A sales person can only do so much. They are in the tail end of the cycle. Getting rid of good sales people can only hurt the company. The real issue are the people who work in R&D starting with the design phase all the way to the people who work on the pilots. They are the ones that are failing and sales is nothing more than collateral damage. The R&D teams are educated but do not think outside the box and are not critical thinkers. To fix Merck, clean house, hire people who will raise to the challenges and the product will sell. The best sales people in the world cannot produce if R&D, pilot plant engineers and quality control accept failures as an everyday norm. They drain the company of money, don’t produce, and cause layoffs because of their incompetence.
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Issues are Merck are not related to sales.
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this company is beyond "fixing." It will never change, because the people at the top make out financially regardless of how things are going. They have a vested interest in keeping the status quo, and bloated bureaucracy...Sad situation for a once great company, but trust me, Merck will NEVER change...
Thats funny, you just proved the we don't need a large sales force. Good drugs will sell themselves. What they should really do is get rid of 75% of sales and focus on what a great pharma company does best, discover and produce drugs. Slash the sales force and add those significant resources to R&D. Seems like this new ceo is heading in that direction.
Everyone knows they are a trainwreck. They have no pride in what they do. They walk around like zombies waiting for the day to end.
Get a life. You have no idea what it takes to do research or development. No one on the line in development, manufacturing or research is allowing the product to fail.
Management has made the decisions of what to focus on and what products to develop. Much of the decision on which ones move forward are based on 'potential unmet medical needs.' These 'needs' are driven by marketing research.
Just go and take a look at all the consultant firms out there hawking reviews and analysis. This is what managers look at to propose new targets or me too drugs.
BTW: all drugs have side-effects. It is about a ratio of benefit/detriment to the patient. But, if it is too expensive to make, it won't be developed.
Tell us, what products have you identified, developed or manufactured?
And try fixing your title...what the heck is "Issues are Merck.."
Fix the title and the person who started this thread is 100% correct. Get better market research. If R&D are just a bunch of drones and can’t think for themselves, find ones who can. What have you done beyond watch a good company crumble. What are you doing to improve things beyond saying “that’s a great idea sir”
IMHO Merck's problem is nothing more than becomining just like our federal government. Too big and bloated, excessively bureaucratic, therefore inefficient and wasteful. This fosters the me mentality to protect one's own turf, and the more one gets paid, the greater this mentality will be. Why would it be anything else? I don't care about anything else at Merck except keeping my 600K job relevant. Makes perfect sense. Can Frazier change things at Merck? This all depends on how he views his turf.
Yeah, sure. Like you 'think for yourself' when you are out in the field. You tow the company mantra and literature because if you didn't you would be out of a job.
People in the lab do the projects they are told to because they want a job. They put their best effort forward to show either how it can be done or they will show how it can't. But, guess what? When they show how it can't be done-they will be out of a job.
Get better market research? Sure. Take a look around, all the remaining Pharma are buying into the same stuff. Anything not on the major radar screen is deemed 'too risky.' So, they let small biotech companies work on them. And we know how that can work out, right? Look at what GSK paid for when it bought the rights to 'resveratrol.' They paid $700M for Sirtris and boopka in the long run.
But, go ahead and spout your wonderful ideas. Here's a better one: quit your sales job and com'on in to the labs. We'll put you to work and listen to your wonder targets and plans. And when it doesn't work out in 1 year-well, we were going to get rid of you as a salesperson anyway.
Yeeeeouch!! Ya didn't have to be so harsh about it. Yes, the truth does hurt.
I hope you are right...not for Merck's sake, but for my own! I want out of this toxic company. Good luck selling whatever "good drug" comes out of Merck's dried up pipeline without an adequate sales force. You forget that it's all "me-toos" we've been selling for decades...when that's the case, you need sales to take share away from the competition that has already established itself.
