That runs through your mind when you ultimately sell your company. Do i update my resume and start looking for another job . Theyre going to want to make some cuts in some areas, right . I am jeffrey hayzlett, and i am on a journey inside the biggest brands in america. I have been a cmo, a ceo, and a boardroom cowboy. Now i am visiting the executives in charge of the most powerful companies in the world to see how they tackle the challenges of the csuite. I am in carlsbad, california, the center of some of the biggest Scientific Research in the world to visit Life Technologies, a Biotech Company providing products and services to customers doing Scientific Research and dna sequencing. These guys are selling picks and shovels in a genome gold rush. It also raises huge questions. Ethical questions. They will be able to tell you if you are going to get cancer, or if your wife will have alzheimers. Can you even do something with this information or should you . Could it be used in the wrong way . Greg lucier, their ceo, led the buyout of a few companies along the way and he built it into a multibilliondollar biotech house of brand. These kinds of numbers draw attention. They are being bought by an even bigger company, Thermo Fisher, for 13. 6 billion. As you sell a company, how do you keep your eye on the core mission to cure cancer while getting ready to hand over the keys . A sciencebased company like Life Technologies can be tricky to understand. Over 1500 scientists on staff. More than 5000 patents and licenses held. Theyve got 50,000 different products and a vision to change the way we live, but at the end of the day, this is a business with investors to please and a bottom line to grow. Im headed inside of Life Technologies to sit down with ceo greg lucier and learn what makes this business successful. Nice to see you. You have been here about 10 years now . About 10 years. In that 10 years, you have grown maybe tenfold . We have grown tenfold. You actually bought some other companies. Was that part of the initial plan . It was reall a basic idea. At a laboratory bench, someone doing Cancer Research would in the past have multiple Companies Selling them the things they needed to do research. We simply said why couldnt we be that company that did it all . Part of what we do is serve researchers doing Important Research with technology, consumables, software that allows them to interrogate how life works. You talk about a cost. You are doing something that could lead to the cure of cancer. Does that drive you differently . Each and every day, we have 12,000 employees around the world. It is fair to say that they wake up not only to do their job but to think about that purpose you were just speaking about. For me, i have no doubt in my mind that within the next decade, we will solve cancer. That is a business though, too. Not only is it doing something for a good cause, but in the end it is about the bottom line and about making money. You are about to sell the company at four times the run rate, which is a good deal in this economy. How does that fit into the strategy of merging together with the second largest company, Thermo Fisher . We will be merging with Thermo Fisher in 2014, and the combination of those two companies will create the largest Science Company in the world. I think it is the right move for customers, and the reason is simple. Our goal over the next couple of decades is to turn what is biology, a science, into engineering. 100 years from now, we will have engineered the life systems, but it is going to take big dollars, big organizations to do that job. By combining forces with Thermo Fisher, we will be able to accelerate that innovation. What the iphone did for apple, the ion proton genetic sequencer did for Life Technologies. This revolutionary piece of equipment completely changes the way dna is studied and can help accelerate the discovery of cancers cure. It is one of the big reasons that Thermo Fisher is willing to invest over 13 billion to acquire Life Technologies. Welcome to Life Technologies. Thank you. Good to see you. Pleasure. So you are going to take me around . Yes. First thing is first, you are in a working lab. You will have to wear a lab coat. I love it. So i am sitting here looking at this is a proton sequencer. A proton dna sequencer. It looks and sounds like something that would be in star wars or star trek. Exactly. This is an important part of this process of democratizing very complicated science. This machine basically reduced the cost of decoding a human genome from what currently is the cost of a house. This instrument is going to do the entire human genome for 1000. So this is preventative for folks . Is that a real goal here . I think it is the entire life. It starts at birth. You can compare the data from when they were a child to the cancerous tumor itself to try to figure out which is the appropriate drug to give that person. Will Insurance Companies be interested in this kind of data . Of course. They would be very interested in that information. Do you think somebody else like an employer might use that and say lets not hire that guy because he has that . There are significant privacy concerns. But let me just ask you if given the opportunity, do you want to know your genome . I dont know. That is a great question, and i think that is one that is going to be a soulsearching one for many, many people. You guys are really doing some interesting things with genetic sequencing. You yourself have been sequenced, is that right . I have, yep. And what did that tell you . Getting genetically sequenced was probably one of the most interesting phases in my life and the most revealing. My mother had taken a fall, she hit her head, and shortly thereafter developed