There were some very insightful sales reps at Novartis and B&L in 2009 and 2001...they warned based on Novartis, experienced B&L, and then predicted Shire. Anonymous person from Novartis, May 23, 2009 at 11:04 AM "I warned you people about Flemming last year and few headed that I said he was a disaster at Novartis in his 2 year tenure there....they just did not "renew his contract." Ask why he went through 6 companies in 8 years as a "senior executive" and cannot stay at one place very long... and ask him about his Lou Gerstner book on what he was reading to manage Novartis Ophthalmics... don't forget to ask him about MUSIC! His personal credo to manage Novartis Ophthalmics: M= Make the numbers U= Utilize all we have S= Sample the right physicians I = Integrate good management C=Conceive of how to be the best Yes, Flemming ran the company by MUSIC and gave us all a lecture on how when he was in college and when to concerts he was inspired to think of how good he can be... I am not joking about any of this... I am glad he is no longer here.... Oh, I heard he brought over that douchebag Perry Sternberg..." Anonymous person from B&L, Feb 20, 2011 at 10:43 AM "This is why there have been people leaving B+L in mass from over 2 years ago. Ever since Perry and Kathy put their friends together to run the company it's gone downhill in a bad way. If you haven't been here over 4 years then you wouldn't understand that there has almost been a 90% turnover of senior management and administration...horrible track record. Yes, the expectations are so unrealisitc that you really have to put in a 10 hour day.... They try to work you so hard to distract you from the real elephant in the room: the company will be sold off soon. It's a miserable existence at Bausch and Lomb and you're not being paid nearly enough to work like this." Anonymous person from B&L, Apr 28, 2011 at 6:18 PM "The reps weren't forced out. PS & KK couldn't sell their way out of a paper bag; numbers just kept falling due to their incompetence. Let's face it; look at each of them individually. They are in way over their heads. They don't remotely have the backgrounds to be where they are. Flemming just put them there and there they stay. This is analogous to putting two 5 year olds behind the wheel of an automobile that is already on and in gear. You're lucky they can even speak but they will crash the car. Management simply saw the numbers without trying to understand what was going on and simply laid everyone off in one fell swoop. Where do you think we're headed. They'll go on to some other scam Flemming gets pulled into and so it plays." They warned, they experienced, they predicted. All right here on CP.
Flemming’s incompetence was an open secret when he was hired here, as were the jobs he left and never noted on his resume. The CP posts are consistent over the years. What nobody figured was how stupid the Shire Board was to hire him and let him pilot a once decent company into oblivion.
He was brought here to prime the company for a sale. Due to the inversion advantages that were under scrutiny, the board saw this as their last chance to command a high value for a sale. As the AbbVie deal fell through, the board breathed out a collective "oh shit!" Now they're stuck with the wrong CEO to grow the business. Should have given the CEO job to Mike Cola back when and we would have been in better shape today and with much happier employees.
Flemming had no track record to speak of at all- certainly not M&A where his attempts have been shown to be laughable. But even if the Board hoped for a sale they should have chosen a capable CEO instead of a ridiculous short man of limited talent who needs to bully to feel taller. Didn’t know Cola but hard to imagine anyone being a worse CEO than Flemming.
