Okay, good morning. Welcome back to the 2024 Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference. I'm Larry Biegelsen, the medical device analyst, and it's my pleasure to host this session with the management team from Zimmer Biomet. With us we have Ivan Tornos, President and CEO. Dialing in we have Sukhi Upadhyay, the CFO and Executive Vice President of Finance, Operations, and Supply Chain. And also in the audience, we have Zach Weiner, the Director of Investor Relations. The format's fireside chat. If anybody has a question they wanna ask, just raise your hand and we'll call on you. Ivan and Sukhi, thanks so much for being here.
Great to be here. Good morning, everybody.
Sukhi, can you hear us okay?
Yeah. I can, Larry. Good morning, and sorry I couldn't be there in person. I had a commitment prior to this being scheduled. But hey, Larry, before we get started, and I turn it over to you and Ivan, just a few hygiene comments. Just a reminder that we'll be making forward-looking statements. Actual results might differ materially, and please refer to our SEC filings and our investor relations webpage for risk factors. Thanks, Larry.
Perfect.
And Larry, can you get the clock started, please? Thank you.
Ivan, you know, you've been CEO now for just a little over a year, I believe. I'd love to hear about your experience at Zimmer over the past year. What's gone well? What could have gone better? What are you excited about?
Sure. Well, once again, good morning, and thank you for hosting us, Larry. The good, the bad, and the ugly, as we tend to call it at Zimmer Biomet. The good, over the last year, frankly, over the last five, six years, we've made a lot of progress as a company, and I'll start with the results. If you go back 2017, 2018, this company was either declining or barely growing. Along came the pandemic, post-pandemic, 2021, we grew 10% top line with double-digit growth in adjusted EPS. In 2022, we grew 6.5%. In 2023, last year, we delivered 7.5% constant currency revenue with adjusted EPS of $9.5. Started 2024, midpoint into the year, growing mid-single digit.
If you go back four quarters, Q3 of 2023, Q4 of 2023, Q1 of 2024, and the reported Q2 of 2024, the growth remains mid-single-digit, strong mid-single-digit, with most quarters being strong EPS, three out of four double-digit. So I think the results speak for themselves. Not pleased with those results. We wanna do more, but again, let's not forget that this is a company that was either declining or flat four, five years ago. So I'll put that strongly in the category of good. In the category of good, I'll also say that we've done a remarkable job in going from being a lagger in innovation to making innovation a competitive advantage.
And that means first to market on smart technology, smart implants, first to market on ROSA robotics, first to market in diagnostics for infection management, first to market, only company with 510(k) FDA approval for mixed reality. I could go on, but I think you get the picture. We have a sizable opportunity when it comes to innovation. We'll be launching 50 new products in the next 30 to 36 months, so that's in the bucket of good. In the bucket of ugly, hey, I, I don't like the fact that our U.S. performance remains inconsistent. When you annualize it, you know, we are more or less where we need to be, but, we do have choppiness, one quarter up, one quarter seems to be down.
We're addressing that, making changes from a go-to-market standpoint, making leadership changes, making sure that we have the things that we need to have in place to make sure that it's a consistent performance when it comes to the largest market. What I do like, not to go back to the good, what I do like is that we're not a U.S.-centric, dependent type of company, which leads me to another factor within the ugly. I think we've done a poor job, all of us, over the last five, six years at Zimmer Biomet, in telling the story of who we are. We're not a U.S. knee company. We can deliver mid-single-digit growth in revenue, with EPS growing faster than revenue, because we are diversified. Point in case, you know, what we're doing with SET. Point in case, what we're doing with robotics.
Point in case, what we're doing internationally, as you saw in Q2 of 2024. This is not permission to fail. This is not to tell you that the U.S. is not gonna be a consistent performer, but this is to illustrate that this company is already diversified, and we can deliver through different sources. When it comes to the bad, closing with the bad, the company undoubtedly is managed in a much better way than it used to be back in seventeen, eighteen, when we had FDA challenges, quality challenges, et cetera, et cetera. That said, we still have room to improve when it comes to operating the company. And that leads me to report something today in the spirit of transparency, a temporary challenge that we're dealing with.
