On our way back from Monteverde yesterday we stopped in at Boston Scientific to see Eric Tagarro and his fellow colleagues. We had an opportunity to meet Eric and others at Prof. Lewis’s house back in April. During our visit he provided us with a very comprehensive view of his company and what the plant here in Costa Rica manufacturers. Boston Scientific is one of the largest medical device companies in the world. They manufacturer products which are used to diagnose or treat various types of medical conditions. The company is currently looking for ways to innovate in areas such as urology, gastroenterology, and pulmonary care by way of extending their products and new technologies into new geographies. This plant in Costa Rica provides the company with $130B in annual sales and has projections of $147B by 2015, with Endoscopy contWributing 103.3B or 71% of the total sales.

We then paid a visit to Irene Barquero at Hologic, another professional we met back in April. Irene is the Process Engineering Manager and one of only two women working in the operations department in Costa Rica.  She, along with Cecilla Monge, the Production Manager, presented us with a quick overview of the company then a tour of the facility. They have two large clean rooms dedicated to their two main product lines, GSS gynecological products and IBS, breast care products.  Both are ISO 7 and ISO 8 certified.

Upon leaving both facilities, we now have a greater understanding of the Costa Rican culture on both the business and personal level along with what it takes to do business in this country. Our hosts provided us with refreshments and a photo op upon our departure.