My inspiration for the FIPNET concept came to me one day while sipping my tropical fruit cocktail one splendid afternoon poolside at the country club. The advanced scientists in the discovery areas had been a big headache for me. The cycle time required for individual tasks was unacceptably slow. Also, individuals have an excessive requirement for actually being recognized for their contributions. We already had plenty of million-dollar-per-year executives who were actually making the decisions that move the process forward.
If only the scientists and their leaders could just follow orders, we could accelerate the whole process. Well, just try and tell these oversized egos to "just follow instructions." We tried every motivational trick in the book (as long as increased pay was not involved). Alas, after several years of fruitless effort, poolside, tropical fruit cocktail in hand, I reached down to my glass and removed the sword-shaped swizzle stick, upon which were pineapple, grapes, strawberry, mango ... it dawned on me.
Like my fruit cocktail, the true value lie in the diversity of fruit. Each piece of fruit came from a geographical distinct region: The pineapple, Hawaii; the grapes, California; the strawberry, Mexico; the Mango, Asia. The sun peeked out from behind hedge in a brilliant flash of orange. That was it... we would source our discovery and development services globally. Like the fruit, each place has a certain fertility and climate for each to thrive. In like manner, all of the services required to build the Next Great Pharmaceutical Empire need not all be located under one roof.
The rest, my Lilly Colleagues, is history. I finished my fruit cocktail and dived in.
