working @ Health Decisions?

Can anyone share their experiences working at/with Health Decisions? It's a very small CRO in RTP, NC headed up by CEO Michael Rosenberg. I had been looking into going on staff there, but I was recently at a conference where literally everyone I spoke to who knew of it warned me to think twice. I heard everything from no executive responsibility to impossibly egomaniacal CEO to horribly irresponsible business decisions (something about corporate funds being tied up in the CEO's personal investments? sketchy...). Anyway, it seemed like everyone had an over-the-top horror story, so I'm trying to discern whether most of this is rumor and/or typical job dissatisfaction, or if I should seriously consider pursuing this opportunity at all. Any advice would be most helpful!

 

I think you have been well advised by the folks you have run into.

 

Your concerns are very well founded. I will save the details but unless you are starving, I would continue looking for an opportunity with a more stable organization. Best of luck.

 

Health Decisions is easily the worst organization I've worked with. There is great talent and ability in the mid-ranks (or at least there used to be, if those people haven't all left), but I've never seen blunders more asinine and just plain wrong than from the CEO & CFO pair. Definitely sketchy practices. Bad business all around. Best of luck with your search, though.

 

you are welcome to call me at 919-265-3500 and I will honestly give you feedback, based on first hand experience. and yes, what you heard is probably all true.

 

Agree wholeheartedly -- executive management is the worst!!! It's amazing that they have been able to attract and retain such good people in the lower ranks. A good question to ask them in the interview is… How many fingers can you count to come up with the number of C-level, VPs, and Directors have left within the last two years? Hint… They’ll need all their fingers and toes to come up with that number!!!

 

Every word is absolutely fact. I am a former employee and can attest to the working environment.

 

Also ask them how many sales reps they have gone through in the last 3 years. The number is well over 20! CEO hires someone then blames them for his incompetence during the sales presentation with major clients or worse yet, the sales rep does well and he refuses to pay them! I never believed this to be true until I experienced it and I have spoke with almost every other rep that had this happen to them. CEO also outright lies to clients about the HDs capabilities and thinks sponsors are all idiots.

I can also tell you that I have now worked with and connected to many other CROs and companies across the country and none of them have a single good word to say about the company or the CEO. If you interview with them they will tell you the CEO is understood and that people are just not understanding adaptive. Not true at all, people understand adaptive, they just have no desire to work with an organizion like HD.

 

Another former employee. What you've been told is true. Stay away.

 

I work at Health Decisions. I've worked at a couple of other places (CRO and pharma), and this company is better than anywhere else I've been. Most of the people I work with have been around for at least a few years and are capable and dedicated, but best off, this is a place where there is a general feeling of cooperation and support. Most places make you feel like a squirrel running around a treadmill--this is much better. Also, HD has great tools that allow me to spend my time working with sites instead of running around trying to find things, unlike the big systems that I've worked with before.

Recently there have been some new senior managers, and there are some positive signs. I can't comment on things like sales but I wonder if the people who did say things really know enough to comment. I do know that some of the "information" presented as personal experience was factually not correct (I asked).

You owe it to yourself to speak to HD, including current employees, and not let naysayers make that choice for you (and it does sound like some of these have axes to grind--most of these comments aren't even about their jobs, just seems to be personal bitching).

 

I worked at Health Decisions for over 5 years. Yes, like most companies they have their issues, what company doesn't, but I enjoyed my time there. HD systems are better than much of what is found in the market and there is a lot of freedom to try new things. Definitely worth a discussion.

 

You have got to be f'ing kidding me. Whatever stooge (thanks for writing Dr. Rosenberg!) at HD wrote this should be taken out and flogged. If you're going to post at least try to SEEM like a normal lurking, disgruntled poster like the rest of us.

 

This article discribes Michael Rosenbergs faults to a tee: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericjackson/2012/01/02/the-seven-habits-of-spectacularly-unsuccessful-executives/

The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives

Habit # 1: They see themselves and their companies as dominating their environment

Habit #2: They identify so completely with the company that there is no clear boundary between their personal interests and their corporation’s interests

Habit #3: They think they have all the answers

Habit #4: They ruthlessly eliminate anyone who isn’t completely behind them

Habit #5: They are consummate spokespersons, obsessed with the company image

Habit #6: They underestimate obstacles

Habit #7: They stubbornly rely on what worked for them in the past

 

My advice is to check out LinkedIn and look how many successful professionals have left HD in very short order and have then gone on to be very successful once again at other companies. The management team is a revolving door outside of twiddle dumb and dumber (Rosenberg and Paladin). Both are isolated and have zero clue in regards to how the CRO industry actually works. The moral across the organization is terrible and it is still a great mystery as to why a few competent people work there (my guess is their reputations have been badly damaged from working there so long that no other CRO would hire them).

