Pfizer - Self Destructing?

Posted by Mark Wayland on Jan 17, 2009

Reading the latest sad and depressing news about Pfizer brought a past experience back vividly into my mind.

I worked for Pfizer throughout the 1990's and all the latest news had me clearly recalling a conversation 15 years ago. News like selling off the Ann Arbor research facility (that developed Lipitor), 5% of research boffins to go in 09, 13,500 people gone since 07, Martin Mackay's leaked memo that outlines Pfizer exiting 8 disease areas and focusing on 5 big (and hopefully, as a shareholder) profitable areas, USD3 million spent on lobbying in the US in the last quarter, 2,400 sales jobs to go, blah, blah, blah.

The conversation was with, of all people, an up and coming product manager, who is a country manager these days. He was extolling the virtues of the Art of War by Sun Tzu. He was adamant that following its teachings and applying them to his marketing would reap fantastic rewards. Now this all makes sense when you appreciate how aggressive / assertive Pfizer has been in the market. War it was.

Here's the kicker. The chapter I remember was one that outlined the need to remain vigilent and flexible. It said that without this prespective "what was once your strength, becomes your weakness".

In an MBA program I saw the concept again as "the Law of the Retarding Leader". Success/ market leadership retards change because success gives little incentive to change or even noticing that environmental conditions are changing. Market leaders are always slow to change (see less need to), risk averse (lot to lose if it doesn't work) and arrogant (see themselves as a pace setter).

Even Peter Drucker noticed this phenomenon when he talked about the Cult of Efficiency; doing something efficiently that we should, in fact, not be doing at all.

Is the latest Pfizer restructure into business units an exercise in deckchair rearrangement (on the Titanic just before it hit the iceberg)?

Maybe it's time to start collecting Pfizer souvenirs because no matter what they do they just won't be able to help themselves. There are just far too many things to unlearn and too many susceptable egos that stand in the way of a shift in the company's direction.