I ND U ST RY LE A DE R
INDUSTRY EVOLUTION FROM REACTIVE TO PROACTIVE Written by: ROSA WALSTON LATIMER
A year ago, Wayne Grau brought his 30 years’ experience in the HME and complex rehab industry to MK Battery. As director of business development, Grau’s responsibilities include marketing, sales for the home medical equipment category, and management of the MK East Coast sales team. “I have partnered with the people at MK for years and have a great respect for the work they do,” Grau said. “The variety of responsibilities I have might feel like a juggling act some days, but I like the challenge. MK is still the family-like organization that Mark Wayne Grau, director of business development, MK Battery. Wels and Mark Kettler founded in 1983.” East Penn Mfg. acquired MK Battery in 1995 and now has 20 distribution centers in the United States. The company also operates sales and distribution branches in Europe and Australia.
YOU HAVE ENJOYED A LONG, DIVERSE CAREER WITHIN OUR INDUSTRY. WOULD YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR EXPERIENCE? I worked 17 years with Pride Mobility, and during that time, I was often out on the road working with our customers. It was a lot of travel, but I made many good friends during that time. At one point in my career with Pride, I took some time away to work with Dan Meuser, the president of Pride at the time, as a consultant with his political campaign. Although Meuser is now a U. S. representative, we didn’t win that campaign, and my position with Pride had been filled with an exceptional individual, so I decided to move back home to Texas. In 2008, I began working for The MED Group, starting in sales and moving into responsibility for vendor relations, marketing and member networks. I continued with Managed Healthcare Associates (MHA) for several years after they bought The MED Group, eventually handling legislative affairs for MHA as well as their medical services and products portfolio. In 2019, I earned an MBA in healthcare from the Baylor University Hankamer School of Business.
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DIRECTIONS 2021.1
HOW DO YOU STAY MOTIVATED? I draw a great deal of my energy and inspiration from other positive individuals who might be colleagues or customers. The blending of my work and my personal friends is very fulfilling. I can honestly say I’ve rarely met a person in my work that I didn’t like. I might disagree with someone, but I recognize they are good people and value our relationship. Even though my travel is for work, I always see it as an opportunity to be with friends. I’ve been fortunate to have started my career with a visionary leader at Pride Mobility, and as I progressed, I seemed to find the right mentor at the right time. Most individuals in the complex rehab industry see it as a higher calling. They want to make a living, but their work goes far beyond that, and their example of compassion and commitment motivates me.
HOW DO YOU MOTIVATE YOUR TEAM? We always try to remember who we are serving, whether ATPs or the patients who ultimately depend on our product. From early in my career, this is the most decisive motivating factor for me. In the beginning, I didn’t fully understand the impact of complex rehab equipment; however, a young girl in a rehab hospital who had lost both of her arms and both of her legs in a fire, and had never walked, showed me how vital this work is. We delivered a power wheelchair to her, which was unusual at the time because the general belief was children didn’t have the cognitive ability to maneuver a complex chair. When we put this little girl in the power chair, and she realized she now could get around on her own, her eyes lit up. It was amazing to see her whizzing around that gym. When I left that day, I remember thinking, ‘That’s what this is about!’ Everyone has good days and bad days, but when my team is having a difficult time, I remind them of patients like that little girl, or the ATP who may drive two hours at night to deliver a chair. If there isn’t a good-quality battery such as ours for that chair, there is a good
