Johnson and Johnson is one of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. Based in the United States it was founded back in 1886. The company was well known for its corporate governance and even received an award from the US Department because it had developed several programs funding international education programs. Meanwhile, Pfizer is the world’s number one pharmaceutical company in sales and research. It was founded back in 1849 and since then it has experienced an extraordinary growth rate. Both of these companies have become public corporations. As a result they had to dramatically expand their product base and offerings.
It developed several innovative products and launched many brands in the market in an attempt to impress investors and gain as much market share as possible. That is what Gene One intends to do as identified in the scenario. There is the risk that some of these innovative products will not be developed with the highest quality and safety due to the need to release them as soon as possible in the market. Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol medication was the most important brand in the analgesic market. It practically commanded the market with a comfortable 35% share.
Eventually, some of its new and ‘improved’ releases came out to have high levels of cyanide which caused several collateral health damages their users. When this fact came out public, the company’s market value fell by almost $1 billion within the year. A similar problem occurred to Pfizer. In early 2005 the Food & Drug Administration announced that “it was holding contentious hearings about the fate of some of the biggest-selling and most lavishly promoted drugs — painkillers that include Pfizer’s $3.3 billion Celebrex and $1.3 billion Bextra. Evidence is mounting that all these so-called Cox 2’s may be linked to cardiovascular problems”.
Here also Pfizer experienced a similar market effect as that of Johnson & Johnson. Their market value fell down dramatically. Both of them had released versions of their products which were not tested adequately due to the rush in gaining market share and investor’s attention. A comparison can be made with Gene One which could use their cases as lessons. If the company decides to go public, the fears of Terri (in charge of the product development and technology department) for the release of an incomplete product may turn into reality. Of course for a company like Gene One that would mean disaster.
Another important issue that is congruent with that of the increasing pressure on the staff by part of the companies. When the analysis of the above described problems were made, it came out that both companies had a high level of tension among their work force. This tension was accompanied with an increase in the weekly workload for the staff but it was not accompanied with a proportional bonus or reward program.
This situation led in a rising of negative emotional attitude toward the company and increasing dissatisfaction among the work force. As a result of these rising negative emotions lacking in communicaiton between the low end staff and the management of the company developed. This gap in communications negatively influenced the development of the products and their testing.
Thus, managers launched them in the market with incomplete information. This is an example of the effect of negative emotional feelings within the different levels of staff in a company. Work force treatment and stisfaction is as important as customer satisfaction. If a company is negligent about this issue it will face serious problems. In Gene One’s case, the resignation of Angela (VP of product development and technologies) and frustration of Teri and Michelle are sings of an increasing tension and bad emotional feelings which the company should take in consideration.