The issues are with marketing plain and simple! Before the stupid MBA's that seek to drive share without respect for the customer or the prices that we charge for our medicines Merck was highly respected among our peers and the whole country! When I started to get into this business more than 20 years ago I went to a pharmacy friend and asked which company would he work for if he had his choice and he never paused and said 'Merck' and if asked today he would not even mention Merck! Purchasing Medco bypassing pharmacy and many docs with new products! Making decisions about how everyone else should do business based on Mercks tainted Northeastern Liberal view of the world has destroyed us! We give away medicine to those in Africa and charge $5 per pill to our own citizens and call that corporate responsibility! Most of this started with a brilliant researcher but a business idiot named Vagelos and has gone south since then!
This is funny, we just hired 3 former Merck employees and they are all doing great. They are now out of the pharmaceutical industry. I am extremely proud of their progress and discussed that in there 3 month review for new employees. The one thing that stuck out was they felt their ideas and opinions did not matter to my managers. I had to convince them that was not the case. I don’t expect them to usurp the current process, but any ideas how to make it better is welcomed. I don’t have the best ideas (far from it 
) , they don’t have the best ideas, the best plans and processes come when all voices are heard and respected. If a supervisor/manager ever belittled a person or made their ideas not welcome, they would be out the door quick. I understand that if you get laid off it’s a stressful time, keep in mind that there are a lot of companies that would welcome you will open arms. The last thing a company needs is a “yes person”. Too many yes people prohibits growth of a company. That yes person could have great ideas, insight and vision that others may not bring to the table. The only reason I know about this site was because I took all 3 out to lunch to discuss their 3 month review. They are doing well so why not show appreciation.
My job is to fight other executives on the future of the company and protect the people who work under me. I shield them from that drama. If I did not have such a great group of dynamic, hardworking, and diligent people working as a team (239 people and counting) I would have been thrown to the wolfs a long time ago. There are many people with my philosophy out there. If Merck does not value it’s employees, there are many companies that will. Hell, during lunch I asked them if they know other people. In the beginning, they were only concerned about their own space and not making waves, now they are helping other people when they can and displaying the leadership qualities that is so important for a company can grow. Will they make mistakes, sure but who doesn’t. As long as they learn from it, who really cares. I hope this will help people who are worried about their jobs.
also fix the title.
) , they don’t have the best ideas, the best plans and processes come when all voices are heard and respected. If a supervisor/manager ever belittled a person or made their ideas not welcome, they would be out the door quick. I understand that if you get laid off it’s a stressful time, keep in mind that there are a lot of companies that would welcome you will open arms. The last thing a company needs is a “yes person”. Too many yes people prohibits growth of a company. That yes person could have great ideas, insight and vision that others may not bring to the table. The only reason I know about this site was because I took all 3 out to lunch to discuss their 3 month review. They are doing well so why not show appreciation. My job is to fight other executives on the future of the company and protect the people who work under me. I shield them from that drama. If I did not have such a great group of dynamic, hardworking, and diligent people working as a team (239 people and counting) I would have been thrown to the wolfs a long time ago. There are many people with my philosophy out there. If Merck does not value it’s employees, there are many companies that will. Hell, during lunch I asked them if they know other people. In the beginning, they were only concerned about their own space and not making waves, now they are helping other people when they can and displaying the leadership qualities that is so important for a company can grow. Will they make mistakes, sure but who doesn’t. As long as they learn from it, who really cares. I hope this will help people who are worried about their jobs.
also fix the title.
This is funny, we just hired 3 former Merck employees and they are all doing great. They are now out of the pharmaceutical industry. I am extremely proud of their progress and discussed that in there 3 month review for new employees. The one thing that stuck out was they felt their ideas and opinions did not matter to my managers. I had to convince them that was not the case. I don’t expect them to usurp the current process, but any ideas how to make it better is welcomed. I don’t have the best ideas (far from it
My job is to fight other executives on the future of the company and protect the people who work under me. I shield them from that drama. If I did not have such a great group of dynamic, hardworking, and diligent people working as a team (239 people and counting) I would have been thrown to the wolfs a long time ago. There are many people with my philosophy out there. If Merck does not value it’s employees, there are many companies that will. Hell, during lunch I asked them if they know other people. In the beginning, they were only concerned about their own space and not making waves, now they are helping other people when they can and displaying the leadership qualities that is so important for a company can grow. Will they make mistakes, sure but who doesn’t. As long as they learn from it, who really cares. I hope this will help people who are worried about their jobs.
also fix the title.
