Lilly "streamlining" managment

May/22/2008 06:03 Filed in: Working in pharma
images
You go John ! Well it hasn't taken long for Lilly's new CEO to start making changes and it's about time. Lilly has started to eliminate layers of management and a lot of people are either leaving the company to look for opportunities elsewhere or are retiring. This of course is not only happening at Lilly but at other pharma companies as well as the need for speed and individual accountability takes root






When I first arrived at Lilly to start my career inside ethical pharma I was amazed at all the people within the marketing group. They had whole groups of people who were responsible for interventions that normally one person would be responsible for in a consumer products group? When I finally completed my first sign-off for new content to the Website, which took me 3 weeks, I was congratulated by my manager which left me scratching my head as I was just doing my job.


The streamlining of management could not have come at a better time but the elimination of these positions is not enough. Pharma needs to move away from the "matrix organization" so that people can be individually responsible for their work. In doing so, however, checks and balances need to remain in place to ensure that missteps are caught early. One of the things that frustrated me so much at Lilly was the time it took to implement changes to the Website I was responsible for. It could take weeks or months to get project completed and that translates to years in Internet time.


The new CEO's of pharma have another challenge ahead of them in addition to eliminating layers of management and that is to install a sense of pride in what we do and to make the environment one in which middle managers can give their honest input on DTC programs without being overruled by someone with a hidden agenda. To do this senior executives need to clearly set expectations of internal transparency. This means more than an ethics or compliance hotline, it means that people understand that our patients come first and that we believe our products can help people live longer and healthier lives. It also means looking at DTC marketing programs from the outside in; what do consumers want to know about our products rather than what we want to tell them via promotional messages. It means understanding that patients have a lot more say in treatment options than ever before and that we can no longer hide behind product labels to tell them about our brands.

John Lechleiter was the executive to presented me with my marketing Excel award at Lilly. Later that night after the awards ceremony I shook his hand and introduced myself again and told him that the "Web holds a lot of promise for future DTC programs and campaigns" and we chatted some more. I found him to be a great listener and good person. Lilly will remain strong but there is a lot of work yet to be done and I am confident that the Lilly Board made the right choice in Mr Lechleiter. So "you go John!" and implement with speed and ensure everyone shares your vision.
|