Anyone here from the old Mead Johnson Labs division??

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Anonymous said:
Cable was a pretty good drunk but Adamson and Powell were the worst. When Powell fell down at the sales meeting, his aide jack Wilson from training had to go pull him out of bed and help him around.

I remember that sales meeting because Bausch discovered closing the sale. The idea of closing had eluded him to that point.

Cable's wife left him after he had a heart attack.

Powell died about two years ago from diabetes. Its amazing he lived as long as he did.

Richard Kern was president somewhere in that timeframe. He and "Napolean" Egan did not see eye to eye. After awhile he got canned but became a big and very successful head hunter.

Egan's wife ditched him too when the big money ran out.
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I also remember that sales meeting as Powell said that he "slipped in the shower" and wore a neck brace for the final days of the meeting.

You are right....Adamson was the worst drunk of them all. It is just that Adamsons adopted daughter had 2 children and left them with Adamson and his wife to raise them at the age of 55.

Kern just "looked" like a president of a Company. He wasn't bad but
"little Ray" Egan had the BMS connection through his wifes family.

I am just glad that I am retired and don't have to worry about how the business and industry has changed.
 








Not only did the drunken bastard slip in the shower, but Powell also sued La Costa resort. We were not welcome there for a few years. Powell was also infamous for his "mandatory" poker games in the hospitality suite.

Don't blame all Adamson's problems on alcohol. He was just a prick - underneath the drunk.
 








Bullock likes his booze too and he was one of the poker players who took money from naive reps who got sucked into the game. That was very wrong and eventually they stopped it.
 








Anonymous said:
Don't blame all Adamson's problems on alcohol. He was just a prick - underneath the drunk.
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That's why he was called "Mick the prick." No one ever wanted to sit next to him at meetings. He would try to laugh it off by smelling under his armpits to see if he "smelled." The poor district managers ended up sitting next to him as no one else would. No one ever knew if it was the "nice Mick" or the "prick Mick" that would show up.
 








Dating the reps was popular and a whole lot of the senior management was into that. We'll leave the names out of it but some pretty ugly old guys got to sample some choice dietitian tail at some of the conventions. The dietitian from KC said she did most of them herself.

Powell's worst moment (that I saw) was at the Petroleum Club in EVV at a rep graduation. I was in to assist Rick with the training.

Powell gave his "legal eagle" speech about Joel Laskel. Those two words were all he had to say but he repeated them dozens of time. Absolutely incoherent. He must have had 8 martinis before the dinner.

That was in the early 1980's and standards were different but still, a drunk is a drunk.

I remember another rep who threw something off a hotel roof or tried to. He was a bad one.

Merriken was about the only RM who did not drink to excess in those days. Not sure about Bausch. He may have been moderate too.

Jack Wilson was OK but he did nothing to moderate Powell. When Powell went out, the HR dudes got Wilson good.

In retrospect, it was a sick work environment by today's standards. Lots of sexual harassment and, of course , excessive food and liquor behavior. Was it a good time? I don't think so.
 








Anonymous said:
Dating the reps was popular and a whole lot of the senior management was into that. We'll leave the names out of it but some pretty ugly old guys got to sample some choice dietitian tail at some of the conventions. The dietitian from KC said she did most of them herself.
.
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I do know that Rick Hoffman when he was in sales training at that time had a "field day" with the female reps. What a great position for him as he got more butt then a toilet seat everytime a new rep training class came in. McCabe didn't do so bad himself when he was Dick Sherer's assistant.
 








At least Hoffman was somewhat discrete. I heard he had a heart attack after he left MJ. Anybody know about his health now? I thought he was a good guy.

I saw somebody else was badmouthing Jerry maxcy who I also though was good. He had vasculitis or something and I wonder if he surviced it?

Mick hated Maxcy which is enough reason for me to like him.
 








I heard that Hoffman died of cancer about 10 years ago. He was a good guy.

