Mass firings of crocked Bristol-Myers employees?!

Bristol-Myers Squibb is a company which has been in trouble. The company has paid hundreds of millions in fines for accounting fraud, a court appointed monitor oversaw management for several years, and the prior CEO was forced out soon after FBI agents raided his office.

Clearly the new boss, Jim Corneilus, who was appointed permanent CEO as recently as April 26, 2007 wanted to start with a clean slate. And he sure did.

He just sent a highly unusual letter to his employees, in which he wrote, among other things:

"Your compliance and integrity will be vital as, moving forward with our productivity transformation, we will empower decision-making at the appropriate levels throughout the company . . . In two separate areas of our company, concerned employees contacted our compliance hotline when they thought colleagues might be violating company policies. After a thorough review, employees in both groups were terminated. I commend our employees who brought these issues to our attention, but also hope that future violations of policies are few and far between - or non-existent - as we strive to be a company that operates with the highest integrity."

During the past year both AstraZeneca and Pfizer have terminated employees after significant blog coverage of alleged misdeeds, so it sure is nice to see one drug company which does not only do the clean-up before bloggers force them to take action, but also admit that's what they did.

See below for Cornelius' unusual letter.

Hat tip Pharmalot.

- Peter Rost, M.D. is a former VP of Pfizer and the author of Killer Drug and The Whistleblower.

Dear Colleagues:

In the weeks following my recent e-mails on intouch, close to 2,000 of you took the time to provide feedback, or ask questions. Thank you.

And, in response to our colleague who asked if I even see the responses, yes I do … and I read every one of them, and discuss some of them with our Management Council.

Very simply, we believe your feedback is vital, not just to me, but to the leadership of the company as we plan our future.

You’ve provided suggestions on areas where we can look for additional savings, support for the direction we’re taking, and asked appropriate questions about specific parts of our strategy moving forward.

Your feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, even after my last correspondence when we discussed, for the first time, that as part of resetting our cost base, there would need to be headcount reductions in some parts of the company.

Thank you for that support and for understanding the difficult decisions we need to make to deliver shareholder value, while not losing focus on our desire to help patients prevail over serious disease.

You’ve also asked for more specifics about the strategy and about potential reductions. Nothing would make me happier than to roll out a finalized plan right now, to say “here it is; here’s the blueprint; here are the key priorities; here is what our company will look like moving forward.”

But that would not be fair to the process, or the people managing the process. The changes we are considering center around the transformation of our model to execute our strategy. The necessary pieces to make it all come together are being assembled. This must be a thoughtful, deliberate process, and I commend the teams that are taking the lead to shepherd this productivity transformation.

One thing that has come through loud and clear in your feedback is your determination and commitment that we will not make the types of mistakes the company has made in previous years.

That, too, is refreshing. It shows we are moving from a company that needed a very comprehensive and pervasive control structure to ensure strict compliance … to a company where integrity is an integral part of our daily lives, and where wanting to do the “right thing” comes as a natural byproduct of that integrity.

To be sure, every company should and must have systems and processes in place so it can be compliant. We will continue to do so. And at every level in our company.

Your compliance and integrity will be vital as, moving forward with our productivity transformation, we will empower decision-making at the appropriate levels throughout the company. An example of how we are driving decision-making into the organization is the revision of the salary and benefits (S&B) process. When I joined you nearly a year ago, it surprised me that many decisions on S&B, such as promotions, retirements and terminations, needed my personal approval with counsel from human resources and legal. I couldn’t understand why our capable managers weren’t trusted with such decisions. We recently changed this process and while I will continue to be consulted for larger-scale decisions, everyday S&B decisions will occur at a more appropriate managerial level.

Driving decision-making deeper into our organization will be something new for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Along with decision-making comes accountability and, as mentioned, we will hold all decision-makers accountable for compliance and for acting with integrity.

Adhering to the highest principles of openness, transparency, ethics and integrity continues to be critical to our success and ability to fulfill our mission to extend and enhance human life. It is the responsibility of every employee.
And we’ve seen some examples of that, very vividly, in the past few months.

In two separate areas of our company, concerned employees contacted our compliance hotline when they thought colleagues might be violating company policies. After a thorough review, employees in both groups were terminated. I commend our employees who brought these issues to our attention, but also hope that future violations of policies are few and far between — or non-existent — as we strive to be a company that operates with the highest integrity.

I have asked our legal and human resources groups to update you periodically via intouch on issues employees have faced, decisions that were made, and — when appropriate — punitive actions taken by the company.

Examples are often the best way to understand how each and every one of us can help ensure that Bristol-Myers Squibb is a company that values integrity in everything it does.

At a special Management Council meeting last Tuesday, we heard feedback, citing examples, about “silos” within our company and discussed the need to remove them. We need “silo busters” leading our company, and I ask all of you to help me in that regard.

When we walk into our buildings each morning, we don’t put on a “TechOps” uniform, or an “R&D” uniform, or a “Commercial” uniform, or a “Corporate” uniform. We put on a Bristol-Myers Squibb uniform. One uniform. One team. That’s how we best serve patients, investors and each other.

Thank you, again, for your continued support.

Jim

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