FORMED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF CRISIS: MY APPROACH AND INSIGHTS ON LEADING PFIZER’S EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP TEAM

Abstract

The author details his experience as chief executive officer (CEO) of Pfizer, a top five global pharmaceutical company, and in particular his working with the company’s Executive Leadership Team (ELT). He details the company’s turnaround from a period of crisis during the previous leadership regime and outlines four principles that led to its success. The author contends that these principles can work for other executives, either in corporations, or elsewhere. In his words, they are #1: Build trust on the ELT. #2: Align on a fully shared view of the strategic business challenge and needed actions, uniting the ELT. #3: Link the business challenge to needed culture change. #4: Keep the ELT focused on enterprise‐level decisions and true cross‐divisional collaboration opportunities. Each principle is described in detail, revolving around the author’s experience with his Pfizer ELT. For instance, within principle #1, he writes, “How the CEO responds to mistakes can build or diminish trust, especially but not limited to the big mistakes.” Within #2: “My goal was to build a common understanding of our key challenges and from there, set strategy and a game plan for creating a company we could once again be proud of.”