Haven't heard anything about Maxcy in quite a while. Adamson never got along with any of the government folks, or the trade folks. Most didn't tolerate his act because they didn't have to.
 








Anonymous said:
I heard that Hoffman died of cancer about 10 years ago. He was a good guy.

Haven't heard anything about Maxcy in quite a while. Adamson never got along with any of the government folks, or the trade folks. Most didn't tolerate his act because they didn't have to.
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You are right about Rick Hoffman...a good man. I hope that he is getting the ladies where ever he is!

One of the best government mgrs working in Adamsons Region at one time was "WIC Rick" Dynesius. Adamson of course made Dynesius so mad that he quit and he ended up as a Vice President for Sara Lee.

Adamson used to think he was quite the ladies man but he wasn't smart enough to realize that every female in the region was laughing at him.
 








Anonymous said:
Oh yeah. I thought it was his Porsche in the climate controlled garage.

I also remember the $25k wood floor in his office, and the special air system to prevent Kula's pipe smoke from the stinking up Ray's environment.

It was Ray who delayed us getting computers because he saw desktops as a distraction.
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Do you remember Nutracil? Ray lost more Enfamil market share with that stupid move.

What ever happend to Tom Williams
 








Anonymous said:
Do you remember Nutracil? Ray lost more Enfamil market share with that stupid move.

What ever happend to Tom Williams
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I remember selling Nutracil or "nudge fudge" or "poopsie roll" as we used to call it. In the winter time the samples would get so hard that it could break your teeth. In the summer time it melted. I think that the bonus program (they gave away TV's, etc) for that product paid out more than was sold!
 








would any of you Mead Johnson lab folks be interested in a vintage key registration fob from your labs, circa 1970's +/-? It has an IT on the front with the snake and staff and on the back it has the MJL name and address with a registration number on the bottom. I can send photos if anyone is interested. hit me up at thegreenboot(at)yahoo(dot)com. Thanks in advance for any interest.
 








This was a great thread that should be kept going, especially for us old timers who retired. I heard that Jimmy Duncan is some type of Executive Director of a Non Profit in his hometown.
The younger MNJ people unfortunately don't know about the good old days when we could just walk into a pediatricians office, see them and maybe have a lunch and dinner with them. I am still friends socially with about a dozen peds who I called on for 30 years.
 








You bring back some nice memories before all of the BS that the reps have to go through today and the "leaders" who don't know squat about infant formula selling. I was with MJ before the 1978 divisionalization that split MJ into MJ Nutritional and MJ Pharmaceutical. The Company was led by Dr. Jim Tulholski and then the Evansville homeboy, Wayne Davidson. You then had half-ass egotistical presidents like Hamilton and Egan. Once we merged with Squibb most of the Squibb and MJ Pharmaceutical division reps came together. It stabilized with Jerry McCabe and Randy Alsman who grew up with MJ and really knew the business. After Randy left, the leaders who came in knew nothing about selling infant formula. Just one mans opinion!
 








Anonymous said:
You bring back some nice memories before all of the BS that the reps have to go through today and the "leaders" who don't know squat about infant formula selling. I was with MJ before the 1978 divisionalization that split MJ into MJ Nutritional and MJ Pharmaceutical. The Company was led by Dr. Jim Tulholski and then the Evansville homeboy, Wayne Davidson. You then had half-ass egotistical presidents like Hamilton and Egan. Once we merged with Squibb most of the Squibb and MJ Pharmaceutical division reps came together. It stabilized with Jerry McCabe and Randy Alsman who grew up with MJ and really knew the business. After Randy left, the leaders who came in knew nothing about selling infant formula. Just one mans opinion!
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Could not have said it better myself! It really was once a great, well run, company!
 








I was hired by Bill McLean, DM for the old Cinn. District in 1972, Fred Pyles (Margret's husband was my trainer). Bruce Sanders was the rep. in Lexington, Ky. does anyone know what happened to him?
 








































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