In July of 2024, early in the quarter, we actually moved from a legacy ERP, platform, enterprise resource planning, which is very common in med tech. We moved from a legacy, platform, DCS, to, SAP. Things worked well at first, the usual glitches. As we got into the, August timeframe, we identified that, it didn't work as expected. That is certainly gonna create, some challenges when it comes to revenue in the second half of 2024. The situation is well managed. We understand root cause. This is not impacting how we manufacture. This does not impact our quality, and I'm saying that because those were the two triggers of the massive challenges that we had back in 2017 and 2018. But nonetheless, it's a challenge that, we need to overcome.
Again, we have root cause analysis. It will impact second half revenue for 2024, and we believe we'll be out of the woods as we exit Q4 of 2024. Happy to have some more answers. I'm sure you have a lot of questions based on what I just reported.
Sure. All right, well, yeah, thanks for that, Ivan. Okay, I guess starting with the news, the revenue impact, any way to quantify that today? And it wasn't clear to me, you said you identified the root cause. Is this resolved or not? Where are you?
Yeah. So again, transparency here. We believe that with the data we have today, at this point, the impact in revenue could be around 1% of sales for the year, and that's with the information we have today. In terms of the root cause, we know exactly what is the root cause. We are shipping product. This is impacting some areas more than others. In the background of this challenge, we're still seeing recon, reconstructive or knee and hip business performing at robust levels. It is impacting some of the shipping in other categories, as well as SET, but yeah, root cause analysis has been identified. The right people are working on it, and again, should the risk materialize, it could be around 1% of sales.
If we think about it, it started in August, so it's a little bit more than... It's obviously more than 2% of sales, call it, for the second half of the year, because obviously it didn't impact the first half.
It did not. We went live in the July timeframe, and again, anytime you go through an ERP implementation, there are challenges. Some of the challenges in July were as expected. Again, as we got into August is when we started to realize that this would be more meaningful than we initially thought.
You think it's gonna impact sales through fourth quarter?
By the time we exit Q4, it should be largely resolved. It's gonna go gradually better, but that's the information we have today.
Do you think you will lose cases? Is this a... or will you regain those cases?
A significant amount of it is gonna be timing, you know, the way we recognize revenue, and we process orders. Likely, we will lose some cases. You know, when you have products that are not being shipped to a customer in some areas, then that customer is not gonna sit back and just for you to get the product out there. But again, that's not information that we have today.
It's less so. It's not impacting hips and knees. It's impacting other businesses more?
It's impacting all categories, but predominantly, it's impacting what we call SET or the non-reconstructive business, as well as other. So as I was saying, even with these challenges, we've seen our hips and knees business performing at better levels than, let's call it, the first half of 2024.
Sukhi, earnings impact, any preliminary color? Should we just expect... What kind of flow through?
Yeah. So, the first thing I would say is, on that estimate that Ivan provided, we see more than half of that in the third quarter. We would expect at this time, third quarter versus fourth quarter from a revenue impact, so a little bit of phasing there. This will have an impact on earnings, as you would expect, you know, the normal flow through, but we are working to mitigate some portion of that. And we'll update you and provide more information on the third quarter call, Larry.
Okay, but you've identified the root cause, so you know how to fix the problem?
The individuals that were responsible for the implementation are no longer with the organization. We're working with a top consulting firm, and the top people are working on the remediation. Again, root cause has been identified. The issue is isolated to some parts and pieces of our business, so I'm feeling pretty confident that we're working on the right, at the right speed, across the right steps.
Okay. Let me, before I move on, questions in the audience. I'm sure I didn't think of everything on the fly here, so is there anything people here, any questions people have on this topic before we move on, that I didn't ask? Okay. All right. Anything else you expected me to ask that I didn't ask you?
