What the hell happened to us??

[Anonymous]

R&D failed and that caused a domino effect throughout the company. Also the executives spend money like drunk sailors. It’s not a secret that the pipeline dried up, they could have taken preemptive measures years ago and this ship would not be sinking.

 

[Anonymous]

This post reminded me of the lavish entertainment we began to do when we started hiring Ken and Barbie models. Yes, many of those managers actively involved in the "educational" events, including tickets to a Rolling Stones concert, are now in the upper management. I remember stopping by a sushi restaurant to pick up an order and saw the two local Merck reps (Mr. Ken and Ms. Barbie) educating the entire office in a private room. They were walking from table to table pouring adult beverages and ordering food. It was so sad that we conducted business in such a demeaning way. Then we were told to follow those examples and match them in programs conducted or else.

Yet friends and family thought our jobs were the best. Little did they know the damage to our self-respect for those of us with a conscience was immense.

 

[Anonymous]

It's a business folks, not a school, a nonprofit or a family. We are an organization and any organization is only as good as its weakest link. A business needs customers and good products/services. Most of these big U.S. manufacturers sent everything important overseas, then decided to be lazy with all the MBAs buying compentency models for sales marketing and business to tell them how to be successful. Leadership turned into lazy well-fed sheep. They forgot about real research, viable products, longterm planning and the customer. Speaking of that, on the customer side, the new model supported having PODs with Ken and Barbie in leadership customer facing positions (thank you, Pfizer!). This was shown to drive a HUGE cash flow by making doctors write more Rxs. At the top: The Good Old Boy Network was alive and well! (Who BTW, were out golfing while paid consultants made the business decisions.)

Later Ken and Barbie became your managers. Some went to HQ and marketing. No one had any real experience actually selling or thinking or in medicine. MBAs hired more consultants and drew up more charts to track. Oops, a few years go by and there are too many unqualified people selling (term used loosely) one drug and clinical customers are voicing their unhappiness at being pestered by reps. Doors close. We invent ways to regain access with "programs and consultants" to increase and keep our business channels open. Some of our consultants were corrupt doctors and the media had a hayday. We suddenly became the bad guy. MBAs drew more charts.

Marketing started to guide research rather than scientific need. Profits were not where they needed to be. Bigger companies started to buy up smaller ones for their pipelines. Smaller companies learned to be deceptive and very clever in propping up their pipelines/bottomlines to appear better than they really were (SP ring a bell?). Once an acquistion or merger was made, the executive teams and stockholders made millions, but in transaction only. These large and small M&As did nothing for actual business besides make a few very rich. Now, deep cuts needed to be made to make the bottom line still look good. All hell broke loose. Relationships in the field were terminated along with thousands of good workers who had great connections. Customers felt the instability and loss of respect and cut us off completely. There was no value to them in keeping us (some new face) as a business partner. We were no longer seen as necessary or important to their business; we did not have any new products to sell to them or to benefit their patients. The consultant role died as it too became dangerous to be exposed for an inappropriate relationship.

So, now we scramble with all types of service oriented garbage (P4P and Transitions of Care) that do absolutely nothing to grow our business or enhance our bottomline just to hang on to any customer relationship even if it is a poor or unprofitable one. Reps are spread too thin with competing priorities and competencies that have no value to real business because our customer has checked out. (Elvis has left the building!) It is all an illusion of success. In the meantime, R&D is underwater and all the big manufactures are scrambling to find and acquire the new blockbuster. But it is a crapshoot because everyone is out looking at Phase I trials and small biotechs. There are only a few products that will make it. There is not enough time left to support the infrastructure of these big companies and that, my friends, is the dirty little secret: Your days and mine are numbered.

