and encouraged Gordesky to pull together a team to develop a companywide process for best practices sharing. Gordesky asked division heads to recommend a set of core team members for the Best Practices Sharing (BPS) initiative. He selected Anja Bremmer, an IT project manager from Berlin, to lead the initiative. Bremmer ad been with an IT group within the Diagnostics division for one year, after spending six years with another pharmaceutical company in which she successfully led a significant best practices sharing initiative. Bremmer eld an advanced degree in computer science. She was also certified by the Project Management Institute as a Project Management Professional. Bremmer met with the CIO to better understand the nature of the project. Gordesky had limited time, but greed to meet briefly to share the big picture with Anja. He let her know that the ExCom members agreed that he move from country groups to divisions created a need for greater harmonization of business processes within and across divisions. The aim of the BPS initiative was to identify best practices that would be candidates for livisional and companywide common processes. Gordesky reminded Anja that a best practice was a practice or set of processes that demonstrated positive results in one area of the business and might provide benefits elsewhere. Anja asked permission to select core project team members. Gordesky made it clear that the selection would be made by division heads. He wanted to ensure their full buy-in, and believed they were in the best position to dentify the team members. Anja did not object and hoped for the best. Since it took several weeks for the division heads to identify core team members, Anja used the time to develop a project charter (see Exhibit 1), which she completed before the first project meeting. She met several imes with Gordesky to ensure alignment so she would have his full support moving forward. The First Project Meeting Anja realized how important it would be to start the project with a clear understanding of the project scope and key deliverables. She started the meeting by asking each team member to spend a couple of minutes to provide brief introduction. Mary Knowles, Marketing Project Leader, Diagnostics Mary, from Los Angeles, graduated from Harvard with an MBA. She had three years of Mckinsey experience before joining the Diagnostics division one year before the Best Practices Sharing kickoff meeting. She was a special projects leader who had high-level mentors at Group (company headquarters). During Mary's introduction, she underscored her Harvard MBA and her Mckinsey experience. She also expressed strong opinions about how the project should be structured. She also suggested some specific Mckinsey frameworks, and the need to take some risks in front of senior management. Her English was rapid and filled with consulting jargon. Andreas Gott, Finance Analyst, Research & Development Andreas had an excellent reputation over his 25-year Genizome career spanning Pharma, Diagnostics, and now R&D, where he was rather senior in the finance area. His introduction was the longest given his exten- sive experience across divisions and on prior best practices sharing initiatives. Andreas made several cynical remarks such as, "Yet another initiative on top of my day job, take a number." While others were speaking, he responded to e-mails on his mobile. At one point, he looked like he might fall asleep. Toshi Shimano, Production Engineer, Pharmaceuticals Toshi participated from a speakerphone in Toyko where it was 10:00 p.m. at the beginning of the meeting. During the project, he would participate from Tokyo while the other team members would assemble in an open workspace in Germany