That's-
Or Suki, anything else you expected, you know, me to ask from a financial standpoint that you want to communicate?
No, I think, Larry, you hit the key points. So Ivan talked about 1% of annualized sales is, you know, could be the impact based on what we knew today. We do feel like we have our arms around the issues and the root causes. We have robust management teams, as well as outside support in tackling those. We continue to make progress every day, every week. The phasing of that, as I said, will be more in the third quarter than fourth quarter. And the earnings, you should expect the normal flow through. However, we will mitigate some portion of that through cost containment and other measures, but it's too early to tell exactly what that looks like at this point.
Again, we're missing an abundance of transparency, and we'll provide more information on our third quarter call.
Geography, more U.S. impact than-
Yeah, this was the change of the ERP in the U.S. and Canada, predominantly.
Okay, and then-
And just for background, we've done 35, 40 of these ERP implementations over the last four or five years. And this one obviously didn't work out initially as expected. But we do have the experience going through these implementations, and again, the right people are working on the problem.
And LRP, everything's still intact, just this doesn't impact, you know, any of the.
It does not.
LRP that you gave us in May?
It does not. It does not.
Okay.
As we see here today, it does not.
Okay.
And importantly, there, Larry, sorry, just one last thing to not clarify, but amplify what Ivan said, which is this does not affect production or manufacturing in any way. We are shipping, just not at our usual velocity.
Okay, that's helpful. Okay, let's move on. You know, U.S. knees, and just, there were some temporary issues in the second quarter-
-in the U.S. Ivan, I want to just confirm that those issues that you talked about on the Q2 call are resolved.
Yep. So we like where we started the quarter in July, as we noted in the earnings call. Again, even in the background of these challenges that we're resolving in the world of ERPs, we like the progress that we're making in the U.S. If you recall, in the earnings call in Q2, we spoke about some supply challenges, non-ERP related. I just wanna make sure this is very clear relative to one platform that we call limb salvage that is being largely resolved. We spoke about some medical education events that we did earlier in the quarter, in the second quarter, that took a lot of surgeons, and equally important, a lot of sales reps out of the field. Obviously, we're not doing the same Q3 and Q4. And then we spoke about comps.
We spoke about the fact that in Q2 of 2023, we delivered knee growth of 9.8%. So in hindsight, we could have done a better job when it comes to our phasing. I'm not a friend of bringing excuses when it comes to comps. All companies go through comps. But given the timing of new product introductions, we could have done a better job. Net of the challenges with Neuron, I like where we are with our knee franchise. We continue to deploy. Sorry, Project Neuron is the internal code name for the ERP implementation, my bad. Net of those challenges, I like where we are in terms of the excitement around Persona OsseoTi. What are we doing with robotics? What are we doing in improving commercial execution in the US?
I'm very optimistic when it comes to U.S. knees.
That's helpful. And while we're on knees, Ivan, when is Persona IQ gonna be a material driver of growth for your U.S. knee business? And how impactful is the stubby, the shorter stem launch gonna be at the end of this year?
Sure. As I shared last night over dinner, we are seeing continuous improvement, I should say acceleration more than improvement, or current performance with Persona IQ. Every day hits a new record when it comes to performance. We've seen large adoption in teaching institutions. We're developing great partnerships in ASCs. We continue to gain data. We got three billion data points with Persona IQ. The data is important because it help us in contracting. The data is important because it enables us to explore different monetization programs with payers and providers. We receive 510(k) approval for what we call the shorter stem or the stubby version, the shorter stem of Persona IQ. We're doing the full launch of that as we speak, as we enter late Q3, early Q4.
To your question on when it's gonna be material, I do think that 2025 is the year in where we're gonna start probably being more concrete in terms of the impact of Persona IQ, but everything is going in the right direction.
That's helpful. And on hips, Ivan, I think in the past you've said you've lost share, but you have, you know, three new products coming that you think are gonna help rectify that. Talk about those recent product launches and when we could expect those to be more of a growth driver for you, please?
