EMSA OF THE FUTURE

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Anonymous said:
I was speaking with a former colleague of mine who still works in EMSA. She said that morale was at an all time low. Senior Mangement will not communicate with employees about all of the recent changes in USCO and any potential implications for the proposed merger. Many do not feel safe to speak up and aren't sure where to turn. Sure seems like things are the same as when I transferred out last year. What is going on over there? I heard but can't can't confirm that EMSA overall did very poorly relative to other GHH departments in the recent internal survey results especially when it dealt with employee engagement and satisfaction with their management. This is a real shame and hard to believe that this has been allowed to continue for so long.
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I'm in marketing, not EMSA, and no one has told us what will happen with the merger either. Not sure anyone really knows at this point. But what do you expect? Merck research is dry, they can't manufacture vaccines, they can't get a product approved by the FDA and they don"t even know if they'll get the co-marketed SP/JJ products in the "reverse merger". Do you think there's anything to tell?
 






Anonymous said:
I was speaking with a former colleague of mine who still works in EMSA. She said that morale was at an all time low. Senior Mangement will not communicate with employees about all of the recent changes in USCO and any potential implications for the proposed merger. Many do not feel safe to speak up and aren't sure where to turn. Sure seems like things are the same as when I transferred out last year. What is going on over there? I heard but can't can't confirm that EMSA overall did very poorly relative to other GHH departments in the recent internal survey results especially when it dealt with employee engagement and satisfaction with their management. This is a real shame and hard to believe that this has been allowed to continue for so long.
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I feel sorry for your friend in EMSA. EMSA, however, is pretty broad covering RMDs, RDSAs, CSLs, Outcomes Research, APA, Operations, Exhibits and Scientific Response so it's difficult to know the group she is referring to. Dick C, Adam S nor Bob M can sugarcoat the stressed state of Pharma generally or Merck specifically. She should talk to some of her colleagues in her area as well as other areas of EMSA. Goodness knows some of the docs have a lot to say if not a lot to do. A number of the groups within EMSA cut across all therapeutic areas and are a repository for Merck gossip. Tell her to get out of her cube and seek the info she needs. It may not be pretty but at least she'll know what is or is not going on.
 






I see the results of the recent Dennison survey being reviewed and specific action plans are being developed by both HQ and field based teams. We have seen none of the EMSA results thus far. Amazing. I am told that the results were not good with EMSA being near the bottom of all of departments reporting into USCO. Apparently an analysis was done combining both Plan to Win and Dennison surveys and EMSA ranked dead last. Something has got to change. People don't realize that a part of bonuses are tied to developing a high performing organization. Perhaps if these surveys had been done several years ago, EMSA wouldn't be in the shape that it is. Sure hope the dismal results for EMSA translate into major efforts to reorganize the department under new leadership. I am cautiously optimistic.
 






Anonymous said:
I see the results of the recent Dennison survey being reviewed and specific action plans are being developed by both HQ and field based teams. We have seen none of the EMSA results thus far. Amazing. I am told that the results were not good with EMSA being near the bottom of all of departments reporting into USCO. Apparently an analysis was done combining both Plan to Win and Dennison surveys and EMSA ranked dead last. Something has got to change. People don't realize that a part of bonuses are tied to developing a high performing organization. Perhaps if these surveys had been done several years ago, EMSA wouldn't be in the shape that it is. Sure hope the dismal results for EMSA translate into major efforts to reorganize the department under new leadership. I am cautiously optimistic.
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So finally Richard Murray shares with us the results of the employee survey and it is confirmed the poor results on how bad EMSA management is rated. Specifically on how he and his team's leadership is perceived by his employees. One cannot do any productive work when there is this level of distrust in management, doctoring of the dash board, poor communications, and lack of candor and credibility. Even the fines associated with CIA was not successful in improving our business practices in EMSA. No wonder we have such poor productivity and we cannot do high value work. Does anyone know what Murray does except that how he is too busy working on the integration. Hope his solutions are not what he has prescribed for EMSA.
 






Anonymous said:
So finally Richard Murray shares with us the results of the employee survey and it is confirmed the poor results on how bad EMSA management is rated. Specifically on how he and his team's leadership is perceived by his employees. One cannot do any productive work when there is this level of distrust in management, doctoring of the dash board, poor communications, and lack of candor and credibility. Even the fines associated with CIA was not successful in improving our business practices in EMSA. No wonder we have such poor productivity and we cannot do high value work. Does anyone know what Murray does except that how he is too busy working on the integration. Hope his solutions are not what he has prescribed for EMSA.
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At least he showed you the results! In our part of Merck, the results were disasterous but our senior mgmt didn't show them to us (another dept did). The survey was supposed to be anonymous but some people got to see enough cuts of the results it might as well had names attached. Really, the whole thing is hysterical.
 






merck and emsa have been doing these surveys for years and the same idiots continue to resist change and provide no leadership. i guess no lessons learned. the idea behind survey is to learn and change for good.
 






"Nero fiddled while Rome burned." - seems very appropriate for the current state of EMSA Senior Leadership. The survey results are minimized. No real action plan will be developed. No accountability for the level of mistrust and lack of perceived value of the leadership team. A chronic problem that will only persist without significant changes.
 












