4 Time CEO Keith Grossman on Turnarounds, Culture, and Boardroom Truths

Описание: In Episode 1 of Season 1 of No Spotlight Needed, Sheetal sits down with Keith Grossman, a four time CEO and MedTech operator known for building and turning around companies through focus, urgency, and team first culture.

Keith walks through the arc of his career, including becoming CEO of Thoratec at 35 with the company nearly out of cash, engineering a major merger to secure future technology, leading through the personal and organizational tragedy of 9/11, stepping away at the right time, and later returning to reignite execution and regain market share.

They also dig into what makes boards helpful instead of harmful, why CEOs should not try to manage boards like a management team, and what Keith believes is the most repeatable lever in leadership: recruiting great people and creating energized cultures that win.

What you’ll learn
• How Keith prioritized when the company had almost no cash and everything was urgent
• Why he pushed a merger even while winning near term market share
• Leading through loss and keeping an organization steady in a crisis
• The difference between growth through new customers vs getting to standard of care
• Why decisive leadership and fewer projects often unlock performance fast
• Board best practices for CEOs: collaboration, education, and honest dialogue
• Keith’s “leadership superpower”: recruiting and building high performance cultures


Timestamps:
00:00 Cold open: outcomes, what boards should do, and leadership focus
01:03 Intro to Keith: 4 time CEO, major exits, non linear path
02:16 Welcome + rapid fire begins
02:41 Where Keith was born and raised
02:50 Parents and early influences
03:13 “Nothing happens until somebody sells something”
03:46 College path: Miami of Ohio to Ohio State
04:17 Athlete, music, and team sports as leadership training
05:46 First jobs and earning early
06:30 Why Thoratec at 35 with $1M left and a massive challenge
08:56 Early priorities: capital raise, team, manufacturing, commercialization
10:44 Building the market while the plane is in the air
11:34 The hard truth: bridge to transplant market was too small
13:36 The merger strategy and why it worked
15:33 Negotiating control and why the deal was possible
17:37 The roller coaster: 9 11 and losing COO Tom Burnett on Flight 93
19:41 Leading through crisis: restructure and communicate immediately
21:40 Company mission and recovery
22:43 Why Keith initiated succession planning during a “magical” period
25:10 Results from first run at Thoratec
26:14 Joining TPG and learning the industry from the other side
28:34 Why Keith didn’t want to be a venture capitalist
29:08 Operator at heart
29:19 Taking the CEO role at Conceptus: why it was compelling
31:49 Diagnosis: growth stalled due to execution and culture
32:41 Fixing the model: standard of care vs chasing new customers
35:03 Fixing culture: urgency, analytics, accountability
36:04 Shrinking the sales force and returning to growth
37:33 The 1.1B exit and what came next
40:09 Watching Thoratec round trip and competitor pressure
43:04 The board asks Keith to return
44:07 Coming back: moving faster with a ready playbook
45:49 Turnaround principle: vision, speed, and top down focus
47:55 Cutting initiatives, reorganizing leadership, reasserting customer value
49:21 Momentum returns fast
50:32 The 3.4B sale and why consolidation made sense
53:39 Retirement, board work, and the next chapter
55:03 Nevro turnaround attempt and what Covid changed
01:01:32 Why the market may not have come back
01:03:29 Single product risk when growth stops
01:08:04 CEO advice on working with boards
01:11:22 What Keith is most proud of
01:13:31 Keith’s leadership “superpower”: recruiting + energized cultures
01:15:17 Closing