Realness

Realness is an innovation behavior that's being promoted in my office/lab at the moment. It's about making an idea concrete and tangible rather than relegating it a few bullets points in a slide deck. The point is to get something in people's hands. Creativity blossoms when you're holding a prototype. A talking point just puts people to sleep. A thing inspires action. Here's my effort to shake up my career.

Dr. Guy who may be a contact to a position with an interesting start-up company,

Before participating in the career panel a couple of weeks ago, I thought about whether I wanted to tell the students what they expected to hear about the pharma industry or whether I should say what I really feel about working for a massive drug company. I think my comments made it clear which approach I selected. I told the students what I really feel about the future of my employer and the industry as a whole. There will always be a pharmaceutical industry, but fresh ideas are desperately needed to ignite a new wave of innovative products that effectively cure disease.

The frustration that I expressed in the career panel is in large part a function of my recent efforts to launch a product that is already being sold by a different company. I've been working with the contract manufacturer to get analytical methods in place, and I have also been involved in discussions to address degradation issues with one of the products. These efforts have consumed my days for the better part of this year. We have had some success in progressing the project against considerable challenges, but this success feels hollow. Rather than working on developing an innovative product that would offer consumers another choice, we are using considerable resources to duplicate another company's product. The business side of the division may be able to justify this use of our resources, but I am having a hard time reconciling this allocation of my energy with my desire to work on complex problems in the development of innovative products.


I turned down a position at a small discovery company in Charlottesville a couple of years ago. This company offered a rich array of technical challenges, but with only 8 people, there were no opportunities to develop as a leader. Two years removed from that decision, I am glad that I decided to stay with Pfizer. I have become a better leader. I have no doubt that I could pursue a management position with PCH, but I am not passionate about our products or the leadership's vision for the future of the division. The time is right for me to leave the security of a behemoth like Pfizer and apply my skills and experience to the development of truly revolutionary products with a company like that one we talked about at the career panel.

I would greatly appreciate anything you could do to introduce me to your contacts at...