Case Studies

Divisional Turnaround

Pfizer Animal Health is a key division and profit center of Pfizer Pharmaceutical. However, in spite of the critical importance of its potential contribution to the overall success of the corporation, the division had suffered from a lack of leadership development and the ongoing problems that ensue: low morale, unmotivated work teams, turnover, and under-performing sales results relative to true market potential. These problems were further compounded by the overwhelming task of merging a new group of employees and product lines from the acquisition of Pfizer's long-time competitor, Pharmacia.

Shifting the Channel Management Strategy

As innovative as Konica Minolta's products had become, the company's channel management strategy relied on a traditional practice of offering incentives to dealers to encourage them to make large purchases up front, ahead of customer demand. While manufacturers had employed this strategy successfully for decades, the realities of modern-day sales resulted in full warehouses at Konica Minolta's 400 independent dealerships at the end of each month. This inhibited the manufacturer's ability to move more product and to make quarterly sales goals.

Implementing a New Sales Strategy

While Oki Data enjoyed a leadership position in the dot matrix printer market, the organization struggled to position and sell its industry-leading color printers. By pioneering a technology which allowed for single-pass color printing (as opposed to the four passes required by traditional color laser printers), Oki Data was able to produce extremely high quality color output at a speed four times faster than any other color printer on the market – including those of industry leaders such as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox and Lexmark. While Oki Data had earned more than 20 major industry awards for its proprietary technology, corporate America remained largely unaware of these cutting-edge color LED printers.