Just heard Rush say he figured out "highly stuctured corporate environments" weren't for him after 5 years with the Kansas City Royals back in the 80's. Damn. Wish it didn't take me 30 years. or 20. or 10. or 1. Bet many of you do, too.
Highly Structured Corporate Environments
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Why do you think Merck is fast spinning down the drain? It's highly structured everywhere, including R&D where innovations require some flexibility in action and personal initiatives. The top dogs tried to control everything and there is only one good way of doing things, their way. Merck sucks, get out while you can.
Merck's structure or exess of same has nothing to do with their downward spiral. They just can't execute and are losing the people that can make that happen. Everyone is a hanger-on and that includes those at the top.
Merck is committee driven. Did you ever hear the joke when they made a mistake in, say, marketing a drug, everyone get promoted?
Time was when you started at the ground level and built up your skill sets and learned how to avoid mistakes and to make decisions. Neveer could you expect to move to something very much different until you spent at least 5 years in the same position. By the time you got to Director or VP after 30+ years working in the biz, you knew the business from first-hand experience and you had an innate sense of mistake avoidance and good judgement. Most of all, you knew that know assembly of folks with lesser experience would or should be making the decision that is rightfully yours to make. Nowadays, we see leaders that flit their way through various assignments, never getting stuck for very long in any one of them and as a result woefully underprepared for leading anything. Of course these knuckleheads need committees. They haven't a clue based on their own experience and they believe that everyone is as ignorant as they are. When I started I had a lot of respect for my leadership because I knew that they knew my job better than I did since they had done it years before plus had 20 years experience to boot. The leaders I see today are a bunch of ass-kissing fools.
Nowadays, we see leaders that flit their way through various assignments, never getting stuck for very long in any one of them and as a result woefully underprepared for leading anything. Of course these knuckleheads need committees. They haven't a clue based on their own experience (quote)
Sounds like Obama. Happy to see the Isreali Prime Minister put him in his place!!!
Sounds like Obama. Happy to see the Isreali Prime Minister put him in his place!!!
Competencies are intended to instill freedom, reading nuance and the customer yet they're more structured than anything we've ever had. Try to make a competency bar and managers make sure you miss the mark. Somehow, someway you are inadequate again and again. Reps with 20 years of successful selling now dont measure up. Is the writing on the wall or what?
Merck is a crooked company. I say f*** competencies, especially if you are a rep with 20 successful years behind you. As such, you are very likely over 50...just go through the motions, pick up your pay check, and wait for your severance package....and never look back after you are gone....in fact, be glad that the day you can leave is approaching....the sooner the better to get out of this unhealthy environment.
Totally agree with Poster #5. We used to have leaders on stage that, at one time, carried a bag and sold for a few years. Now we have some that were put in the field to do a quick rotation to say they have sold. Or some that have never sold before. There is a huge disconnect.
Experienced reps years selling and managing their territory become now inept..........managers pets (slackers and all) protected and pushed to security. Now this is crooked....and these puff chested managers think they have management abilities.
I was thinking about that too day. I can call on some of the busy physicians. None of my colleagues can. They always want to label these physicians as refusals. Some of the younger ones are so incompetent and they resent the older reps like myself. My ability to call on these refusals mean they have to try harder to call on them and they are mad as hell. Even one manager suggested that we should may as well list these docs as refusals and have peace.
"Today", not "Too Day". I am not a Ken nor a Barbie. Merck's busywork is messing me up. 
I think over 50 is the best spot to be in (if you have 20+ years behind you, with a substantial 401K and no debt). I'm looking forward to being bridged, and to start collecting pension. As long as the over 50 employee has been wise in terms of saving over the years, then he/she is in good shape. I wouldn't trade with a young person.
Agreed. I belong to this category and am glad that I retired a few years ago. You can say this applies to people in any industry with tenure who has saved diligently and careful in spending. A friend in the health care administration industry retired with >$1M also.
Over 50 no pension and little in 401K. I'll be working for another 20+. Nervous about layoffs with good reason.
Its over managed but also the bottom line is that Merck is walking away from the sales force that has worked so hard for her! There is nothing that is going to change that,...everyone is as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof that they will be the next number to draw the pink slip!
The pharmaceutical sales model of the past that continues in one form or other today has become too costly to maintain. It all boils down to whether Merck can accomplish the same (or more) for less money. Alternate sales models will only get more popular and soon become the norm rather than the exception.
I am not a big fan of sales rep but they are very necessary. I application will not replace the reps and will only hurt the bottom-line. Most companies spend over 50% of their total cost structure to sales and marketing. If that human touch is not there sales will decrease dramatically. I used to think why the hell are we paying them so much for what little work they do. I was ignorant back then because I did not understand their position and how important it is for any company to succeed and what they do. Also Applications must be managed and administrated. The way Merck runs, they will find the company that will do it the cheapest (administered out of India) , the application will crash or not update properly, customers will get annoyed and not use it again. In the cut throat world of sales and marketing, that will leave the door open for other big pharmaceuticals to step right in. It will take a lot more than doughnuts and coffee to get them back.
They will save 50 cents and it will cost them 2 dollars.
With you there! Been through 7 companies in 12 years and it sucks all due to the instability of this industry. I will be working until I'm 65 and maybe then some. The challenge is trying to find an industry or career path that will not judge me for my age but will see someone they value due to talent and experience. My choice is to earn a doctorate. Merck won't pay for it. I am halfway there! I think when the shit hits the fan and this industry falls flat, I will have a totally new second career, and one where I don't need a babysitter looking over my shoulder quizing me about shit that I have absolutely no control over.
This industry is dying just like all the companies that pay some acquired CEO and executive team millions of dollars annually to come up with any way for the stockholders and their cronies to make even more money. Eventually, all these companies just get run into the ground as their worker bees get overburdened, sick of the B.S., and unable to "fly" anymore. Kind of like the middle class in America. Do you really think our government is going to vote themselves out of office, fire their coworkers, cut their cushy pensions or pay themselves less? Come on!
The otherside of this is you don't have a business unless you have customers and Merck, like all pharma is getting less and less access and a lot more "me too" products. Pretty soon docs will be able to order samples over the Internet or on their I-Phone after listening to, or clicking a detail regarding safety. The only reason to have a sales person in "pharma" is to launch a new product. Period.