Cover Story
Cultural revolution
How Alex Lukianov outhustled the competition to build NuVasive from the ground up
By Leslie Stevens-Huffman
Smart Business San Diego | August 2008
Page 1 of 4
Back pain is big business.
Annually in the U.S., people miss nearly 93 million work-days because of back problems and spend $4 billion on spinal
products. With so much need, it would seem that an emerging
medical device company like NuVasive Inc., which develops
products and techniques for minimally disruptive spinal surgery, could grab a foothold in the marketplace with ease. But
when Alex Lukianov assumed the CEO role in 1999, the company was struggling against its larger, entrenched competitors. Armed only with his vision for building a swift company
culture as a slingshot, Lukianov took on the challenge of slaying the industry Goliaths.
“To compete against Medtronic and (Johnson & Johnson),
you have to take on an offensive posture,” Lukianov says.
“And that offense has to have a clear mission and a purpose,
because to be a dragon slayer, you have to attract like-minded personalities and expect outstanding results.”
Lukianov had an extensive background in the orthopedic
industry, including a stint as division president for direct competitor Medtronic Sofamor Danek, before coming to NuVasive.
He says he thought carefully about the depth of the challenge
before committing to the assignment. For example, at a large
company like Medtronic, Lukianov says he could always pick up
the phone and secure resources to tackle a problem, at the much
smaller and struggling NuVasive, there’d be no one on the other
end of the line to help. And the new position would entail uprooting his family from New York and moving to the West Coast. Still
the idea of building a major league company from the ground up
was an opportunity he just couldn’t pass up.
Shortly after arriving, Lukianov may have had second thoughts
about his decision, when the company was down to having only
enough cash in the bank to cover two weeks of expenses. But
Lukianov is an optimist, so he rolled up his sleeves, started raising money and began installing a new secret weapon — a swift
response corporate culture. Since that time, he’s led the company through an initial public offering in 2004, which earned him a
promotion to chairman and CEO, and then on to record-setting
revenue, including $154 million in 2007.
