After the Philippines, Mr. Gonzalez moved to pharma Research and Development. While this was a temporary demotion after being the youngest VP in the Company’s history at 26. The Company could not ensure his or his family safety in Manila. Mr. Gonzalez considered India but due to the age of his daughter the Company decided it was not the right post for him. The Company also had a problem with the Federal Government as it was under a conciliation agreement with the EEOC for discrimination. Obviously a successful Hispanic Scientist with GM experience was a gift to Ann Arbor, MI. But there was not a job in the site so he was given a group of 83 people to support. Interestingly enough, this group included the new CEO of Research and Development Dr. Ronnie Cresswell and his staff which included Dr. Pedro Cuatrecasas who had invented AZT and together went on to lead the team that invented Lipitor.

Dr. Cresswell was hired to execute the transformation of Warner-Lambert Inc. from a Consumer to a Pharma centric Company. The CEO of W-L, Mr. Joseph Williams, decided to reverse the resource balance from Consumer Marketing to Pharma R&D. This meant that the R&D budget grew from US $ 283 M to US $ 1.0 Billion and the Marketing Budget went from US $ 1.0 Billion to US $ 283 M. How do you effectively manage a resource surplus of +300 % vs. prior year in an all-white aging organization? In a scientific world made up of Asians and white American women…

The actors:

1) The scientists and administrative staff in Ann Arbor (The vast majority)

2) The new CEO and President of Research at Ann Arbor, MI

3) The Company’s CEO in Morris Town, NJ

The stakes:

1) Attain a better multiplier for the Company in case of a sale or an acquisition

2) Joe William’s legacy

3) Ronnie and Pedro’s reputation as great scientists and drug developers

The situation:

1) The local team (the Majority) immediately did not like the new comers

2) The company had not fired a person in the previous four years

3) The HR and Finance functions wanted to uphold the status quo

I met with Ronnie as I was responsible for him and his staff. He had already started to have issues with the administration. He had a Collection of cars worth millions of Dollars and they wanted to apply the relocation policy, which would only pay to move one car. I knew the investment the Company had made to obtain him from his prior company and to move him from Europe to the US.

The Solution:

I spoke to Corporate HR and after explaining to them the importance of Ronnie to the Company, they did not change their mind he made a lot of money and therefore he should pay to move his collection of cars and where to have them in the US. However, I knew the CEO’s point of view and how the bureaucracy worked. I personally approved the expenses since he was my client and I had been a Corporate VP of the Company. This won me the support of Dr. Cresswell for all the changes that were to take place in the succeeding 12 months which included the hiring of 50 % women scientists and mostly Asian male scientists. The termination of non-performing minority employees. Training the aging white scientists to deal with women and Asians as the way of the future. The whole eco system around the R&D site in Ann Arbor changed from a mid-west set of strip malls to an international mall in a few years. The initial retention of Ronnie and Pedro resulted on them leading the team of scientists, we built and retained, to develop Lipitor the most successful product on the history of the Pharmaceutical industry.