Anonymous said:
So with Richard Murray leading EMSA stands for external medical scientific asses for the sales department. Just no credibility what so ever.
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So here is the short bio on Dr.Murray from the Merck website

As Vice President of External Medical & Scientific Affairs at Merck & Co., Inc., Dr. Richard K. Murray is responsible for overseeing a broad set of external interactions between Merck medical and scientific personnel and physician leaders, investigators, leaders in managed care, and other aspects of health care within the US. External interactions involving scientific and medical information, research collaborations related to health services and quality, strategic alliances with professional organizations, and support for independent education are all important activities managed by EMSA.
Dr. Murray, a native Washingtonian, graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC and subsequently was an Intern, Medical Resident, Chief Medical Resident and a Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Murray was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he was an investigator in the area of reactive airways disease, smooth muscle function and calcium signaling. He was also Co-Director of the Adult Asthma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Murray joined Merck & Co., Inc. in November 1994, where he was a founding member of the Regional Medical Director Program at Merck. Over the subsequent 10 years, he has assumed increasing responsibility within the US Human Health Medical and Scientific Affairs area, and was promoted to Vice President, External Medical & Scientific Affairs in August of 2007.
Dr. Murray is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He served on the Board of Directors for the Merck Institute of Aging and Health and serves on the Board of Directors for the Merck Childhood Asthma Network. He represented Merck as a member of the Clinical Research Roundtable at the Institute of Medicine in 2004.
 






The major problem deal with the inability of EMSA Senior Leadership to actually motivate and lead people. Individually may be well trained - but the lack of engagement and interpersonal skills will keep EMSA from becoming a high performing organization.
 






Anonymous said:
So here is the short bio on Dr.Murray from the Merck website

As Vice President of External Medical & Scientific Affairs at Merck & Co., Inc., Dr. Richard K. Murray is responsible for overseeing a broad set of external interactions between Merck medical and scientific personnel and physician leaders, investigators, leaders in managed care, and other aspects of health care within the US. External interactions involving scientific and medical information, research collaborations related to health services and quality, strategic alliances with professional organizations, and support for independent education are all important activities managed by EMSA.
Dr. Murray, a native Washingtonian, graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in Washington DC and subsequently was an Intern, Medical Resident, Chief Medical Resident and a Pulmonary & Critical Care Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Prior to joining Merck, Dr. Murray was Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he was an investigator in the area of reactive airways disease, smooth muscle function and calcium signaling. He was also Co-Director of the Adult Asthma Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Murray joined Merck & Co., Inc. in November 1994, where he was a founding member of the Regional Medical Director Program at Merck. Over the subsequent 10 years, he has assumed increasing responsibility within the US Human Health Medical and Scientific Affairs area, and was promoted to Vice President, External Medical & Scientific Affairs in August of 2007.
Dr. Murray is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and Pulmonary Diseases. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians and a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. He served on the Board of Directors for the Merck Institute of Aging and Health and serves on the Board of Directors for the Merck Childhood Asthma Network. He represented Merck as a member of the Clinical Research Roundtable at the Institute of Medicine in 2004.
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OK I may come across as arrogant but even I must admit I have a great bio and my skill set are good enough to run Merck. As a comparision I bring a depth and breath versus what an accountant or a lab tech have to offer. Lets get real I have an amazing level of understanding of the health system. Richard
 


















One would imagine that performance reviews and stakeholder feedback would uncover the lack of trust and value that the rank and file members of EMSA have towards the senior leaders, but no one ever asks us for feedback for RKM, etc. Amazing. Bob????????
 












Anonymous said:
Obviously with all these psoting there is lots of anger and mistrust within EMSA and sadly no one is tuned in
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Morale is down across the whole company, however, you seem to be the only one with "anger". Why is it focused on RKM? Do you think Bob is running a great shop outside of EMSA? How's Peter Kim doing these days? Does Dick Clark instill confidence in you? Will vaccines ever produce enough vaccines to actually sell? Will Merck ever launch a novel product again?

RKM may "anger" you but there are a lot more & bigger leadership issues than him.
 












No surprise on the survey results this whole area is poorly managed with no oversight.

Dr Murray and his managers not big on communication and people management skills. Believes in process and make believe dashboards.
 












Anonymous said:
I do not know what the heck EMSA is or stands for. But, I noticed on the corporate survey you people had the lowest scores in the entire company. Incredible. How do you do that?
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EMSA is External Medical and Scientific Affairs. The "you people" you affectionately refer to are the RDMAs, RMDs, CSLs, Outcomes Res, Professional Affairs, Operations, Scientific Response and Exhibits. It is heavy with MDs and numerous others with scientific degrees. The general perception is if you are not a doctor there's no place to go within EMSA. A good number of these people, however, work with the teams to help develop or comment on strategy.

Also there are two surveys. One on engagement and the other on cultural assessment. The surveys results are not on EMSA but by EMSA.

There may have been one other group within the organization that was actually more pessimistic than EMSA that Merck can reclaim industry leadership, achieve strategic objectives and change the culture to become a high performance organization. Maybe you think Merck is headed in the right direction but people with medical and scientific backgrounds that work closely with marketing and senior leadership don't see it that way.

Industry leadership? Will this company ever get a new product approved? How do you become a high performance organization when there's less and less to sell? How's that NCM working out?

So yeah, given the makeup of EMSA, not surprising that they don't think much of senior leadership and their ability to bring Merck back to an industry leader nor think the executive committee is accountable nor think we have good divsional leadership.

What do you think?
 






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