Three important links are completely broken: 1) leadership and their connection to designing innovation in tough times by generating meaningful and profitable products within a sound business structure, 2) the customer connection is severed as most of the medical industry does not want to be a consultant nor work with pharma other than to get money for their research and their own health system; some still want samples and that's about it, 3) most new products are me too drugs with few innovations and we do not have the pipeline or the connections to support the top so the bottom keeps getting cut. Soon there will be nothing but chiefs, which will distance ourselves even further from our customer, our target.

Hey, but the executives will be rich when the bridge collapses and we will be out of a career. (I wonder if the executives realize this is why no one in the field trusts anyone at the top? Obviously, if your field teams and lower ranking employees have no trust in the leadership, the customer is going to feel it.) Everyone here knows we are on the Titanic.

Move on my friend and let it go. Everything has a time and place. You really do not think the "top" is going to cut their own ranks or trim their fat to save the company do you? Just fill out the next survey, be positive or you'll be on someone's shit list.

Spot-on!

 

[Anonymous]

The Revolving door @ Merck (and this also includes all contracts), has always surprised me what goes out and who they let in! Way too many ppl esp. in-house, that got where they are for all the WRONG reasons!! Why do they even have an interview process, rarely do they pick the best qualified or most experienced!
Along with excessive training, no wonder we have gone down down down.

 

[Anonymous]

Competitor here. I've been in the business, for 31 years. When I started, MSD, as it was known in those days, was THE most respected pharma company in the world. Everything it did was first class all the way. It was a premier organization any way you want to measure it. I worked for a much smaller company that grew into a giant. We too, did everything in a first class way.

Then it happened. Merck was the first to start a massive hiring campaign. The "share-of-voice" model was in full swing. All companies followed Merck's lead into the mess we have today. Although we are not at our high in terms of numbers of reps, the industry is once again experimenting with different models. Talk to your AZ rep to see all the crap they are dealing with in terms of what AZ is doing to replace them.

The main problem we have in this industry, is an incredible lack of good leadership, poor pipelines/R&D depts., and a government that is hell bent on destroying this industry. It's not ever going to go back to the industry it once was, never. My advice is to find another career. Don't get "comfortable" in your job. Invest in yourself. Leave this industry before it leaves you.

 

[Anonymous]

Competitor here. I've been in the business, for 31 years. When I started, MSD, as it was known in those days, was THE most respected pharma company in the world. Everything it did was first class all the way. It was a premier organization any way you want to measure it. I worked for a much smaller company that grew into a giant. We too, did everything in a first class way.

Then it happened. Merck was the first to start a massive hiring campaign. The "share-of-voice" model was in full swing. All companies followed Merck's lead into the mess we have today. Although we are not at our high in terms of numbers of reps, the industry is once again experimenting with different models. Talk to your AZ rep to see all the crap they are dealing with in terms of what AZ is doing to replace them.

The main problem we have in this industry, is an incredible lack of good leadership, poor pipelines/R&D depts., and a government that is hell bent on destroying this industry. It's not ever going to go back to the industry it once was, never. My advice is to find another career. Don't get "comfortable" in your job. Invest in yourself. Leave this industry before it leaves you.

Excellent advice that speaks the truth about this nutty business. Good old MSD is long gone and the industry is never going to be what it once was. There is nothing first class about Merck anymore except for the cabin class of our executives when the must fly commercial....

 

[Anonymous]

The Revolving door @ Merck (and this also includes all contracts), has always surprised me what goes out and who they let in! Way too many ppl esp. in-house, that got where they are for all the WRONG reasons!! Why do they even have an interview process, rarely do they pick the best qualified or most experienced!
Along with excessive training, no wonder we have gone down down down.

Seems this way. Do qualifications matter? See lesser experiened, lesser everything move ahead faster; better candidates who are put in the layoff pool.

 

[Anonymous]

Competitor here. I've been in the business, for 31 years. When I started, MSD, as it was known in those days, was THE most respected pharma company in the world. Everything it did was first class all the way. It was a premier organization any way you want to measure it. I worked for a much smaller company that grew into a giant. We too, did everything in a first class way.

