The End of Leadership as We Know It

7Vive la Résistance!

After a successful stint as country manager for a global pharmaceutical company, Kesa had recently returned to the United States to lead the company's US commercial operations. It was a sensitive time; 3,000 sales representatives had to learn a new approach to engaging with prospects.

Pharmaceutical companies had always sought to convince doctors to prescribe their drugs, but now that process had to change dramatically. In the past, they hired armies of outgoing, attractive sales reps to deliver “core messages” to physicians. The reps were instructed to repeat the drug's core message to a doctor multiple times in the same conversation, often reading from a standardized visual aid. Questions raised by a doctor were treated as “objections” to be overcome with predefined, scripted responses. But new government guidelines and the rise of managed care meant that sales reps couldn't simply meet with doctors as before. And an increasingly diverse population and the growth of specialty drugs left doctors with more questions than ever.

Kesa's company had hired a consulting firm to develop a new sales approach, one fitted to the new market conditions. Kesa liked the approach and set out to find a region willing to pilot it. The reaction disappointed her. Feedback ranged from “our sales reps don't have the necessary capabilities” to “our existing systems won't support it” to “let's just tweak how we do it today.” When Kesa shared the reaction with her boss, he replied ...