Fashion = Pharma

I was reading a few pages from my fifth book purchase of the year (Searching for Excellence) earlier tonight. The few pages that I read started a chain of thinking that ended up at the unexpected title of this post. The introduction of SoE details how the authors started thinking about the organizational issues facing large companies back in the late '70's. A few of their observations reminded me of some of the stuff that I deal with on a semi-regular basis in my own employment for a large multi-national corporation. The intro started talking about how these good companies focused on the employees rather than putting all of their energy into complex organizations.

My first thought was that people matter more than a fancy structure. (A useful corrollary, making yourself a good employee will guarantee you employment. I think Godin gets to that in his new book so I'll save that thought for later.) That thought got me thinking to my own company's current reoraganization effort. I was optimistic when they first announced the reorg because I thought a new structure might lead to a new approach to how we do our work, but it looks like it's just going to be more of the same with a new org chart posted on some page on our impossible to navigate intranet. Why can't they just find a way to let people do the job that needs to be done with as little bureaucratic meddling as possible?

Isn't that what the fashion industry does? These designers go out and do their thing, bring it to the rest of the industry, and it is either bought or ignored. Fashion designers and chemists are more alike than either group probably realizes. Both make things using simpler starting materials, both need to understand a few basic principles to design their products, and both need training to make their visions a reality. Both groups need to be innovative in how they think about their product and they need to find new ways solve old problems. Chemistry is a very creative endeavor. Yes, you are bound by the laws of physics, but finding ways to circumvent those obstacles is part of the challenge.

I like fashion's need to always be the next big thing. That big thing may be trendy and brief, but when I was looking for jobs after college, every other ad was for a combinatorial chemist. When is the last time one of those was hired? The need to find the next big thing, to need the next big thing to survive and remain relevant, unites fashion and pharma (and chemistry more generally). Who knows, maybe the pharma industry will evolve to something more fashion like, with small pharma companies (the designers) looking to sell their wares (new drugs) to the big department stores (Big Pharma). We are on that path now. I think that's where things will eventually end up.