Stephen Lane and Aidan Petrie founded Item Group in 1985, after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design, with the goal of “changing the world.”
“We were idea guys; that’s what you learn how to do at RISD,” Lane said in 2006, when Item was named Collaborative Innovation Leader in the 2006 Rhode Island Innovation Awards, co-sponsored by Providence Business news and the R.I. Economic Development Corporation.
By 2009, Lane and Petrie had further innovated, this time by tightening the company’s focus to its specialty medical products division, which they have been manufacturing in their Providence headquarters since 2007.
On the occasion of expansion of production space at its headquarters, Lane took time to talk about the company and the industry it operates in.
PBN: Ximedica recently announced it was expanding its Providence facility to meet customer demand for its products and design services. Since you and Aidan Petrie are both graduates of the Rhode Island School of Design, is the company coming back full circle to design?
LANE: We never stopped evolving as a design company. Ximedica has been developing an integrated service offering for several years. Research – product development – manufacturing. In the regulated medical device space, this takes time to get right and is not for the faint of heart. Our DNA is design rooted for sure, but our value proposition is all about delivery. Companies today definitely value design as a strategic competitive advantage more than in years past. The shifting sands in the industry from health care reform to global economic issues to heightened scrutiny from the FDA, while all stressful, are helping nimble innovators change the game.
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PBN: Much has been made about the potential for Curt Schilling’s company, 38 Studios, to spark the growth of a video game “cluster” in Rhode Island. Would you say that Ximedica is in a medical products and design cluster, how large is it, and how much do you see it growing in the coming years?
LANE: Without a doubt – as long as we are looking through a lens that sees beyond the Rhode Island borders. New England has the richest community of medical device companies and support infrastructure in the country. Concentrated areas in New Haven and Boston puts Providence in the center of the hub of the future of medical device innovation. There is a developing device community here in the state made up of many companies that have transformed themselves from serving industrial or defense markets. We can help each other by building awareness and collaborating more often, more deliberately.
PBN: Did you see yourself running a medical products company when you graduated from RISD? Does it ever freak you out?
LANE: Without sounding too syrupy, Aidan and I set out to change the world and we, along with an amazing cast of diverse and creative staff, are beginning to do just that in this complicated health care space. I think one goes to art school because of an inability to get freaked out. Immersing oneself in the new and unknown is part of the process in new product development or any creative endeavor. In many ways Ximedica is simply an evolution of our roots in child development products – just a few more formalities and decimal points.
PBN: You have an office in Hong Kong to support outsourcing. Do you see more growth for the company locally or in locations around the world, for instance, where clients are? How much of your business is domestic?
LANE: Both. Our headquarters in Providence has become an important strategic hub for us. We will continue to expand the most sophisticated parts of our business right here in the coming years. We have enough land now to add an additional 60,000 square feet, so we should be OK for a while. The diversity of resources and access to talent is key to that growth. Over time we will expand as our customer base requires. We are not in a rush, and have a very long view to our position in the industry.
The medical device business is more local than one might think. It is complicated and therefore requires lots of customer interaction. The vast majority of our services are provided domestically, but we are increasing our work around the world with our customers’ foreign divisions.
PBN: As you grow, have you found it difficult to find people with the correct skill sets from Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts?
LANE: We work for the biggest players in the world, and they expect excellence 24/7. Therefore, we are always seeking experienced folks. We have raised our presence in the industry very intentionally to attract the right caliber of talent and it’s working. The majority of staff still commutes in from Massachusetts today, but we are counterbalancing that by cultivating new talent straight from our local colleges and universities.