symptoms of parkinsons disease. We also had recently come out with the new genetic sequencer, so i said to our team, why dont we sequence my mother and see what is actually showing up . It turns out that she had that mutation in her genome for parkinsons disease. Then somebody got the idea to say greg, lets see if you inherited them. So i had my whole genome sequence, and it turns out that i do carry those mutations as well from my mother. People ask me the question what does that mean to you . Does that mean your fate and your destiny is parkinsons disease . And the answer is no. It could be but maybe. But maybe. It is really more a story of life because now i know something, i can get engaged, i can get involved, and i can perhaps make a difference. It is not just about the discovery, it is also about hitting the bottom line. There is always great science, but we are in the business of making money. Thermo fisher is a big company. They have a huge portfolio. Do i need to update my resume and start looking for another job . Life technologies sells scientific tools used in forensics, food and water safety, Animal Health testing, and many other specialized fields. I am headed to their Stem Cell Lab to get a glimpse of what some of these products look like. Hey, how are you doing . Jeff hayzlett. Good to see you. Chris armstrong. I lead our primary stem cell business. Do you mind if i take you over to the lab . Absolutely. We will put on the jacket. Jeff, this is our Stem Cell Research center. What we do here is focus on helping customers work on the next generation of cell biology, which involves the stem cells. What does that mean to me . Stem cells are a perfect approach to understand more about human development, what happens and goes wrong with disease. How do you not just treat a disease, but how do you prevent that disease and cure it . If youre suffering from parkinsons disease, today what we could do is we could take a skin cell, we could reprogram it, and then we could encourage it through a series of reagents to become a neuron, identically a neuron in your brain. You are a scientist. I am a business guy. If i look at the companys profile, a lot of what you do here is really the bread and butter. Absolutely. These are products that customers will use day in, day out. Reagents and consumables really these drive our business model. Theres got to be a dollar amount associated with it. What is it . Is it 100,000 . Is it 1 million . Is it 10 million . It depends on the type of product. If it is an instrument platform, it is going to be multiple millions. If it is a reagent platform, it could be anything under a few hundred thousand dollars. And sometimes if product is almost ready to go, it will be significantly less and we can get it out fast. It is not about the discovery, it is also about hitting the bottom line or at least having the process to monetize. Yeah, there is always great science, but we are in the business of making money. One of life techs major customers is the u. S. Government. The fda uses a Life Technologies system that helps detect e. Coli and salmonella in the countrys food supply. And their applied bio systems human identification product line is ubiquitous in crime labs across america. All of these products are shipped from the companys Distribution Center. Here, disciplined operations are key to keep the business running smoothly. How are you doing . Jeff hayzlett. Nice to meet you. Im robert cook. Hi, robert. What do you do here . I am the senior manager for the Distribution Center here in california. Talk to me about what you are doing here. Ok. We have about 48,000 square feet. We have about 10 million of inventory. That is a lot of money on the racks. If im the ceo, i want you to move that fairly quickly. Correct. How do you guys measure yourselves on the ability to move this inventory in and out of here . Every week, we evaluate our teams within the Distribution Center. If things show up on here that are red or yellow, wind up our allseeing eye. Our allseeing eye lets us target problem areas. I love that you called this the allseeing eye. Half of our product here is required to be in certain conditions. Not just ambience. We have about 7300 square feet of refrigerated space. We stock those products into the deli doors, or what we call deli doors. We want our employees to be able to pick from the deli doors and not have to go and spend a lot of time in the refrigerated space. What is the temperature in here . 20 celsius. Minus holy crap this is cold. I hate to say this, but i would like to get out of here and go back to where its warm. This is reminding me too much of south dakota. The Thermo Fisher acquistion will affect every facet of Life Technologies. I am going to meet with brand team, and talk to the folks who are charged with keeping Life Technologies core identity alive within the structure of a bigger company. Hey, how are you . Im jeff hayzlett. Nice to see you. Robin flaum. What do we have here . Well, this is our cardio conference room. Life technologies is really committed to wellness of employees. We actually run meetings in here and as you can see, we are fully hooked up so we can be productive and get a workout. So meetings are being held as you are walking . Yes. This is normally something i would have my horse do, but it looks like something that could be fun. I will give it a shot. Ok. Sounds good. All right, so how do i this . Climb on. You have a control panel here, and if you press start, you can increase we wont be increasing the speed, we want to keep it down low. This is a first for any csuite or any meeting that i have been in with marketing. I am going to be real honest i find this concept, like, wacko. Over the top . Over the top, i think so, when you