Then it happened. Merck was the first to start a massive hiring campaign. The "share-of-voice" model was in full swing. All companies followed Merck's lead into the mess we have today. Although we are not at our high in terms of numbers of reps, the industry is once again experimenting with different models. Talk to your AZ rep to see all the crap they are dealing with in terms of what AZ is doing to replace them.

The main problem we have in this industry, is an incredible lack of good leadership, poor pipelines/R&D depts., and a government that is hell bent on destroying this industry. It's not ever going to go back to the industry it once was, never. My advice is to find another career. Don't get "comfortable" in your job. Invest in yourself. Leave this industry before it leaves you.

I joined the company when it was Merck Sharp & Dohme. We were not the one that started the massive hiring. I think Pfizer and may be another company already had more reps per territory before. We went crazy with it and by the time Vioxx was out, we must had 10-12 reps (counting those so-called specialists) calling on the customers for the same product. I went to meetings and would cringe when they introduced another dozen of new Barbie and Ken models every other month. As a stockholder and tenured rep I thought about the extra costs and the ROI. Coordination became a problem. We began to have dinner programs on the same day over and over. Customers made fun of us competing against each other. I agree that you have to be brain dead to wish for a return to the old pharma way. We ruined it and the trend will continue on...downward.

 

[Anonymous]

Seems this way. Do qualifications matter? See lesser experiened, lesser everything move ahead faster; better candidates who are put in the layoff pool.

Merck the company of LESSER!

 

[Anonymous]

I guess people started to believe what they are preaching, "you don't have to be first in class, but best in class". What does that mean? If you're first, you win, you're the BEST. Anything less means nothing.

 

[Anonymous]

I guess people started to believe what they are preaching, "you don't have to be first in class, but best in class". What does that mean? If you're first, you win, you're the BEST. Anything less means nothing.

ACE Inhibitor market - BMS was first with Capoten. Merck then came out with Vasotec which is much better and we became the market leader. Not the first but we were the best. We won.

 

[Anonymous]

Exactly. I am not against diversity but to be diverse at the risk of intelligence, hard work, etc shows that diversity just to be diverse does not work.

I am a minority myself. The problem is management became scare of coaching minority reps fearing they may be in trouble. So I could not say anything if a minority/female rep is not, say, calling on some of the targeted physicians. The compromise is for me to call on those customers (extra work), make peace and to avoid confronting the reps who are not doing the basic job. Some minority reps work just as hard while some exploit their status to its fullest.

 

[Anonymous]

I still ponder at how we went from all those consecutive 'most admired' years down to this most 'mired' shithole existence we've been swirling in for the past 10 years. Does it all rest on management's shoulders? Greedy executives?? Piss-poor MRL productivity??? I have to agree with the retiree who said he knew it was time to leave when that "for the people feeling" was lost. That's got to be a leadership issue. Is there any pharma company left that has their reputation intact and is looked up to by customers and employees alike? I don't think so.

Clean up the leadership in R&D and hopefully you will get a better company 10 years down the road. For now it's just dead. 10 years of poor leadership in R&D already killed the company for the short term, and I see no significant changes in the horizon except mergers and cut cost, the kind of stuff mediocre managers do to save the day. Look at R&D management in companies like Apple, Google or even Microsoft, then you will know why Merck is in deep shit. Merck R&D leadership is just plainly incompetent.

 

[Anonymous]

I guess people started to believe what they are preaching, "you don't have to be first in class, but best in class". What does that mean? If you're first, you win, you're the BEST. Anything less means nothing.

Forgetting Lipitor, aren't we????

 

[Anonymous]

Clean up the leadership in R&D and hopefully you will get a better company 10 years down the road. For now it's just dead. 10 years of poor leadership in R&D already killed the company for the short term, and I see no significant changes in the horizon except mergers and cut cost, the kind of stuff mediocre managers do to save the day. Look at R&D management in companies like Apple, Google or even Microsoft, then you will know why Merck is in deep shit. Merck R&D leadership is just plainly incompetent.

