Layoff's in New Hospital Products group

Let us face it. This new model is about leverage. Given the below average growth rate for this business, it is going to come down to reducing costs. Get prepared for the "cleansing" that HR is about to start. They have already been working on this for the last 2 months with BE and SL. If you see that your superivisor is being extra nice to you, start packing.

 

I've been looking for awhile. If you haven't, you've been foolish.

 

BP hinted that Biosurgery and Anesthesia have synergies. I would guess the salesforces would be combined since both call in the peri-op space.

 

I think that Bus Ops in Med Products is prime for pruning. The will get rid of employees that are incompetent and retirement age employees with bad attitudes. Being a TM, I could care less if they get rid of me. Life is going to be sucky once the whipping starts##@@%%

 

That makes sense. It will be unfortunate to go thorugh this process again but this is the life in corporate world

 

Is Luce still the big dog in this new business?

 

Yes, but BE is back and is now his boss. He replaced BE and now BE is back.

 

Everybody, calm down. Who knows what's gonna happen?

 

So disappointed with so many things here from clueless management to the restrictions on trying to do business and nothing new anywhere on the horizon. I imagine years from now Baxter will be taught in some class about how to wreck a company.

 

Let's face it. Senior Management makes $$ in this deal. Our marching orders are do more with less. It will be difficult for the New Baxter to operate in the margins of the hospital business AND deliver what the market expects. It will be all about cost control now.

 

Polish up that resume, kids...

AND GO GET YER SHINE BOX.

 

Agree

 

word from Bus Ops is that SL had a consulting company in place before the big announcement to downsize the work force. The name of the company was weird (Gaslight?) They are planning to outsource many jobs to Costa Rica. If you do not conduct business with an external customer, your job will be gone before the year is done

 

Hell, I want to move to Costa Rica. I hear it's cheap for folks up north to get their rotten teeth drilled out in Costa Rica.

 

What does everyone think will happen to the entire new Hospital Products sales force? Between USMD, Biosurgery, and ACC, there are probably 700 reps. Thats a lotttttt of reps.

 

Yes, point being, that's A LOT of useless reps.

 

In order to see the RIF possibilities, put yourself in the senior managers' shoes. Understand that this isn't the way I would like it to be because I don't want people to lose their jobs. But here's the way I see things potentially rolling out:

BBS reps can pretty much represent any of the product lines, since they already deal with both supply chain and pharmacy in sales, support and contracting. Theoretically, they are the most versatile reps and could acclimate easiest to any additions to their bag.

ACC reps are basically dealing with pharmacy chasing contracts. They also have interaction with the anesthesia services, but BBS reps could handle this on top of what they're already doing. So if you're an ACC rep, you could be easily replaced. Again, this is NOT my opinion but a perspective that could be taken my senior mgmt team.

USMD, you're sort of in the same boat as ACC but I don't think it would be as easy to replace you since your call points are somewhat different than ACC and BBS.

What do you guys think? I agree that 700 reps is a big number and given the slimmer margins we're facing, we should expect to see some RIF in the coming months. Hospitals also prefer to deal with as few points of contact with each company as possible.

We may also see some shuffling at the ASD level as well. If consolidation of the sales force occurs as a result of RIF's, the ASD group will shrink as well. It's the same story all over again: lots of children under the table fighting over a constantly shrinking pile of cookies.

 

I think this is a fair assessment. I think ACC and BBS will consolidate and have a RIF and USMD should too. USMD upper mgmt is top heavy- there is a VP of sales in USMD, but not the other groups...

 

So much dead weight that needs to be eliminated.. No reason to employee both ACC & BBS who both cover the same peri-op space.