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Mike Faith started Headsets.com 10 years ago, and the retailer has quickly grown to become one of the major players in the nearly $2 billion U.S headsets industry. A large portion of the staff of the San Francisco, CA-based business comprises a customer se

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

rvice call center that processes headset orders.

Call centers, it should be noted, have a reputation for high turnover. And, unfortunately, the reputation is not unfounded. A new study by Cornell University finds that U.S. call center turnover rates range

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

from 25 to 50 percent. That means a lot of people coming through the door to take the seat of outgoing call center employees.

At Headsets.com, that revolving door has a jam in it. Mike Faith, the president, CEO and founder of the company, instituted a sys

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

em where prospective candidates – for the call center, shipping department or any area – are interviewed at least seven or eight times before they're hired. What's more, some of these interviews are with the company's voice coach and psychologist.

"Each e

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

mployee is really a key hire for us," Faith says. He isn't kidding. Many employees have started their tenure with the company in the call center and explored growth opportunities that have arisen as the business has grown. Two such employees are Rick Mills

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

who was a customer service phone rep in 2002 and is now CFO, and Courtney Wight, who also started as a phone rep a year and a half ago and is now customer service manager.

"The interview process is long – I remember when I went through it – but then once

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

you work here you can see that everyone wants to work here and everyone likes it here," Wight says.

Connecting the interviews to the current culture, for those employees Headsets.com brings on, is the previously mentioned voice coach involved in the inter

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

view process, Ken Welsh. Hailing from Australia, Welsh handles coaching and team building for some big name clients in addition to Headsets.com, including BMW, Coca-Cola and IBM. Wight says her staff is reinvigorated whenever Welsh shows up, and that has l

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

d to improved morale, service and, consequently, sales.

Welsh is one of four global business coaches to which all Headsets.com employees have access. Besides the voice coach and the psychologist, who's based in San Diego, there's a management and organiza

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

ion consultant from the U.K. and a U.S.-based NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) practitioner.

"There's a huge payoff with the coaches," says Mills, who has used a few of them himself. "Sometimes it's tough to go to your supervisor with issues you're havi

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

g – you don't know how it affects their impression of you as an employee. But if you have this outside person who's trained to help you, it goes a long way toward feeling like you have an open avenue not only to advance, but to work through challenges at w

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

ork and ways to improve."

Of course, when the coaches aren't around, the leadership continues to work to identify opportunities to help employees succeed in their roles and to grow. Faith says that new employees who have been with the organization for 90

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ays receive a $600 "training allowance"; after a year the amount increases to $1500 (the same amount is awarded annually thereafter). The allowance can be applied to work-related or personal growth pursuits. "They can even spend it on something connected t

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

their next job, if they decide they don't want to work here," Faith says.

Helping this focus is the fact that Headsets.com's leadership tries to take the inverse approach to one of Corporate America's major worker gripes: managers who love to lo

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

ok for things done wrong and exploit these acts.

"We try to catch somebody doing something right, instead of doing something wrong." Says Tiffany Rawson, who started with the company about two and a half years ago as a shipper and is now manager of the sh

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

pping department. "If someone is doing something wrong, I'll point it out, but I try to balance it by making sure I still find those things that they're doing right – the kinds of things that tend to go unnoticed day to day."

This kind of active, positive

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

y focused management has not gone unnoticed by the company's employees. They respond in kind not only by working harder, but by pitching their ideas, in which Faith readily places stock to help grow the business. Wight made note of two internal e-mail addr

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

esses where she encourages her staff to send ideas about anything having to do with the company. "They could be large or small, and they go right to Mike," she says. Many of the ideas are acted upon, and employees are rewarded financially for their extra c

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ntribution.

As with many businesses, especially smaller enterprises, at Headsets.com their product is their passion. One need look no further for evidence of this than the Staff Recommendations page on their website, where many of the customer service rep

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

have posted short descriptions of their headset of choice and why they love it. It's clear by seeing their pictures, showing them in their favorite headset, that they're some of the people keeping the revolving call center door from swinging on needlessly

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Many people in the last decade have experienced for themselves either a layoff or termination. Some of these people affected have experienced outplacement-consulting services. This is a fancy word for “help” in finding a new job. Many have also heard the adage that it is better to get a new job while you are still employed. I will address why finding a job is an ongoing process of managing your career for yourself; and how a career coach can help more than just your career

The letter has traditionally been the central vehicle for written messages in the world of business. In fact, it still is. Even today, in spite of the continuing growth in e-mail, text messaging and other technologies, when we want to send important information in writing to people outside our companies or organizations, the business letter is still the best choice.

Does it makes sense to go solo as a consultant? Well depending on the work you do it sure might. You see going solo has lots of advantages and perks and you can choose your clients, generally command a higher rate and enjoy what you do because you are choosing when and where you work. There are huge advantages to becoming a solo professional and there are too some time issues you will have to over come.

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