Some other company or organization with real leadership in R&D and management and business and experienced skill sets for China and India will come along before Merck cleans up itself. The bad leadership got themselves in and there is absolutely no incentive for them to change or to leave.

If Merck were serious about turning anything around they would make revolutionary changes to their leadership's working holiday. Put a total compensation cap (bonus, salary, options, and grants) that reflects Mercks "lesser-ness" - say $400,000 tops and downhill from there - on any Merck employee and you will separate those that are in it for the easy money and those that are in it for love of doing it well. And forget this incentive pay system. They either meet stretch goals assigned to these proven losers or they pack up and go home. There are plenty of individuals that would step up for lesser pay, tough assignments, and a risky future in order to serve as replacements for the fluff-balls we have today. The "best" should have been being selected from candidates of the mere "capable" all along. Right now, it seems that the leadership are a bunch of "get-along, go-along" drifters.

 

[Anonymous]

Forgetting Lipitor, aren't we????

Mevacor
Zocor and Pravachol
Then Lipitor

Fourth in class and nothing that much better than us but they surely knew how to market it well. Still remember Koerth told us to forget this silly indication for triglycerides. How we should tell the docs to ignore it too. Well, they didn't.

 

[Anonymous]

Some other company or organization with real leadership in R&D and management and business and experienced skill sets for China and India will come along before Merck cleans up itself. The bad leadership got themselves in and there is absolutely no incentive for them to change or to leave.

If Merck were serious about turning anything around they would make revolutionary changes to their leadership's working holiday. Put a total compensation cap (bonus, salary, options, and grants) that reflects Mercks "lesser-ness" - say $400,000 tops and downhill from there - on any Merck employee and you will separate those that are in it for the easy money and those that are in it for love of doing it well. And forget this incentive pay system. They either meet stretch goals assigned to these proven losers or they pack up and go home. There are plenty of individuals that would step up for lesser pay, tough assignments, and a risky future in order to serve as replacements for the fluff-balls we have today. The "best" should have been being selected from candidates of the mere "capable" all along. Right now, it seems that the leadership are a bunch of "get-along, go-along" drifters.

Brilliant post. However, you still have customers that do not want to conduct business with any pharma company and the FDA/PhARMA code reducing promotional employees to the value of a soundbyte. The midnight hour is upon us.

 

[Anonymous]

...edited...
If Merck were serious about turning anything around they would make revolutionary changes to their leadership's working holiday. ...

Don't waste your energy wishing for it. Merck is not going to turn around. You are hoping all those SOBs running the company wake up tomorrow and realize they are not that good and have ruined the company, resign and leave? They do not see a reason for a turnaround.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't waste your energy wishing for it. Merck is not going to turn around. You are hoping all those SOBs running the company wake up tomorrow and realize they are not that good and have ruined the company, resign and leave? They do not see a reason for a turnaround.

Agreed. If it is true that the company's slide can be dated to the end of Vagelos' tenure, we would need to turn around 17 years of entrenched bad management. Not a decade or a decade plus! Actually 17 years is pretty close to half of a substantial career! This is not a momentary blip in momentum. This is the sort of lost era that have plagued the likes of GM. Since the company specializes in spin, there is no reason to believe that the management is not spinning the present situation to their own benefit. 17 will turn into 25 sooner than you think. Put a fork in it. There are far more people on board that have experienced only Merck's mediocrity than there are that had participated in what made it (formerly) great. Talking about the good old days of Merck's greatness is the surest sign to your co-workers that you are an old fart. Get cynical and survive or get smart and get out.

 

[Anonymous]

Spot-on!

it is a business with all the screwy characters....http://www.pharmalot.com/2011/06/merck-vioxx-and-the-legal-system-snigdha-explains/#more-32677