally invested in solving a problem, they end up making a big impact in the world of business. They embrace challenges, learn from their experiences and work themselves to the bone to engineer a solution to a long-standing problem and thus make a difference in the lives of others. An embodiment of such exemplary leadership is Pedro Magalhăes, the Managing Director of InnoBioTech, a leading company dedicated to providing advanced medical devices and techniques with a high-quality service.
Pedro never had a dream of being an entrepreneur. At the age of 20, he was at the university to become a physical education teacher. But soon, he realized it was not really the career that he wanted to have in the future. So, he ventured into the orthopedic prosthesis industry and worked for several leading organizations in the sector as a sales representative and sales specialist. But, to grow in the industry, he decided to go back to the university and pursue his graduation in marketing management. Subsequently, after a quick pass at “Medcomtech”, a company dedicated to Spine and Trauma of Extremity (Hand and Foot&Ankle), Pedro was challenged to work as product manager Trauma at “Skymedical”, a distributor in Portugal of “Stryker” products. And once again, his yearning for growth took him back to the university where he pursued his MBA. This awakened the entrepreneurial spirit within Pedro and provided him with the tools to build a company in the orthopedic medical devices field.
The Beginning of InnoBioTech
It all started when an orthopedic surgeon in the north of Portugal requested an infrequently used device. A company called Stryker was selling it in other countries but did not want to sell this device in Portugal perhaps because it is a small and peripheral market. After a simple market consultation, Pedro discerned that this type of device, which every surgeon uses a few times a year, has a quite interesting margin and the “giants” of this industry do not have much interest or are not awake to the opportunity to sell them. He did a more in-depth market study, drew up a business plan, and created a list of products with the characteristics identified in the study. Thereafter, he contacted the companies that manufacture these devices, many of them with very weak or even non-existent competition in the Portuguese market. “After some trips, especially to the USA, I managed to put together a portfolio of high-quality products, with the help of some partners in Spain to achieve some scale, which is interesting for manufacturers. I must mention the Pau Margarit that was from the start an indispensable partner,” elucidates Pedro.
Thus, to market new high-quality medical devices that need to quickly reach a market like Portugal which, in terms of scale, is smaller than the markets in central or northern Europe, InnoBioTech was born. Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, today, the pioneering company focuses on 3 business areas: a solution for the treatment of all types of cartilage defects, treatment of peripheral nerve injuries, and bone substitutes for the treatment of infections.
Fostering Healthy Customer Relationships
InnoBioTech’s clients are orthopedic surgeons and plastic surgeons and it seeks to build a portfolio based on biological products, with strong scientific evidence of their efficacy and safety that help these surgeons treat their patients with the approach most like the patient’s normal anatomy and biology. “We have a business model based on management efficiency and trust in our suppliers to achieve a fast and very reliable value chain that allows us to be very trustworthy with the commitments we assume with customers and so they feel confident in using our products in their patients,” adds Pedro.
The client-centric company always strives to be by the side of its clients in their ongoing training so that it can better understand and satisfy their needs and build a healthy relationship with its clients. “My mission at InnoBioTech is to take the company along a path that makes it a reference in the market with the most innovative products and an excellent service. I believe that we can soon incorporate more partners so that we can build, in a solid way, a company that is indispensable every time a surgeon thinks about performing surgery with a biological and innovative approach,” affirms Pedro.
Surmounting the Challenges
Like every successful company, InnoBiotech had to face its own share of challenges to reach where it is today. The biggest challenge for the company was to make its current stakeholders believe in a project that, at first, was just a vision. “It was difficult to overcome some initial barriers that make us doubt our own ability. This experience of starting a company with just an idea has made me value every little victory that we are achieving in life as a great leap of motivation that makes us move forward and always look for more,” affirms Pedro.
Drawing key learnings from such challenges, Jeremy advises emerging entrepreneurs to have a true entrepreneurial mindset. “Entrepreneurship is not just trying to start a business. We can start by being entrepreneurs within our companies, proposing new approaches to customers, entering new markets, changes in the business model, among many others. I believe that this is how new ideas and new businesses are created and the economy and jobs are transformed,” states Pedro.
Envisioning Great Opportunities Ahead
The visionary entrepreneur believes that digital transformation will have a greater impact on the doctor/patient relationship and surgical approach techniques in the coming years. According to Pedro, the devices will also be increasingly personalized, almost tailor-made, as soon as the industry achieves the channels and the necessary scale to not increase healthcare costs. Moving ahead, he sees great opportunities in the provision of consultancy to medical device manufacturers and other distributors that are not yet represented in Portugal and aspires to implement them.