Used to work at ALKS as a TBM and then RAD\KAM. Talked with somebody this morning who is still there. Heard about all the changes…sad. All are self-inflicted. Leadership grew headcount way too far in front of revenue and counted on plans with limited chance for success…and they should have known better. Take a look at hospitals & Vivitrol….
As a TBM I tried to get it in hospitals with very little success. Only 1 of the 8 I presented it to signed up…and they never bought a single vial - we gave it to them as a free on-demand starter dose. Ya, there was some pull-through later on, but very little…2-3 vials at the most. Across the country it was the same situation…maybe one or two hospitals would take free doses, but I never heard of a hospital billing for it and getting reimbursed. Maybe it happened but it was a rarity…certainly not something you’d build teams around, but that’s what we did. When I was a RAD under KO we added IDNs to our target list. Same outcome…a very limited number of “successes” even though we were all experienced and successful at selling VIV as TBMs. It wasn’t a people problem, it was a plan problem. We never figured how to motivate a hospital to support Vivitrol. There’s no economic reason for them to do it…in fact…just the opposite. It cost them money in terms of time and resources. They have to order it, store it, account for it, distribute it and dose it. Additionally, they have to spend time educating the patient and family on why it’s a good idea. Then they have to refer the patient to another doctor who knows and uses Vivitrol. Why would any leader of an IDN or hospital want to increase cost without increasing revenue? Their margins are already razor thin and we’re asking them to cut them even more….”cuz it’s the right thing to do”? You’re right, it is the right thing to do from a treatment standpoint, but that doesn’t erase the economic reality they have to deal with. So, the RADs had very little success with IDNs or hospitals. But, even with very limited success, IDNs and Hospitals were used in part as justification for expansion of the RAD\KAM team.
I don’t know what kind of transition happened when GA took over from KO, but GA didn’t seem to accept the reality of how limited our opportunity was in that space. So, we were sent down the IDN\Hospital rabbit hole again, only now it was more formal and more directive. We still didn’t have an answer for the negative economic model we were trying to force on customers but that didn’t stop…or even slow down…the push. And we got the same results….very little success. But, amazingly, that potential business was again part of the justification for increasing the size of the KAM team…and creating new positions between GA and the KAMs.
Vivitrol in hospitals didn’t work with…
TBMs
RADs
KAMs
Hospital Team
We promoted people, hired people and created positions based off a poor understanding of the economic reality of our customers. And now we’re firing people, changing alignments and redoing slides\reports\strategy based off that same stupidity. And the head-count ahead of revenue mistake isn’t limited to just KO and GA. We did the same thing with nurse educators & FRMs…we accepted questionable assumptions about impact on revenue to drive bad growth decisions. Yes, I understand you don’t want to be caught with inadequate capacity to handle growth, but that’s a better problem to have than getting too fat and having to upend lives\careers because you got it wrong. I’m lucky, I’m retired so I don’t have any skin in the game. This isn’t about some bitter old guy venting and looking for social media cheerleaders. This is about bad decisions that are destroying lives…the lives of people you sold a story to. They made life-changing decisions based off what you told them. You owe them more than your handwringing, sympathy and pep talk. Grow as a leader. Publicly admit you made a mistake…you grew the company too fast. Figure out what the right size is, bite the bullet and get there. Don’t fire anybody at this time…give them the option to stay on the books for their base salary & benefits. Find another role within the company for them. Give them 6 months to find another job while still employed. Yes, it costs you money…but that’s your fault not theirs. YOU made the decision to expand, YOU sold them on the role. Accept responsibility for YOUR bad decision, fix it and take care of the people you misled.
As a TBM I tried to get it in hospitals with very little success. Only 1 of the 8 I presented it to signed up…and they never bought a single vial - we gave it to them as a free on-demand starter dose. Ya, there was some pull-through later on, but very little…2-3 vials at the most. Across the country it was the same situation…maybe one or two hospitals would take free doses, but I never heard of a hospital billing for it and getting reimbursed. Maybe it happened but it was a rarity…certainly not something you’d build teams around, but that’s what we did. When I was a RAD under KO we added IDNs to our target list. Same outcome…a very limited number of “successes” even though we were all experienced and successful at selling VIV as TBMs. It wasn’t a people problem, it was a plan problem. We never figured how to motivate a hospital to support Vivitrol. There’s no economic reason for them to do it…in fact…just the opposite. It cost them money in terms of time and resources. They have to order it, store it, account for it, distribute it and dose it. Additionally, they have to spend time educating the patient and family on why it’s a good idea. Then they have to refer the patient to another doctor who knows and uses Vivitrol. Why would any leader of an IDN or hospital want to increase cost without increasing revenue? Their margins are already razor thin and we’re asking them to cut them even more….”cuz it’s the right thing to do”? You’re right, it is the right thing to do from a treatment standpoint, but that doesn’t erase the economic reality they have to deal with. So, the RADs had very little success with IDNs or hospitals. But, even with very limited success, IDNs and Hospitals were used in part as justification for expansion of the RAD\KAM team.
I don’t know what kind of transition happened when GA took over from KO, but GA didn’t seem to accept the reality of how limited our opportunity was in that space. So, we were sent down the IDN\Hospital rabbit hole again, only now it was more formal and more directive. We still didn’t have an answer for the negative economic model we were trying to force on customers but that didn’t stop…or even slow down…the push. And we got the same results….very little success. But, amazingly, that potential business was again part of the justification for increasing the size of the KAM team…and creating new positions between GA and the KAMs.
Vivitrol in hospitals didn’t work with…
TBMs
RADs
KAMs
Hospital Team
We promoted people, hired people and created positions based off a poor understanding of the economic reality of our customers. And now we’re firing people, changing alignments and redoing slides\reports\strategy based off that same stupidity. And the head-count ahead of revenue mistake isn’t limited to just KO and GA. We did the same thing with nurse educators & FRMs…we accepted questionable assumptions about impact on revenue to drive bad growth decisions. Yes, I understand you don’t want to be caught with inadequate capacity to handle growth, but that’s a better problem to have than getting too fat and having to upend lives\careers because you got it wrong. I’m lucky, I’m retired so I don’t have any skin in the game. This isn’t about some bitter old guy venting and looking for social media cheerleaders. This is about bad decisions that are destroying lives…the lives of people you sold a story to. They made life-changing decisions based off what you told them. You owe them more than your handwringing, sympathy and pep talk. Grow as a leader. Publicly admit you made a mistake…you grew the company too fast. Figure out what the right size is, bite the bullet and get there. Don’t fire anybody at this time…give them the option to stay on the books for their base salary & benefits. Find another role within the company for them. Give them 6 months to find another job while still employed. Yes, it costs you money…but that’s your fault not theirs. YOU made the decision to expand, YOU sold them on the role. Accept responsibility for YOUR bad decision, fix it and take care of the people you misled.