helium-helium interaction
CASE: L-15
DATE: 10/1/2009
WYETH PHARMACEUTICALS:
CHANGING THE MINDSETS AND BEHAVIORS OF
17,000 PEOPLE… ONE PERSON AT A TIME
In late 2007, the Israeli drug maker Teva launched a generic version of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals’ patented drug Protonix, used to treat stomach acid reflux. Wyeth’s sales of this drug were more than $1 billion for the first nine months of 2007, but dropped by nearly 70 percent within two months of the Teva introduction.1 Prompted by this and other challenges, Michael Kamarck, president of Wyeth’s manufacturing group, TO&PS (Technical Operations & Product Supply), decided to revolutionize the way its 17,000 people operated. Kamarck set an ambitious goal: cut manufacturing costs by 25 percent. At the same time, TO&PS would need to keep improving the quality and compliance of its products, while finding ways to transform the capabilities, mindsets, and behaviors of its employees.
By mid-2009, just a year and a half after Kamarck had initiated the transformation, TO&PS was a different place. Most sites had cut annualized costs by the targeted 25 percent, and several had exceeded this goal. Overall TO&PS saved more than $250 million and was well on its way to achieving its target of $400 million in total savings by the end of 2010. Managers and workers had also been transformed. Despite hurdles and dark moments, the experience proved to be enlightening to Wyeth employees at all levels of the company. Among them was Charles
Schneider, managing director of the company’s biotechnology plant in Pearl River, New York:
“This last year has been sincerely fun…. We went through some of the hardest challenges I’ve ever encountered and I’m still having fun.”2
How exactly did TO&PS accomplish this transformation?
1
2
The company’s total revenue in 2007 was $22 billion.
Quotations are from interviews with the author, unless otherwise cited.
Isaac Waisberg prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Robert I. Sutton and
DATE: 10/1/2009
WYETH PHARMACEUTICALS:
CHANGING THE MINDSETS AND BEHAVIORS OF
17,000 PEOPLE… ONE PERSON AT A TIME
In late 2007, the Israeli drug maker Teva launched a generic version of Wyeth Pharmaceuticals’ patented drug Protonix, used to treat stomach acid reflux. Wyeth’s sales of this drug were more than $1 billion for the first nine months of 2007, but dropped by nearly 70 percent within two months of the Teva introduction.1 Prompted by this and other challenges, Michael Kamarck, president of Wyeth’s manufacturing group, TO&PS (Technical Operations & Product Supply), decided to revolutionize the way its 17,000 people operated. Kamarck set an ambitious goal: cut manufacturing costs by 25 percent. At the same time, TO&PS would need to keep improving the quality and compliance of its products, while finding ways to transform the capabilities, mindsets, and behaviors of its employees.
By mid-2009, just a year and a half after Kamarck had initiated the transformation, TO&PS was a different place. Most sites had cut annualized costs by the targeted 25 percent, and several had exceeded this goal. Overall TO&PS saved more than $250 million and was well on its way to achieving its target of $400 million in total savings by the end of 2010. Managers and workers had also been transformed. Despite hurdles and dark moments, the experience proved to be enlightening to Wyeth employees at all levels of the company. Among them was Charles
Schneider, managing director of the company’s biotechnology plant in Pearl River, New York:
“This last year has been sincerely fun…. We went through some of the hardest challenges I’ve ever encountered and I’m still having fun.”2
How exactly did TO&PS accomplish this transformation?
1
2
The company’s total revenue in 2007 was $22 billion.
Quotations are from interviews with the author, unless otherwise cited.
Isaac Waisberg prepared this case under the supervision of Professor Robert I. Sutton and