For Dr. Oron Zachar, CEO and founder of Biovo Technologies, moments of failure are more dramatic and significant than moments of success. He says, “Success comes from a cumulative constant push forward to improve and fix things whereas moments of failure are sharp realization moments when you know something significant must be changed to avoid a complete failure of any organization.” Dr. Zachar believes we must embrace failures to stimulate alertness, creativity, and a constant search for improvement. In fact, his imaginative and calm approach to life made it easy for him to identify the challenges in the current healthcare market.

The decreased rate of innovation

Today, innovation in the market segment of mass-use hospital disposable medical devices is in a straitjacket of limitations. The devices are relatively low cost. Unlike surgical tools, there is very limited acceptance of premium payment for quality and performance. “Moreover, with ICU nursing stuff shortness and high workload, there is little acceptance for addition of new procedures,” points out Dr. Zachar. This in turn decreases the rate of innovation for medical disposables, in general, and hospital ICUs medicine in particular. Rather than seeing this as a deterrent, Dr. Zachar and Elad Einav founded Biovo Technologies in 2011, to reveal that there is a significant room for improvement on many practices and disposable devices for medical ventilation, which remained largely unchanged for multiple decades.

Bridging this market gap, Biovo develops innovative medical devices to greatly improve patient care while reducing personnel workload in ICUs, operating rooms and anesthesia. Their devices not only ensure patient safety, staff productivity, and workflow efficiency but are readily integrated in existing procedural protocols.

A constant learner

Being an avid learner by nature, Dr. Zachar makes it a point to learn from all his employees about their domains. “I come originally from the academic research field of theoretical physics and I used to engage all my thoughts in mathematical equations.” Leaving academia, he became more engaged in inventions and patents which were still quite conceptual. But to succeed as a medical technology startup CEO, he realized he ought to understand manufacturing costs and limitations, pre-clinical procedures, regulatory processes, and financing options. Alongside, he felt the need to constantly learn more about all micro aspects of the business to properly delegate tasks and make decisions, yet without micro-managing.

Key success factors  

“My startup leadership approach is trying to implement a fine balance of determination, encouragement of doubt and cultivating alternatives even when resources are scarce,” states Dr. Zachar. This includes a tight team and entrepreneurial spirit across all company departments so people are encouraged to tackle tasks they have never done before.

Over time, Dr. Zachar and team filtered such a high performing group of employees for Biovo which is the key strength of the company. “I cultivate team spirit and give consideration to the employee’s personal life. It pays off not only with work productivity, but also in the motivation to go through the occasional hard times, rather than jump ship.” It gives the employees more job satisfaction that comes from the feeling of personal growth and challenge. Moreover, every employee’s knowledge and experience is one of the key value building factors for the performance level of the company. Therefore, building and finding a committed team can be the key to overcoming difficult times and have an efficiently functioning company.

Apart from the versatility of each employee, Dr. Zachar considers his key to success is brutal honesty, self-criticism, and the courage to implement drastic changes even after significant investment is made in a particular direction. After all, fear is only a motivator to success.