Introduction
In today’s fast-evolving medtech landscape, building high-performing, future-ready organizations requires more than technical expertise. It demands a culture that fosters collaboration, constructive conflict, and strategic alignment. Leaders must balance speed, quality, and innovation to deliver products that truly meet patient needs.
Ahmet Tezel, Ph.D., Chief Innovation Officer at LivaNova, brings extensive experience in developing cross-functional teams and operational frameworks that drive breakthrough ideas in medical technology. Since joining LivaNova in 2024, he has focused on creating an Innovation Community that integrates diverse perspectives, aligns teams on the “3Rs” of success - Right Product, Right Time, Right Cost - and ensures innovation is tracked, measured, and continuously optimized.
Ahead of his session at the European Medical Device Summit, "Building High-Performing Teams and Future-Ready MedTech Organizations," we spoke with Ahmet about how he approaches team design, innovation metrics, and decision-making in complex medtech environments.
Could you begin with a brief introduction about yourself, and an overview of your responsibilities as Chief Innovation Officer at LivaNova?
My background is in Chemical Engineering, but my career has been spent building high performing teams and aligning them on a vision. What matters most to me is getting a product into the market and I’ve worked in a range of therapeutic areas from bariatric surgery to surgical ophthalmology, focusing on capital equipment. Since I joined LivaNova in 2024, my focus has been building an Innovation Community, which is comprised of several functions, all critical to developing new products and serving more patients.
From your experience, how does assembling teams with diverse technical expertise and thinking styles contribute to breakthrough innovation in medtech?
It is critical that we develop and foster a culture of innovation – and this starts with creating a safe space for team members to have what we call ‘task conflict’ – the opportunity to openly and respectfully disagree. This is where innovation happens; this is how we uncover and avoid blind spots. And it is only possible if teams are composed of various (and often differing) opinions and viewpoints.
You define success through the “3Rs”: Right Product, Right Time, Right Cost. How do you operationalize this framework across the organization and ensure teams stay aligned with it?
We achieve this largely through governance, ensuring a separate discussion of the ‘what’ (what will we focus on as an organization; what are our trade-offs; what is our strategy?) with the “how” (how will we execute this strategy; how will we develop this product?).
It is critical that both sides are aligned, but market insights are distinct from an R&D leader’s estimation of a product development timeline (which, of course requires clinical, regulatory, quality, and other inputs). Both parts must be in communication but independently governed.
We define success through the 3Rs: Right Product, Right Time, Right Cost. Governance separates the 'what' from the 'how' so teams stay aligned without stifling creativity.
How do you use metrics such as a “Freshness Index” and Pipeline Value to assess innovation health and guide strategic decision-making?
The Freshness Index is a measure of innovation calculated by the percentage of current revenue that originates from products (new IP) launched in the previous five years. This KPI looks backward to gauge how much differentiated value we’re providing to the market. Estimated Net Pipeline Value looks ahead, measuring the risk-adjusted value of our current pipeline. These are relatively new metrics for us, and they’ve provided great value in revealing how well we’re prioritizing innovation.
What practical steps can leaders take to create psychological safety while still encouraging candid, constructive conflict within high-performing teams?
It is critical that we develop and foster a culture of innovation. This starts with creating a safe space for team members to have what we call 'task conflict.' This is where breakthrough ideas happen.
I mentioned task conflict previously. There is also relationship conflict. Psychologist Etty Jehn (and many others) have outlined the distinction. Task conflict is “I don’t agree with your idea”, while relationship conflict is “I don’t like you”. High performing teams have high task conflict and low relationship conflict. We have to create spaces for people to respectfully disagree, and it starts with demonstrating it as leaders and catching people doing this week in real time (and acknowledging it). Many people don’t like conflict of any time, and that’s understandable. But we have rolled out several tools internally that give specific ideas for how to approach this in a healthy way that makes our ideas better and maintains the culture we want.
How do you balance collaboration, governance, and clear decision rights to accelerate development without compromising quality or compliance?
There’s a concept we believe in as an Innovation Leadership Team that can sound controversial initially. And that is that good collaborators know when to not collaborate. This is an art – everyone needs to see and believe that their opinion matters, but not everyone has an equal say in every decision. If the topic at hand has significant implications for Regulatory, then Regulatory leaders ultimate own that decision – they have the expertise. When our teams spin on an issue, it is not uncommon for a Chair in our technical governance forum to identify who owns the decision; and what we see most often in response from our teams is relief. We’ve also rolled out an operating model that features a Project Head, who is the single point of accountability for a project. This has significantly streamlined decision-making and escalations.
High-performing teams thrive when task conflict is high but relationship conflict is low. Leaders set the tone by demonstrating respectful disagreement and acknowledging it in real time.
Conclusion
Building high-performing medtech organizations is about more than innovation and technology. It requires creating a culture where diverse perspectives are valued, respectful disagreement drives better decisions, and clear accountability keeps teams aligned and moving forward.
Ahmet Tezel demonstrates that when people, processes, and metrics work together, organizations can deliver products that are not only innovative but also safe, timely, and cost-effective. His approach offers a practical blueprint for leaders who want to accelerate development without compromising quality or patient impact.
At the European Medical Device Summit, Ahmet will share actionable strategies for creating future-ready teams that can navigate complexity, embrace innovation, and deliver real-world results.
Register now: emdsummit.com