It is interesting that Derica mentioned personnel reductions during his "staying positive" talk. Re-allocations are still fresh on the mind of many. I have to think those caught up in the middle of layoffs are not going to give much thought to the patients. Instead, one's first thoughts might turn toward finding another job, or taking care of their family. I would have avoided the mention of layoffs altogether, since he was never one of those re-allocated. It would have been more meaningful to hear from one who actually did get re-allocated. That would have been a more positive talk rather than hearing about finding "The Lilly Way" or "My name sounds feminine and I was assigned to a female dorm."
Derica is class act on his way to CEO. Layoffs come with the job. He's able to remove the emotional aspects and just do what needs to be done. It's the only way to restore profitability to our investors.
Reminds me of Dan Heighway's "unemployment is like a walk in the woods" speech, during all the reallocations.
In other words, nothing new under the sun. No other ideas. Just lay off people and collect your big bonus for savings in the next quarter. Nothing innovative other than layoffs. A kid out of college can come in and decide to lay off the work force. You can pay them a lot less as well. Since Derica has removed the emotional aspects of it, all is well. Go home and sleep the sleep of the just.
It takes absolutely no management ability to lay people off and then pretend that you are magically profitable as a direct result of cutting staff. Any idiot can do that. It takes talent to go in and turn something under-performing and make it profitable. Those with little management ability give it the only shot they know. Six Sigma projects that focus on the lowest hanging fruit that really mean little in the end.
He has never demonstrated an ability to be CEO. He has not worked in research, manufacturing, marketing or sales. His role has been to count the beans and say when the bean-count is getting low and where the beans are being spent. That is not a class act - especially when the company is underfunding employee benefits (Mike's carwash has a better educational assistance program - I am not kidding) and taking some risky chances with derivative investments to fund pensions. So in my mind, he is one to watch, but not in the sense of being a class act - rather one to worry about.
Since when have we required someone to demonstrate their ability before giving them the job. There's an endless list here of those promoted to positions that they were not ready for.
You just made my point. Let's stop just giving jobs to people they clearly are not ready for. If you can't see that clearly, you can't see.
I do not doubt that they are playing with the pension fund. There is a lot of money there. I do not know of any specifics.
I've always assumed that Jeff Simmons was being groomed as the next CEO. Compare what they've done the last ten years and tell me which is more likely to excite Wall Street.
My preference would be for Bart Peterson. Look at all the things he's done since joining Lilly. No one does a better email newsletter than Bart.
