Corporate Executive of the Year: Kenneth Frazier Shares Prescription For Growth

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Another element of Frazier’s prescription for growth: a focus on ensuring that developing countries gain access to quality medicines using Merck’s development and distribution process. He proudly points to the fact that when he was named CEO, 70% of life-saving vaccines were sold in the U.S. Today, just three-and-a-half years later, 66% of them are sold outside the U.S., without lowering the number of domestic purchases. “That means that these life-saving vaccines are going to children in South America, Africa, and Asia,â€ he says. “The impact on people’s lives can be immense.â€

Maintains Executive Vice President and General Counsel Bruce Kuhlik, a 10-year Merck veteran: “I think the biggest challenge that we face right now as a company and in the pharmaceutical industry is the decline of research and development productivity. Where many companies have decided to reduce their investments in R&D, Ken has been the leading force in the industry saying, ‘No, what this industry is all about is discovering new medicines to treat areas of unmet medical need.’ â€

Part of that investment has been bringing in a new R&D chief over the past year, the acclaimed Dr. Roger Perlmutter as its president of Merck Research Laboratories, to bolster the drug discovery, development, and approval process.

In addition to internal discovery, Frazier also believes that “we need to find ways to access the best science, technology, and products being developed by smaller companies and universities around the world.â€

As you would expect, patents represent currency for Big Pharma. Merck has assembled a crack legal team of roughly 200 lawyers mandated to protect the company’s intellectual property, inoculate it from product liability claims, and ensure that regulatory and compliance requirements are met, among other objectives.

Manufacturing represents another critical operation. It’s been given a directive to increase the production capacity of its vaccines and medicines for 80% of the world’s population by the end of 2015. The division holds manufacturing and supply agreements with local plants in Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and Latin America.

Head, Heart, and Guts
Observers credit Frazier’s analytical yet accessible leadership style with creating an innovative, precision-obsessed organization. Mirian Graddick-Weir, executive vice president, Human Resources, characterizes Frazier as having the right mix of “head, heart and guts,â€ borrowing the term from a book on how “wholeâ€ leaders transform organizations.

Find out more about Frazier’s leadership strategy and growth efforts on the next page …