take a look at it. Does it work for this company . A couple things our mission is all around improving health care for patients and customers. For employees in general, we expect a lot out of them and Life Technologies is very committed to perks like a gym, like a cardio conference room. You look at this and now you guys are about to be bought out by another company. How are you starting to think those things through as a brand . To connect the Life Technologies brand to a company the size of Thermo Fisher that has the reach globally, i think there is a huge opportunity for the life brand as well to expand the journey that we have already been on. It will make changes to the way you go to market or the way you might even operate. I would think they might want to make some cuts in some areas, right . They absolutely will be looking for complementary areas. We have some areas that are highly complementary and some that are highly unique. Are you guys sitting down and doing some mapping of that with the teams and starting to think that through . I think we need to just plunge ahead as who we are right now until we get the decisions from Thermo Fisher. I look at it as an opportunity. They are big company with a huge portfolio. It can create an opportunity for you versus worrying about the future. We have to focus on getting the job done at the end of the day and not really worry about what could happen, what might happen. Do you think people that are watching this show think that that is a pile of crap . Seriously. I mean, i come to work every day. I have a job to do. Some people adjust to change, some people thrive on change. That is what you see here a lot because we know this company has been about change. You can have it in the back of your mind i can only speak for myself. Sure, i have it in the back of my mind. Am i worried . Not really. I think things will have a way of working out. For me, i had to make a decision when this announcement came out about do i update my resume and start looking for another job . I truly love working for this company and with this team and what we do for the world. So i just decided im going to stick it out. If you look at all the things that have occurred, a lot of changes going on here, what is the biggest thing you could look at and say wow, this team did that . We took a relatively unknown brand, Life Technologies, and we created awareness and loyalty around the brand. We made sure that customers still understood how to get their product. I believe that this team has made that brand come alive in our customers eyes. A lot of emotions run through your mind when you sell your company. I am coming to the end of my tenure here at Life Technologies. Do you ever have second thoughts about that . So, greg, where are we at . We are in san diego, california. We are about to walk into the Harvard Business school club of san diego and give a morning talk. What are some of the key insights of the csuite that you pick up from Something Like this . When you are in the csuite, it is a lonely place. But it is also a perch where you can see a lot of Different Things happening, unfolding in the world. I never look passed the benefit of that, so i am willing to share it. I want to share it. That is what i will do this morning. This is a special day for me. This weekend marks about 11 years when i took a phone call to come see this Little Company called invitrogen. A lot of mergers dont happen because perhaps the person in the csuite doesnt want to give up that csuite. I never looked at my job that way. I saw my job as the role to create a lot of value, and if even more value can be created through other means, through acquistions and mergers and perhaps if my role were to be affected by that, i was never going to stand in the way. It sounds like youre also announcing a new chapter in your life. I am coming up to the end of my tenure here at Life Technologies. It will be just about 11 years of running a publiclytraded company. The average tenure of a Public Company ceo is about 4 to 5 years, so i had double the life expectancy. There is a lot of emotions that run through your mind when you ultimately sell your company. At the most basic level, i look out in the parking lot and there are a lot of great cars here. People have done extremely well being part of this company, investing in this company, and i can feel good having run this company, that i made sure that people did well with their standard of living and for their families. When you make a decision to sell a company, do you ever have second thoughts about that . I dont have second thoughts. It was the right decision for our shareholders, for our mission, and i think it will be terrific for our employees as well. This is not about me. Greg is going to be fine, and im excited about doing the next thing in my life after life. More than 13,000 people work for Life Technologies. All of them will be affected by the merger. I am headed into the companys csuite to understand what went into this massive decision. Susan crawford, head of business transformation. Susan. Amy butler, head of global marketing. Amy. Carol cox, head of external affairs. Hi. Is this a typical gathering . Is this where you gather the c suite . This is where we meet once every other week and we meet for several hours. All the chairs would be filled, and we go through all the rigor to run a business like ours. When i look, it is a very diverse team, which is not something i always see in the c suite. You know, it is interesting, our company is over 50 women. That is why it is a very smart team. [laughter] there are changes coming in the future for Life Technologies with the merger and acquisition by Thermo Fisher. What were the conversations that go on in this room abo