Sure. Starting with acknowledging the fact, so maybe in the category of ugly, if not bad, we did lose market share in hips over the last three to five years, primarily in the U.S. So I'll say that again because I think we've been somewhat ambiguous. We have lost market share, Zimmer Biomet, over the last three to five years, predominantly in the U.S. The good news is that even with that share loss, we remain number one in reconstructive and in key markets around the world. The better news is that we know why we lost market share. We have three product gaps, surgical impactors, direct anterior stems, implants for direct anterior surgeries, which is 40% of all the surgeries here in the U.S., and navigation robotics that make sense to customers.
We launched HAMMR, our surgical impactor, late Q2. It continues to gain great momentum, frankly, above our current expectations, so you should see an uptick in that regard. We continue to accelerate the penetration of ROSA Hip, recently announced the acquisition of OrthoGrid, which is gonna give us surgical guidance, AI, artificial intelligence surgical guidance, for those customers that don't like robotics. We continue to see rapid acceleration of HipInsight. It's the only 510(k) approved technology for mixed reality in an operating room, so the box of navigation is checked. And then we got 510(k) approval for direct anterior stems. So we are entering the launch process, as we speak, of Z1, Z as in zebra, which is the product that is gonna compete with other direct anterior stems in the U.S.
In the background of all that, we made changes around incentives and compensation, and I will tell you that every single rep today in the U.S. is thinking knees and hips, whereas in the past, we're thinking predominantly knees, because we had the product gaps. So long winded way to say, we got what we need, and we're gonna regain the share that we lost.
That's helpful. And then SET, Ivan, how are you thinking about... You had a good quarter in SET in Q2. Actually, this year, SET has been, I think, mid-single digits at least. Better performance compared to recent years. How are you thinking about each segment going forward? And can this, once you have the ERP situation resolved, can this grow above mid-single digits?
It's more than a quarter. I think it's three quarters now in a row that we delivered a strong mid-single-digit performance with the growth drivers within SET, those being shoulder, CMFT, cranium, maxillofacial, thoracic, and sports medicine growing upper-single-digit, if not double-digit, in some instances. That's, that's three quarters in a row. In the second quarter of 2024, every single SET business actually delivered meaningful growth, and we got six businesses in there. As we think the next, you know, four, six, 12 quarters, the commitments that we made at the Investor Day remain, we should be in the strong mid-single-digit growth territory for SET. And again, the expectation is that some of those businesses, and we got six of them, will grow at an even faster pace.
That's helpful. Ivan, the other exciting new area for Zimmer is the robotic shoulder application. You were first to market. I think you're the only one. Well, you're the only one in the market right now, but you have anatomical reverse, right? What's the early feedback been, and when is the full market launch?
So yes, we are first to market, very, very proud of that. It's not just the speed, it's the quality of the product. We continue to go through the limited market launch. We've done cases at Cleveland, Mayo, Columbia recently, UCLA and some other areas, and the feedback remains compelling. We knew that the LMR was gonna be at least six months, so we think that this is gonna be a product that is gonna be impactful in a positive way in 2025.
That's helpful. What are the clinical benefits of robotics for-
... shoulder?
First of all, as you mentioned, it's the optionality of doing anatomic and reverse. In the case of robotics, we believe that it's gonna drive higher accuracy. As you think about a shoulder procedure, the real estate in the shoulder area is very limited. The visibility is compromised. We think, we believe that robotics will drive better cuts, better accuracy, better visibility over the glenoid, the humeral soft hard tissue. The thesis remains that better accuracy in the cuts equals better outcomes, less pain, less recovery time, et cetera, et cetera.
That's helpful. You know, the other, sticking with ROSA, the other news you made on the Q2 call was about, I think, I think you said three new ROSA modalities in the next four to eight quarters. Hopefully, I got that right.
You did.
It sounds like there's two new versions of ROSA coming. Could you provide a little bit more color on those and any timelines, please?
