Case-Based Assignment

PFIZER IN A NEW KIND OF STRUCTURE

Admit it. Sometimes the projects you're working on (college, work or both) can get pretty boring and monotonous. Wouldn't it be nice to have a magic button you could push to get someone else to do the boring, time consuming stuff for you? At Pfizer such a button is a reality for a large number of employees.

As a global pharmaceutical company Pfizer is continually looking for ways to be more efficient and effective. The company senior director for organizational effectiveness, Jordan Cohen, found that the "Harvard MBA Staff we hired to develop strategies and innovate were instead googling and making power point." Indeed internal studies conducted to find out just how much time valuable talent was spending in menial tasks was startling. The average Pfizer employee was spending 20% to 40% of his or her time on support works (creating documents, typing notes, doing research, manipulating data and scheduling meetings) and only 60% to 80% on knowledge work (strategy, innovation, networking, collaborating, critical thinking). And the problem wasn't just at lower levels Even the highest-level employees were affected. That's when Cohen began looking for solutions. The solution he choose turned out to be outsourcing numerous knowledge-processes to companies based in India.

Initial tests of outsourcing to support tasks didn't go well at all. However, Cohen continued to tweak (squeeze) the process until everything worked. Now Pfizer employees can clock the OOF (Office of the Future) button in Microsoft outlook, and they are connected to an outsourcing company where a single worker in India receives the request and assigns it to a team. The team leader calls the employee to clarify the request. The team leader then emails back a cost specification for the requested work. At this point, the Pfizer employee can say yes or no. Cohen says that the benefits of OOF are unexpected. Time spent on data analysis has been cutsometimes in half. The financial benefits are also impressive. And Pfizer employees loved it. Cohen says, "it's kind of amazing. I wonder what they used to do."

Source: FAST COMPANY by A. Cohen. Copyright 2008 by Mansueto Ventures LLC

Assessment Requirements:

1. Describe and critically evaluate what Pfizer is doing.

2. Discuss the concepts of organizational structure and critically analyze the structural implications (in terms of dimension) utilized by Pfizer.

3. Analytically apply and evaluate what relevant theory on leadership style and behaviour practiced by the senior director of Pfizer in its accomplishment.

4. Prepare an innovative plan for continuous change management and organizational effectiveness at Pfizer. Present the tabular plan with significant explanation.