Cooper Pharmaceuticals

CPI Case

Bob Marsh a pharmacy manager takes a job with Cooper Pharmaceuticals and has an illustrious 12 year career with them. Throughout his career and especially towards the end Bob was conflicted with doing what was best for his customers and satisfying management. Every year management would do performance evaluations measuring how the salesman’s sales volume was and how his/her relationship improved with the physicians they try to sell to. Bob was always hitting or exceeding quota and had a great relationship with his customers. They regarded him as one of the finest and most helpful career detailers. So why would a successful pharmaceutical sales rep like Bob Marsh be terminated from his job?

I think the main reason for Bob’s termination was a lack of consistency in coaching and discipline Bob Marsh. The main theme throughout the case was that Bob was unorganized, did not do enough background research on his customers, and did not follow company protocol in promoting drugs. John Meredith, Marsh’s first manager was great at evaluating Bob. He highlighted the positive aspects of Marsh’s job but then underlined skills that Marsh needed to improve on. After Meredith Marsh has a positive experience with Couch his next DM. However Rathbun a new DM comes into the picture only giving Marsh negative feedback degrading the seasoned pharmaceutical rep. However Rathbun was able to uncover Marsh cheating the system and falsifying appointments. This was definitely wrong and the punishment was warranted. However it seemed like Marsh learned something while being on probation.

Another problem I noticed was that Marsh criticized past Managers in front of one of one of his District Manager Reed. They openly discussed ups and downs of previous managers. I think that right there promotes disrespect and insubordination. I think one of the biggest issues was when Antonia Wilkens became District Manager and was inconsistent with the District managers of the past in handling Marsh’s ongoing problems. She turned a blind eye and offered no coaching to Marsh allowing him to slip and go back to his old ways. She did not spend enough time out in the field with Marsh.

Franklin, Marsh’s final manager was a big advocate of transactional leadership and