Yep, happy to do that, Larry. The timelines you just highlighted that, you know, four to eight quarters. Three different ROSAs, one for primary knees, what we call ROSA V1.5. We'll come up with a better name once we launch it, but that's the internal project name. This is gonna be an easier interface with the customer. It's gonna reduce the time in surgery. It's gonna be a simpler version of the current ROSA for primary knees, and I wanna be careful what I get into, given competitive reasons, then we're gonna be launching a ROSA posterior application. In the U.S., 40% of all hip surgeries are done via direct anterior.
As you get into Asia Pacific and Europe, where ROSA is already the number one robot, posterior hip approaches is the way to go, so we'll be launching a ROSA posterior for those hip cases, and then in the timeframe, we are gonna be launching a ROSA version that is CT scan based. We know that some surgeons like CT scan, and we know that some do not like going through CT scan for radiation reasons, for complexity reasons, for cost reasons. So we wanna make sure that ROSA becomes an option in a CT scan and non-CT scan approach for our customers.
That's helpful. So the next version of ROSA, the 1.5, I think you called it, that's a software upgrade?
It's gonna be a software upgrade, yes.
The one, the CT scan-based ROSA, is that new hardware?
There'll be some minimal changes to the hardware.
Okay, so people who have existing ROSA robots-
It's gonna be an upgrade to them, yeah.
I got it. And the next gen, the 1.5 comes out first?
The 1.5 is the first one to come, then it'll be the CT scan ROSA, and then the hip posterior application.
The other interesting thing about Q2 is you had positive pricing. We did. -for the first time in a long time.
Well, yeah, we did. We like the trend. We are now, I believe, it's four quarters, which we've been neutral or positive. We have put governance in place, and Sukhi, speak about this, that is second to none. When I think about my 29-30 years in med tech, the way we incentivize and candidly penalize people for price gains or losses is like nothing I've seen before. We have amplified the way that we do contracting across ASCs and whatnot. We are leveraging data in a way that we didn't used to do before. So I see this as us now going back to the older days, where we're losing 200-300 basis points. Can we commit to the current gains?
I'm not sure that's the commitment that we're ready to make today, but Sukhi, I'll let you elaborate on pricing.
Yeah, we started the year, Larry, saying that we thought pricing erosion would be about a hundred basis points for the full year. Now, given our first half performance, we've moderated that back to fifty basis points of erosion to flat. And so that's where we currently sit. And then for the longer term, our LRP, we still believe that a hundred basis points of price erosion is the right planning assumption.
... That's helpful. Sukhi, you know, twenty twenty-five, I mean, you have an LRP out there that's basically, I think, you know, mid-single digit growth, on an annual basis. EPS, I think one point five times sales is what you've said. Help us understand, you know, a couple things, just some of the puts and takes for next year and the, the ERP issue this year, how conceptually, how to think about that next year. Does that create easy comps? You know, any, any help, color on, how to think about 'twenty-five would be helpful.
Yeah, I think the dynamics into 2025 are representative of what we really said about our LRP in the three-year horizon. In that one and a half times of earnings growing faster than revenue, it assumes about 30-50 basis points of operating margin expansion on average per year. The building blocks to get there are really around one, sales leverage on your fixed cost base. Number two is gross margin sort of stability, and we've talked at length in our LRP about the dynamics and how that'll phase in, so I won't go through that here. The third is we still see some clear operating improvements throughout SG&A. And so those are really the three key building blocks to that margin expansion.
As it relates to 2025 and the impact of the ERP, I think it's too early to tell. We still need to go through the deep analysis of understanding how much of that backlog will come back, when does it come back, this year versus next year, and then what does that mean relative to growth into next year? But the way I would think about it, as we said in Ivan's opening commentary, is that we do not believe that this has any impact on our overall three-year LRP ambition.
Okay, so just to be clear, there's some of the lost sales in 2024 may come back? Those aren't. You're not assuming that they're all lost cases?
