Warner Lambert

Purpose/Challenge
In 2000 Warner Lambert, one of the largest companies in the consumer health market, merged with Pfizer to form the world’s second largest pharmaceutical conglomerate.

Warner Lambert’s work culture was very highly valued by management and employees in all areas of the business. There was fear that this significant contributor to productivity and work satisfaction may be lost during the merger unless specific actions were taken to protect it.

WindTunneling Intervention
A cross-section of the Senior Leadership Team and staff from all sections and levels of the business met and used the WindTunneling process to generate imagined outcomes from the merger that could potentially damage Warner Lambert’s existing work culture.

These imagined outcomes were then assessed by the participants for their perceived impact on productivity and job satisfaction as well as for the probability that they would occur in the next two years.

Those outcomes which the participants’ assessments indicated were the most likely and/or most disruptive were used in the WindTunneling Integrate Activity to test the resilience of the existing safeguards and to pinpoint where new safeguards might be needed.

Value of Intervention to Warner Lambert
After using the WindTunneling processes, Warner Lambert was able to go into the merger negotiations with a clear understanding of what they would need in order to protect their existing work culture.

Actions taken as a result of WindTunneling Outcomes
Securing the protection of their workplace culture with the safeguards they had developed through the WindTunneling process was one of the five key points in Warner Lambert’s merger negotiations with Pfizer.

After the merger Pfizer moved to develop a similar workplace culture, stating that the resilience of the Warner Lambert culture was an important factor in their decision to do so.