Since Jeff Kindler took over as CEO of Pfizer he's kicked out pretty much everyone on the old management team and replaced them with his own acolytes. He's also changed Pfizer's political direction 180 degrees.Observant readers may remember that I was first, writing for BrandweekNRX, revealing that Kindler supported Hillary Clinton for president, and was really a closet Democrat, which was a dramatic change from Dr. McKinnell who was a Bush Ranger and tried to force every employee to support the GOP.
Anyway, turns out in Kindler's new Pfizer only Democrats need to apply--at least that is what his recent hiring of Sally Susman and Amy Schulman would indicate; both of them have a perfect record supporting democrats, just like their new boss.
Pfizer Inc named Sally Susman Senior Vice President of Worldwide Communications and Chief Communications Officer with overall responsibility for Pfizer's global communications, reporting to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Kindler last fall.
This week the company reported that Amy Schulman would become the new general counsel after Kindler pushed out Waxman who was told to retire for "personal reasons."I guess if Dr. McKinnell was dead he would turn in his grave. But he isn't even on the Pfizer board so he has no say anymore and Kindler apparently couldn't care less what his old benefactor thinks. Funny thing is that Kindler pretended to support Bush at all those fancy fundraising dinners as long as McKinnell was around. I guess he was just biding his time to kick out all those conservative stalwarts.
Lesson of all this: Corporations are like tiny little kingdoms and the king does whatever he feels like. Usually he feels like hiring people who think like him, look like him (check out the pics above), and who come from the same background. No change in the last 10, 000 years.
3 comments:
CEOs and their suck-ups would support Flying Squirrels from the Planet Zog if they thought it would buy a bit of political leverage...
I have long thought that one of the defining-signatures of great management, at any public company, is a great diversity of political views, openly reflected and expressed, throughout management's ranks. [For example, how many Pharma EVPs or higher, in early 2004, now -- had ever heard of -- let alone saw as presidential timber -- Barack Obama? I know one company that is poised to profit from its prescience, if he does, in fact, win this Fall. And its management is widely regarded as "best in class". And yes, it is a pharma co.]
At the best in class, being able to see things from several angles is valued. I'm not sure I'd want to work in either an "All-Democrat" or an "All Republican" shop, ever. Stifling -- of new thoughts, regardless of source -- comes to mind.
Cool topic.
Should the political stance of Pfizer's workers be of this importance to the public? I think not, nor do I think it is necessary to see the political donation records of Ms. Susman and Ms. Schulman here on this web page. It is also a very crude statement to say that Ms. Susman and Ms. Schulman think and look like their boss (not that there is anything wrong with looking like Mr. Kindler.) I am assuming that you do not personally know any of these three characters, and thus, I think it is fair of me to say that your opinions are relying strictly upon documents and a couple of pictures, which you have probably just found on Google. And back to the donations, is it a problem to be dedicated to a sole political party? Or rather, do you have an issue with these persons being dedicated to the standards and beliefs of the Democratic party? At Pfizer, I have faith that there is a great diversity in the political beliefs of it's employes and picking on Mr. Kindler, and Ms. Susman and Ms. Schulman is ridiculous. Not to mention, that you never know who will end up reading this. I personally did not need to learn about my mother's donations through a blog. And I didn't need to know your opinion on how my mother and her colleagues look to you (only I can diss how she looks.)
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