Too many Cubes is not sweet







The Medicines Company is making a big mistake hiring all of these Cubist and Durata reps. The lack of professionalism upon which they exit a company is indicative of the attitudes you will face at the first sign of any challenges down the road. Bringing in an entire group of representatives all from the same company or background can backfire when they turn against the leadership. Look at the Durata board if you want to get a taste of what to expect.

All will be well in the very beginning as the relationship starts with the company impressed by these high performers and their qualifications. The reps are equally impressed by the company. Soon thereafter, the company realizes that many of these so-called high performers with outstanding relationships don't really have what it takes to sell. The reps realize that the company as well as much of the leadership the leadership team knows nothing about the anti-infective market and the blame game begins......

The reps not performing will claim that the company's marketing or pricing strategies make it impossible to sell their drug. They will also claim that the ID market is very slow to adopt new drugs and that the company needs to understand that it could take years before anything begins to happen. The company does not want to wait years and expected these reps with all the great relationships they have to get things going. The reps don't want to jeopardize the relationships they took years to build with a hard sell and the company doesn't see the value of having a relationship if it doesn't help sell the product. It has been months now and many of the representatives have not sold a thing, now the negativity begins.....

There will be clear separation between the have and the have-nots and resentment and entitlement begin to rear their ugly head. The company grows impatient with the under-performing excuse laden reps. The reps blame the cardiovascular focused management team for not knowing anything about the markets or anti-infectives. They resent being led by someone that brings no value to them.

With sales going nowhere the pressure mounts and the company is quick to make moves on the under-performers, the entitled reps who are used to a long honeymoon period are shocked that they aren't permitted to under-perform for at least a few years before getting terminated. Both voluntary and involuntary turnover runs rampant in the first 12-18 months. the company is shocked at how quickly the group has turned negative. The stock price has gone down and options are all worthless.

The company now realizes that hiring representatives with the exact same phenotype and backgrounds was a big mistake. Chatter among the cliquey Cubies intensifies and many now move on to the next big thing realizing that coming here was a mistake.

Just a guess, but this scenario may just play out this way. Time will tell, and I'll be sure to come back and remind you when it does.

Told you so. Lesson over.
 






Hey Fool! MEDCO won't be around for the same reason Cubist isn't around. You can't lose your biggest money maker and expect to survive! Once it was obvious that the Cubicin gravy train was drying up Sivextro and Dificid weren't going to pay the bills. Time to engage your brain and stop hating. Clive should have sold the company a year ago.