The Globalization of Wyeth
Executive Summary
From 1997 to 2004, Wyeth went from being a multinational company to becoming a globalized company. The biggest shift? Their Information Technology department. They went from 22 people spread over the world to more than 1,800 people and half a billion dollars of the Wyeth budget. For many years Wyeth was a Laissez-Faire holding company with many locations throughout the world that did not interact or communication with each other. Over the next 8 years, with the help of the Information Technology department, Wyeth became a globalized pharmaceutical company with centralized information that created new efficiency in an increasingly competitive market. The end result was a positive one but it was not an easy road to get there. Wyeth had great pre-planning for the Information Technology shift, but the original strategic design needed to be revamped when the implementation started. Employee resistance was a result of the fear of the unknown as well as confusion with the processes. Also, budgetary concerns played a role in the rate at which the Information Technology division could grow.
With headaches like this, you can believe that the leaders at Wyeth were reaching for an Advil.
Background
In 1860, John and Frank Wyeth started a drugstore in Philadelphia. In the small research lab they had attached to the pharmacy, they started to manufacture large quantities of commonly needed medications. They found success in “mass” production of pharmaceuticals. This “mass production” was defined by 1929 standards and happened in the storage area next to the pharmacy. John’s son, Stuart, incorporated Wyeth as a holding company in 1929. Until the 1990’s, Wyeth was a holding company for a diverse offering of products. Some of their most popular were a toothpaste called Kolynos and a headache medicine called Anacin. Wyeth’s reputation was that of a laissez-faire holding company that was primarily focused on bottom-line profits and not
From 1997 to 2004, Wyeth went from being a multinational company to becoming a globalized company. The biggest shift? Their Information Technology department. They went from 22 people spread over the world to more than 1,800 people and half a billion dollars of the Wyeth budget. For many years Wyeth was a Laissez-Faire holding company with many locations throughout the world that did not interact or communication with each other. Over the next 8 years, with the help of the Information Technology department, Wyeth became a globalized pharmaceutical company with centralized information that created new efficiency in an increasingly competitive market. The end result was a positive one but it was not an easy road to get there. Wyeth had great pre-planning for the Information Technology shift, but the original strategic design needed to be revamped when the implementation started. Employee resistance was a result of the fear of the unknown as well as confusion with the processes. Also, budgetary concerns played a role in the rate at which the Information Technology division could grow.
With headaches like this, you can believe that the leaders at Wyeth were reaching for an Advil.
Background
In 1860, John and Frank Wyeth started a drugstore in Philadelphia. In the small research lab they had attached to the pharmacy, they started to manufacture large quantities of commonly needed medications. They found success in “mass” production of pharmaceuticals. This “mass production” was defined by 1929 standards and happened in the storage area next to the pharmacy. John’s son, Stuart, incorporated Wyeth as a holding company in 1929. Until the 1990’s, Wyeth was a holding company for a diverse offering of products. Some of their most popular were a toothpaste called Kolynos and a headache medicine called Anacin. Wyeth’s reputation was that of a laissez-faire holding company that was primarily focused on bottom-line profits and not