That's correct. But we don't-
Why, why would that be? I mean, why wouldn't someone just, if they can't get a product today, you know, do the procedure with a different product today? Why, why would they wait, and, you know, why would you have catch-up sales?
Yeah. I think there's two elements to that. There are some elements that are not case dependent, such as surgical, other products that are direct to customer that are not, sort of, procedure dependent. And so depending on what the backlog that is as we exit two thousand and twenty-four, that could be a pickup into 'twenty-five. And then also, as you move through the back end of 2024, to the extent that there is a delay in meeting cases because of product velocity, those could potentially come back to you in early twenty twenty-five. But I think it's too early to call. We're just giving you some conceptual points of consideration.
Okay, that's helpful. Sukhi, while we have you, any updated, or Ivan, of course, any updated thoughts on M&A? You guys have been pretty clear about deal size, about, you know, return on invested capital.
We continue to evaluate inorganic means to diversify the company. We spoke about our WAMGR, weighted average market growth rate, being around four. We have an aspiration to get to five. There is an organic way to get there, but that needs to get augmented by inorganic pathways. I think we already shared a lot in terms of what we're looking for. At this point, once we do something, we'll announce it.
How's the pipeline?
The pipeline is strong and we
Pipeline of deals, I mean.
The pipeline of deals is strong. We're gonna be bold, but we're not gonna be reckless.
That's helpful, and diversification, you mentioned that a minute ago.
How do you think, well, how do you define diversification?
So it has to be WAMGR creative, right? We wanna be entering markets that are north of 4%. Diversification for us today, the way we think about it, is in three key areas. We wanna be in higher growth categories in the segments in where we already are the leaders. There is a lot of high growth areas we see in reconstructive, one in case what we're doing with OrthoGrid. Technology, navigation, those are the spaces that are growing strong double-digit. Bucket number two is areas in SET that are high growth, and I'm not gonna call them out because then all kinds of speculation takes place, but there is a lot in that regard. And then bucket number three is ASC, ambulatory surgical centers.
As a site of care, that is a very relevant opportunity, so provides vertical and horizontal opportunities for us to diversify Zimmer Biomet. We already have diversified Zimmer Biomet, which is something that, again, going back to the ugly, we've not done a good job in telling. Our WAMGR today is 100 basis points higher than it was five, six years ago. We're not a U.S.-centric type of company. We can grow mid-single digit, delivering performance in other markets. We have diversified from inpatient, outpatient to ASCs, but we are gonna continue to diversify the company.
You know, before you became CEO, and many years ago, the strategy was, you know, to focus on musculoskeletal health. You have a little bit outside of musculoskeletal health with thoracic, right?
Or I guess that could be still-
But how important is it? Are you still focused exclusively on musculoskeletal health?
We have the optionality of moving in areas that are not core musculoskeletal, but you're not gonna see us doing a deal in audiology or getting to areas where we don't have a right to win. I don't see that as a pathway for us to diversify. But again, the optionality within reconstructive musculoskeletal, and you mentioned CMFT, that opens all kinds of platforms, right? We have a neuro business. We are the leading company in epilepsy diagnostics through robotics. Once you have the platform, there is so much you can do in that space. To your point, we are in cardiac surgery through a sternal closure, our CMFT business. There are opportunities in that space, so there's a lot of things that we can be doing without going into wild spaces and doing something reckless for the company.
... That makes sense. And you got a question at the Investor Day on foot and ankle, because I think it was a good question. You know, there's times when I've heard you talk about being interested in foot and ankle, and I've heard other times where it sounds like it's less of a priority.
We're interested in anything that delivers a solution to our patients. I'll leave it at that, and it's high growth segments. So that's an-
Is foot and ankle, do you still consider that a high growth segment?
It's a high growth segment. If there is an organic or inorganic pathway to deliver a solution to our patients, we'll explore it.
That makes sense. And ASCs, do you have everything you need today?