I appreciate your comments. I also agree that there are some fantastic people who work at Merck who are looking for a new venture. What industry are you in and what geographic area? I am planning my exit strategy as I know the end is near (and my patience for dealing with this mess of a company).
Company is in Aerospace/defense/software business. Mainly based out of the New York City area with satellite areas across the globe. I actually changed my title to "receiver if poo" a few years ago.
I either like what I am doing or too stupid to find another job. It's hard when you really care about the people who work under you. We almost had layoffs 3 years ago in my department and it sucked. I was told to trim down by 20 percent. There was no way in hell I was going to do that. I don't mind getting rid of someone who doesn't care or consistently underperformed. I setup a meeting with the CEO, CIO, and CFO and pleaded my case. Long story short, I took a 25% decrease in salary and no bonuses for 18 months, received RSU's (restricted stock units) and LTIP's (stocks at the current price) instead. That showed them how passionate and strong my believe was that it was the wrong thing to do. The bottom-line was we were failing, not them. I thought I was getting fired for saying that. Everyone else did not get a raise for 12 months. They were concerned that a lot of people would leave. Well, they didn't and we are growing pretty good now. I am back to better then full salary and bonuses for over a year now and the stock has doubled since then. Maybe I am different, I feel that once you layoff people of value, the company starts shrinking rapidly and once you start growing again, you are behind the curve because you must hire and train new people. There is no guarantee those new hires will work out anyway. My only regret is I told my wife about what I did. If she had a loaded gun in her hand when I told her what happened, I would not be typing this right now. I tried to tell her that it would not kill us and if all goes well we will make more money in the long run. She did not agree with my logic.
We are still happily married.Company is in Aerospace/defense/software business. Mainly based out of the New York City area with satellite areas across the globe. I actually changed my title to "receiver of poo" a few years ago.
My only regret is I told my wife about what I did. If she had a loaded gun in her hand when I told her what happened, I would not be typing this right now. I tried to tell her that it would not kill us and if all goes well we will make more money in the long run. She did not agree with my logic.
resend
It remains true that Merck, even after acquiring Schering-Plough, does not have the pipeline to sustain growth and prosperity as required by Wall Street and sharedholders. Pipeline health is primarily the responsibility of R&D, and not sales or marketing. The current leadership in R&D must be replaced with a competent one. I am not blaming the hard working scientists on the bench trying to make the difference. It's the top leader and 3 to 4 level below who are like mold on stale bread, digesting what's left of Merck, burping and farting lies along the way to a board of directors who are not smart enough to know the difference. It's not too late to shake up the place, you only need one good leader on top who is interested in retaining great people who are not necessarily his cronies.
The problem is the company is too big and there are too many inept managers leading divisions and therapy areas. When so many inept managers are in top positions they will hire more inept managers because they do not want to look bad. Then those inept managers do not know what they are doing, lead scientists have no respect for them and do not take their jobs seriously, then the associates are just there to go through the motions.
MRL is a diaster, the matrix that Peter Kim has created is just horrific. I do not know if it will ever change. Merck's only chance of survial is to acquire, layoff, acquire and layoff. The only problem with this is, they are running out of companies they can acquire.
That is so true. When a good company is acquired. it's at a very high premium. Even when there are lay offs there is a cost involved, kills moral, and good people who may not get released find other jobs. People just want job security and a good atmosphere to work. The executives have to know this.
They Do know this, but they don't CARE (the rich are not like you and I)!