ResMed restructures workforce

SAN DIEGO – ResMed has reduced its global workforce by 5%, or about 500 people, to “accelerate profitable growth and power long-term success,” says CEO Mick Farrell.  

Reductions are never easy, but “we know we are doing the right thing,” he said during a conference call to discuss the company’s financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2024. 

“We have stopped some projects that were not working out as well as we thought,” he said. “We've increased investment in areas that we believe will be pivotal to long term success, such as our digital health tech investments, as well as focused hardware and software development.” 

The reductions follow a slide in ResMed’s stock price in the previous quarter – from a high of about $226 per share in August to a low of about $136 in September. 

Shift strategy 

In making the reductions, ResMed reviewed its operating model and restructured roles and responsibilities to refocus itself as “a more product-led and brand-led” company, Farrell said. 

“Look, the world has changed,” he said. “We are already a product-led organization, but our brand has increased in its value across the world, and we need to document and understand that and understand how to engage people as consumers into the funnel. So, we're sort of freeing up cash to reinvest in demand gen and reinvest in getting patients into the funnel.” 

Rev up demand 

Farrell noted that ResMed did rev up demand gen initiatives in the first quarter, now that the company has comfortably met overall global demand for sleep devices for the last few quarters. 

“We're investing in marketing efforts across specific global markets,” he said. “We are leveraging traditional health care channels, as well as investing in cost effective direct-to-consumer campaigns, to help what we call sleep concern consumers find their way into the screening, diagnostic, treatment and management pathway. We will act as a digital concierge to guide patients on that journey.” 

Go higher 

Patient flow into the funnel is already at an all-time high, Farrell said, thanks to ResMed’s resupply programs, product launches and, more recently, a new class of drugs driving more people to their primary care doctors to address their weight and other co-morbidities. 

“We are well above the rates we saw pre-COVID in 2019 across all geographies – triple digits across the board,” he said. 

Warch this space 

An example of ResMed’s investment in digital health tech: Compliance Coach, an app the company launched in the quarter that uses the company’s billions of nights of de-identified data in the cloud to predict the likelihood that a patient will be adherent to therapy or not, and coach HME providers to best identify patients who may struggle to meet compliance requirements. 

“Watch this space for many more ways that we can work with all of our customers to unlock value from incredible depth of de-identified data using tech like AI and machine learning for the ultimate benefit of physicians, providers and patients,” Farrell said.