Yep. So we were late to the party on that one, right? We were, and continue to be, the number one company in inpatient/outpatient settings, within the hospital. I will tell you, over the last three years, we made tremendous progress. We don't have portfolio gaps. We do not have contracting gaps. Even when we don't have beds, wheelchairs, booms, and lights, we can license those out. We have an army of sales reps fully dedicated to an ASC. We got best-in-class people in key account management that are doing all the pricing negotiations. We incentivize people to be in an ASC. We continue to grow a strong double digit in the ASC. So with those four data points, I'll tell you, we don't need anything to win in the ASC.
We talked about it a little bit yesterday, the sterilization.
How, how significant is that? Is there really an opportunity there to help ASCs with that?
Huge opportunity. When you run ASC, you want somebody to help you deal with the volume, you want somebody to take cost out of your ASC, and you want someone to solve meaningful problems, like sterilization. We partner with external companies in bringing sterilization solutions to ASCs. Recently signed an agreement in the Atlanta, Georgia area, with one of the largest volume surgeons, and that's definitely a competitive advantage that we bring.
You know, I don't know if you're willing to comment on this, but on the Q2 call, you talked about some choppiness in the procedure volumes in the second quarter, and July was much better. If you're willing to comment, great. If not, I understand. Just in terms of, like, the global procedure environment for, you know, orthopedics, if there's any color commentary.
Here's the color. The markets remain very strong. The growth rates you've seen, and I believe you'll continue to see, are not backlog related. Demographics continue to play a factor, a strong factor. We continue to see large volumes outside of the U.S. as technology catches up outside of the U.S. The fact that all of us are getting older and more mobile continues to be a factor. The shift to the ASC, I think, we think, is a market accelerator. I will tell you, these markets are strong. Some of us peg the market at four to four and a half, recon-wise, reconstructive-wise, you know. Some others think it's 5%, but it's definitely not the 2%-3% that we had pre-COVID. That's the color that I'll offer.
Ivan, any additional insight into why the second quarter you might have seen that? I know it was only a couple months-
but why the softness might have occurred in Q2 in the US?
It's the three things that I highlighted. I'm not gonna repeat them. I wish that I could give you more color there, but we gotta do a better job in making sure.
But the procedures, I think you said procedures softness. It was... Do you think it was just surgeons out of territory and things like that?
It was very specific to us.
I got it.
I mean, if you look at where our peers came in, the market remains strong.
I got it.
But, we should have done a better job in some of the things I already highlighted.
I got it.
But, as we enter Q3 in July, we like what we see.
Ivan, we've got about two to two and a half minutes left. What's underappreciated? What didn't we cover-
- that you wanna share with people?
It's a different company. It's a different company, and I'm not gonna repeat my clean slate with the speech on the good, the bad, and the ugly, but I will tell you that it's far more good, if not great, than bad and ugly. We have a very competitive story when it comes to innovation. I'm excited about the pipeline. I'm excited about what problems we solve with the pipeline. We've made dramatic improvements when it comes to commercial execution, and I think that's one of the key reasons why, for now, ten quarters in a row, we continue to deliver mid-single-digit growth. I love the culture that we're building at Zimmer Biomet. Yes, we do have operational challenges that need to be mitigated, and I'm confident that those challenges are gonna be mitigated.
Net-net, as I sit here today, a year on the job, five and a half years with the company, I've never seen Zimmer Biomet where I see it today, ready to continue to win and deliver the commitments that we made in the Investor Day back in New York.
Just one follow-up. Is it too early to think about applying Persona IQ into other joints?
It's never too early, but we wanna win in the largest category, which is obviously knees, and then we'll think about getting to shoulder, hips, and whatnot. But we're definitely having those conversations, and we'll update you on those conversations once we're ready.
All right. Ivan and Sukhi, thanks for being here. Thanks for participating in our conference. Appreciate it.
It's a great conference. Thank you, Larry.
Thank you.
Thank you, Larry.