At Pfizer, Jordan Cohen has helped the pharmaceutical company build on core capabilities by freeing employees from getting bogged down in activities that are not related to those capabilities. Although some companies have a strategy of outsourcing activities outside of their core capabilities, Cohen applied this kind of strategic decision to the level of individual employees by creating a system called Pfizer Works. Cohen arrived at his idea for Pfizer Works at a time when Pfizer was encouraging its employees to look for ways to boost efficiency. Cohen noticed that highly trained colleagues were devoting hours to clerical tasks such as creating graphs, transcribing notes from meetings, and conducting data searches. They could be more productive if they focused on the certain skills and strategic roles for which they had been hired. So Cohen recruited several of his co-workers to try a new system for six months: Whenever they had a task that was outside their core responsibilities, they could click a Pfizer Works icon on their computer screens, which would take them to a request form to buy outside services. Within an hour, a Pfizer-trained contractor would phone the employee to clarify the details of the assignment and submit a cost estimate. If the employee accepted the arrangement, the contractor would perform the job, and the employee would rate the work. The trial was a success, and the system was rolled out to the company with Cohen in charge. In its first year, it saved Pfizer almost 70,000 hours of time spent on lower-value work that could be handled more economically by outsiders.

Define what skill set is being used in Pfizer’s company (Analyser, goal driven, amiable or visionary). Do you see any deficiency in the new developed system? Justify your answer with logic.