Toshiba America Medical Systems has promoted several executives in its ultrasound business following the departure of Daniel Dugan to Acuson earlier this month (SCAN 4/10/91).
Rick Smith, formerly national sales manager for ultrasound at TAMS, has replaced Dugan as vice president, ultrasound business operations. Thomas Jedrzejewicz, who arrived at TAMS from Acuson with Dugan in 1989, was promoted from marketing manager to director of marketing for ultrasound. Lyle Mussman, former western district sales manager for ultrasound, replaced Smith as national sales manager.
Smith, a nine-year Toshiba executive, has been closely involved with the TAMS effort to expand its ultrasound business over the last year.
"To be successful in ultrasound, you need focus. We knew that if we could break out ultrasound from the full-line (medical imaging) organization, and improve communications between engineering and marketing, we could make it a very exciting business. That has been accomplished," Smith told SCAN.
TAMS ultrasound sales grew 50% last year. The unit's dedicated ultrasound sales force increased to 35 representatives, soon to be 38. Dedicated sales groups were formed for high-end radiology and cardiology efforts, he said.
"We have doubled our applications force to where we have more applications people than sales people. We quadrupled our marketing staff and will continue to increase it," Smith said. "Our (ultrasound) service organization has grown from 40 to over 60 people. We are building the organization across the board, with the anticipation of 25% to 30% continued growth in sales."
TAMS is also preparing to create an ultrasound engineering group in the U.S., he said.
"We plan to have (an engineering staff) on board in the next 12 months. We are bringing U.S. engineers in house to work under the direction of our lead engineer from Japan," he said.
TAMS will launch major ultrasound advertising campaigns in the cardiac and radiology markets this year and build its presence in national and regional trade shows, Jedrzejewicz said.
The expanded TAMS ultrasound sales staff covers the U.S. and is able to participate in most bidding situations, said Mussman, who worked 14 years for ultrasound vendor ATL before joining Toshiba last year.
"Toshiba is now a major player in almost every deal going down," Mussman said. "We are taking a proactive approach (to ultrasound sales). We perform telemarketing and market research first, rather than reacting to opportunities."