Fact is that HD has been around as long as companies like the Q and yet it has failed to grow and barely gets by each year on a few lucky contracts it picks up. It's easy to see why this happens when a company is run by people with no sales, business or even industry sense.

 

Health Decisions is an excellent place to work, but only if you meet all of the following criteria:

* You really miss the hey-day of circa 1998-2001. Back when Pharma was just starting to use technology (or so the story goes). That's where the CEO lives, and still believes that most of the world uses paper.
* You like repeating yourself. You like repeating yourself. ...more than you like breathing. Because you will do an awful lot of it.
* You like your work-family to rotate every six months or so.
* You enjoy being belittled for your inability to think beyond your [insert # years/decades here] experience across any number of industries, therapeutic areas and roles.
* You are a long-time fan of "Fantasy Island", "Lost" and "Alice in Wonderland". Reality often takes a back-seat to sporadic delusions of grandeur, and you'll groan as hours of your day (and life) are eaten away by inane conversations about "new" methods and technologies routinely used by the rest of the industry.
* Your favorite method of advancing your team-members' careers is to wait for the next temporary president to join HD, then pounce on his every opportunity to help, before he is summarily fired for [insert random psychosis/neurosis/paranoid fantasy here].
* You can simultaneously live in two different realities, and don't mind pouring your heart into a straw-man methodology that has neither been proven, nor even effectively used at any point in the company's history.
* You are adept at (and LOVE) defending the character of the leader of your company against accusations of lying, paranoid delusions, narcissism, and vascular dementia.

But wait! There's more! Check out the many other exciting benefits:
* Cutting-Edge 2003 Technology!!!
* Work from Home!!! (except when the CEO is on the warpath)
* Reinvent Yourself!!! (...and your team, and your compensation package, your role, your responsibilities, all of your projects, metrics, daily tasks, psyche, and acquaintances)
* Travel Abroad!!! (if you like sharing a spartan rental in the heart of town with 8 of your colleagues)
* Corporate Intrigue!!! (you'll love discovering whom you can and can't trust, as you realize your HR department is fixated primarily on its own preservation and being a direct funnel of gossip and rumor to the executive team. Hear such gems as "He's never gonna change, just suck it up!", and "I know he's a liar, but can't you just forget it?")
* High Finance!!! (Watch the company's meager revenues stream out the door with the latest president's flights of fantasy, while you quibble over $50 spent on productivity tools.)
* Public Speaking!!! (You'll hear the same "We're almost there!" speech so often, you can entertain your friends, family, and maybe land the occasional Bar Mitzva gig with near-perfect recitals of same.)
* Learning Opportunities Galore!!! (as long as you BYOC - bring your own cash - for training)

Remember: You only get from HD what you give to it. If you're crazy enough, well then I think you'll rise very quickly. Just don't spend too much time decorating your office.

But seriously: Some have mentioned above that many good people work at HD, and that is a fundamental truth, throughout the company, at all levels. HD has survived so long due primarily to those who believe in good clinical practice, want to make a difference in the world, and who (for varying reasons) have an innate obligation to protect others, even keeping the CEO from destroying his own company at nearly every turn.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, by all means, give it your best shot. Just don't spend all of your energy too quickly.

See you on the other side.

 

Wow, the smell of sour grapes is overwhelming here!

I wonder whether it has occurred to poster(s) that everything that happens just may have something with them!

This sounds like a lot of disgruntled people who were let go who are trying to prove to the world that they are right and therefore everybody else must be wrong. That says a lot.

 

You might try having fewer disgruntled people, rather than spending your valuable time here.

Just a thought.

 

Might be helpful: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Health-Decisions-Reviews-E306600.htm

 

As long as the convo on where NOT to work is in play then do NOT work at Randox. Many folks may be solicited or you may receive random, misspelled emails from the company but while on the subject of strangers telling you where NOT to work do NOT work at Randox. Never, ever, ever.

 

Sounds like CEO has some sour grapes. Maybe all the negative posts have something to do with him? Could that be? Haven't worked there in years, left on my own steam in great disappointment at all the failed potential, but it is clear nothing has changed. MR is the limiting factor...you'll learn a lot for sure, but generally lessons you don't want...what NOT to do. Save yourself...just say no to HEalth Decisions.