Pharma "Insiders": Change Enemies or Back Stabbers?

My friend Rich Meyer, author of World of DTC Marketing Blog, once again has gone on a rant. This time his target is pharma "insiders.""One of the reasons that pharma marketing has been in a funk is the simple fact that there is a lack of people who are willing to change processes to focus on patients," Meyer says. "Instead, most pharma people are too busy attending meaningless meetings from morning till night and trying to 'get along' with others rather than rock a boat that very much needs rocking. My personal belief is that most pharma executives are afraid to hire smarter people than they are. They are afraid that people won’t fit in or that these people could invoke real change. This is very much an industry problem and frankly it hasn’t changed in a long long time," says Meyer.Meyer claims pharma insiders are the "Enemy of change" (see here). Let's forget for a moment that Meyer starts out lambasting another friend of mine as an example of a pharma "insider" and focus instead on Meyer's premise that ensconced insiders prevent change.I have a slightly different view, which is that "insiders" are given a short rope to make change but end up being hung by the rope instead (i.e., figuratively "stabbed in the back"; see, for example, "Is This the Fate of Pharma Social Media Pioneers?" and lyrics at the end of this post). These pharma "insider" change agents then bec...
Source: Pharma Marketing Blog - Category: Pharma Commentators Tags: Social Media Pioneer Award Source Type: blogs