I knew Rich when he was a new rep and my impression of him was very positive. I didn't think he was ready to be a DM when he was promoted but he was as ready as anyone else I had known who made the grade and certainly more ready than some of the a--holes who became my manager. My one admonition to Rich was to not copy the management style of one of his mentors, the biggest a$$hole I had ever met in this industry. Things have changed drastically over the years and today's Pharma does not have the volume of reps it once had to promote its products. Access is not what it once was and cost restraints along with other factors will make launching expensive "block busters" very difficult. Someone's head has to hit the floor and a replacement will be named. It will be interesting to see how they fare. Rich will land on his feet elsewhere and do well and I wish him luck. Have a great day everyone and remember........ Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
And I'm sure the world waits with bated breath for every word that comes from your mouth... I am retired, drawing a nice pension from Novartis, old enough to take SS without penalty for working but have a part time job being paid for something I might do for free. Hope to be flying Dehaviland Beavers on straight floats in Alaska for an excursion service next summer. Having a ball. Have a healthy Novartis 401K, private investments, cash and everything I own is paid for.......know what that means my friend? I can tell everyone to f--k off and that is a great feeling. Have a great day and remember..... Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
...Like the song says, "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone." Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
Which of Richard's mentors are you referring to here? Could it be that pompous r***** Connie McCrary?
You would be shocked at how bad dick smith treated the sales force. The novartis you knew 15 years ago is long gone.
30 years ago we felt the same I can assure you. We had to wait for more than half of a period to go by before we knew what our goals were. More often than not the rules would be changed in mid stream. At least in those days we were on our own, no pods, no partners and in most cases no managed care so the hardest workers could see results. Even someone at Richard's level had to take direction from the higher ups. He could make some decisions but everything is monitored and approved or disapproved. Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
I like seeing your posts, but I disagree about Richard. During one teleconference he said "We're trying to fly the plane as we are building it"… . UGH, the plan to launch the drug has been a year in the making and you don't have a clue as to what's going on? It was one of the poorest product launch I have ever seen. He was definitely in over his head. Check out the PETER PRINCIPLE. Reminds me of Richard when I see it. I don't have anything against him, he just didn't have the skills for the job.
Richard received a great education and experience via the LDP at Novartis, experience is the great teacher but even someone at Richard's level is not pulling these ideas out of his ass. There is always someone above him who has to sign off on things, approve his ideas and in many cases give him things to accomplish like downsizing. When you get cut it is he who appears to be the grinch when it is often times someone unseen and unknown. Richard unfortunately found himself in a position where if a head had to roll it would be his. Tell me the one to whom he was responsible didn't approve of his approach. Just like the POTUS, the VP has some level of advisors and input from others on which to base his plan but he is responsible, it's his head when the ax falls. One takes a hell of a chance when they rise to such a positon. Remember Alex Gorsky? Came over from J&J, things did not go well.....cut and ran back to J&J where he is doing well once again. Can we say he didn't have the skills for the job? Believe it or not, luck and timing have a lot to do with success. Hard work helps but without all the cards in your favor things can go bad in a hurry. I'm not making excuses for Richard and I am sure he is not making excuses for himself......I am betting that he lands on his feet somewhere and does well. Have a great day my friend and remember...... Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
Well, my experience with him was his short lived stint at the top where (in typical NVS rotating leaders fashion) he announced a myriad of changes - without ever having analyzed the way things were presently being done (successfully I might add). He never took the time to talk to the higher performing reps about what made them click. Our suggestions were scoffed at, he knew all the answers and this was the new way. Just bound in, make some changes (which turned out to be for the worse) and move on to the next post. Good luck to him, he isn't a bad guy, all in all. At some point NVS needs to re-figure their advancement methods.
Well I think you hit the nail on the head....failing to pay attention to the field can be fatal, scoffing at the opinions of experienced reps is wrong. Personally I don't think a rep should be promoted to DM with less than 5 years carrying the bag. As I recall Rich made DM in under two years. Not enough time to really get a handle on the job in the field. A friend of mine from many years ago made it to a top spot at Lilly and he still calls me to this day probably two or three times a year to ask my opinion. He was average at best but had political skills I do not. I even found myself working under a Managing director here at Novartis whose ass I kicked thoroughly with my Voltaren against his Ansaid. The best reps don't always make it to the top. Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
i think anyone who is going to accept a high end leadership job should have to to come back and spend time, in the field, as a rep. It gets old hearing the about when they were a rep this is how they did things. They are often talking about 10-15 years ago. So much has changed even in the last five years that there is a complete lack of understanding of what goes on now. Also, I agree that failure to listen to the field reps/arrogance cost Rich and others their jobs. We gave feedback from launch on what needed to happen and it was mostly ignored until recently. The current expansion is another example of acting before asking the field. Many of us us don't have enough workload/access now and now they are adding people and condensing some.of these territories. There are a couple of CV 1 territories, in my area, that are completely unsustainable. Hopefully, ther will be positiv changes moving forward but I'm still skeptical.
You can get away with being a dick for only so long. In the end you make more enemies then you have friends. Then they blame you. Richard was probably nice to a small group around him, but a DICK to us in the friend. I hope he s home looking over KPI s.
I agree that all upper management should spend a significant amount of time in the field.....their perceptions are antiquated at best but what you might find is they decide to have far fewer reps due to lack of access which means someone will be out of a job. I spend some time these days flying with doctors who have airplanes far beyond their skill level.....and they tell me they see very few if any reps due to practices being owned by hospitals which legislate the restrictions. Reasonable I guess. SO, one of you needs to come up with a new and unique approach to communicate with the physician population. The days of walking in with a sales aid are over. It appears that Novartis is UPSIZING the CV field force and throwing 200 million dollars more at the newly launched drug. Good luck with that. Never let the bastards get you down. RTBKPL
