In the second quarter on 1999, it was recognized that the Facilities organization within the World-wide Medicines Group was in need of a major change. After extended periods of cost-cutting the organization was isolated and no longer focused on providing value to the corporation. Customers were greatly dissatisfied with the level of service that Facilities provided. Parochialism, infighting and non-productive competition was rampant between the rigid silos that had been erected in the organization. Morale, productivity and the level of respect given to the group (by itself as well as its customers) were extremely low.

Today, The Facilities and Engineering organization is held up by customers and suppliers alike as an organization to be benchmarked and emulated. Customer Satisfaction levels are excellent and strong partnerships have been developed with the customer groups. The silos have been eradicated and the organization is described by employees as a family that works as an integrated team to meet its greater purpose of bringing medicines to people who need them. Morale and Emotional Energy levels are palpable and people are proud to be part of Facilities. Productivity has dramatically improved. While keeping its headcount relatively flat, several hundred value-added service ideas have been identified, and more than 100 of those services have been implemented. These new services have resulted in a measurable increase of productivity in Facilities and its customer groups equaling more than $8 million per year.

This paper will describe the approach taken to achieve this transformation. The approach was based largely on the principles from John Kotter’s “Leading Change” model and Noel Tichy’s “Leadership Engine” approach as taught in the Bristol-Myers Squibb Leadership Development curricula. Although the Kotter model served well as the overall framework for the effort, there was a high degree of customization and experimentation needed to most effectively drive the change through the culture of the organization. This is not surprising as the research on successful cultural transformations clearly in indicate that approaches tailored to specifically meet the unique and individual needs and context of the specific culture are far more likely to succeed then prescribed or “off-the-shelf” approaches.