CEO William George makes it clear that top management prefers to delegate operational decisions. "(W)e are able to decentralize and delegate quality and ethical decisions to people because there is a frame-work from which they can make good decisions. We say, 'You don't have to make a trade-off between cost and taking care of the patient. You always take care of the patient, and the cost will take care of itself.' That makes an easy framework for people".

Decision time horizon

Top management prefers to make long-term decisions but because of the "rapidly changing environment" it is being required to make many more short term decisions than it would ordinarily. This tendency toward more short-term decisions has been spurred by changes in the regulatory environment, shifts in the purchasing power from doctors to administrators, shifts in purchasing power from individual hospitals to purchasing cooperatives, the proliferation, increasing sophistication and influence of supplier groups, and the rapid reduction in the number of channels for, and commoditization of, Medtronic's flagship product, pacemakers.

Level of detail

While Medtronic officials frequently discuss their policy of decentralizing decisions, they say much less about the level of detail management prefers to use when making decisions. There is a lack of discussion on the use of information systems and technologies (e.g. decision support or executive information systems, databases, or data warehouses) which might support, improve, or enable highly-detailed decision-making. This might indicate that there is either a low or medium preference for detailed information by top management.

Proactivity/reactivity

Medtronic can best be described as "proactive" in its decision-making. The numerous strategic and marketing plans, lobbying of Congress and other legislative bodies, customer education efforts, and environmental scanning attest to the fact that the firm's managers attempt not only to presage but also to mold its environment wherever possible.

Risk aversion

Medtronic believes that the greatest risk to itself and the medical device industry is the sale of unsafe products. As such, its supports a rigorous enforcement process by the FDA, including thorough factory inspections using existing international standards, such as ISO 9001.
However, Medtronic, along with its competitors, faced what it considered to be an increasingly hostile and anti-business regulatory environment. The scrutiny by the FDA of Medtronic centered on ensuring patient/consumer safety. The aim was reducing the risk to patients from faulty or unproven therapies and products. The FDA's means of achieving this was to increase its oversight of the product development process. According to CEO George: "Unfortunately, over the years, the FDA's prescribed product approval process has been broadened from evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the device to the evaluation of the efficacy of the therapy. This broadened role is not a part of the original legislation, nor is it part of the legislative intent.".

Results of this scrunity included a lengthening of the product approval process and the discouragement of the development of innovative therapies and products. Rather than opting for the less-risky course of developing only those products that would have the greatest chance of FDA approval, Medtronic chose to move much of its R&D to Europe. The "hands off" approach of the Europeans and the recognition of medical device development as an "inexact science" are apparently more favorable to Medtronic.

Motivation and control

The accounts from Medtronic are filled with examples of how the company inspires its employees with its mission of restoring people to full life and health, its code of ethics, and its "non-negotiable, universal, mission-driven values".

The importance of Medtronic's preference for motivation and how it factors into the top management's decision-making and strategic planning was made evident in an interview with the CEO . Below is his description of a potential Medtronic acquisition: "We considered acquiring another company in a field outside the cardiovascular area that we very much wanted to get into. They were serving a clear, unmet patient need in our strategy, and the company was a leader in its field. Its stock price had gone down because it had hit some rocky times, so it would have been a great financial move for us to acquire this company.

Medtronic's earnings per share would have gone way up if we had bought them. But when we really started looking at the company, we saw that their values were fundamentally different from ours. They got results from people by driving them. Either you make it, or you get fired. Our sales force has a turnover of about 2 percent a year. Theirs has a 30 percent turnover. They do a great job of training their people, but they have a whole new sales force every three years. Theirs is a totally different style of doing business that starts right at the top. How do you change that? You can't; it's ingrained in the culture. It's who they are. It's the way they do business. That just didn't fit for Medtronic. So we walked away from it. The price we'd have had to pay in cultural terms would have been too great. People would have said, "We thought Medtronic had clear values, and now you're acquiring this company?" Interviewer: Was your board behind that decision? "Yes, very much. They were unhappy we even brought it up. We said, well, it's such an important field that we almost have to bring it up. They are the leader in the field."

The leadership style of the management is categorized as either a leader, producer, entrepreneur, or manager. This categorization is based the managements preference for delegation, detail in decision making, risk profile, time perspective proactivity, and motivation.