I was a frequent contributor to this board long ago in another life. It never ceased to amaze me how juvenile some of the comments were and continue to be. Take a look at the other boards....NO ONE THINKS THEIR MANAGEMENT IS WORTH A CRAP. Keeping Novartis stable and profitable is the basic responsibility of management. The wishes and desires of the working stiffs at Novartis comes secondary. Richard's approach to having internal candidates interview for positions along with external candidates seems to irk many but the fact is that right now there are many excellent managers and reps who have been let go by other companies. One of the criteria for letting people go is cost...how much will it cost to keep this individual over another? Older reps and managers make more in salary, get more in contributions to their retirement and 401K and future health care costs. It is cheaper in the long run to let the old guys go and keep the younger ones who are not locked in to a pension and other benefits. Look at the people who have been put out to pasture....in most cases they are the senior, most experienced people, it was in my area and in many others. Yes they keep a few old codgers around just to make it look good but don't believe for a moment that age and tenure are not part of the dismissal equation. Hang in there folks, bitch all you want but remember to take full advantage of your 401K and save your money......you will need it. Never let the bastards get you down. A Friend.
I'll add one more thing to take advantage of: The free time. Start a small business or go back to school. Don't waste the free time during the day!
Looks like an old RTBPKL post. Guy was wicked smart and I understand he is flying an airplane for a living these days. Best of luck to you RT.
This guy always made sense and it makes sense that since there are a lot of great managers and reps let loose by other companies that Novartis can improve its field force by bringing some of these folks on and letting some hangers on go. Lots of people just going thru the motions these days.
You are right, Novartis has made business decisions based on economics. However, they need to recognize there are consequences to those decisions. When you treat your internals with respect and trust, you get respect and trust in return. When you treat them as a commodity, you buy there service and no more. Vision and mission statements, your "word", becomes meaningless. So when you approach customers with a "commitment" they view you as an used car salesman willing to do anything to make a buck. Novartis has become the poster child of what is wrong with pharma.
