WBS is the best example of what's wrong in Indianapolis- a self-righteous, self-satisfied, spiteful, manipulative manager who lacks any level of self awareness. It is a travesty that she is in part responsible for driving cultural change when she represents everything that needs to change.

Most of the managers left are hob nobbers and nob slobberers. There are a few exceptions, but most of the good people can't stand to be around MT any longer.

WBS is just as bad as the others in leadership positions. She failed at managing people in Customer Fulfillment as she was "too good" to "walk the talk". She got to where she's at because she can play the political game well - a YES person. You kind of wonder how she is where she is without being a good manager or leader. I've seen her in action, or should I say "non-action".

Puerto Rico labor isn't better quality. They can't find their ass with both hands.

As a guy that just collected a Roche pension check today I am terribly sad about the condition of Roche USA. I started right after Boehringer Mannheim bought Bio-Dynamics. Jack Van Kampen knew the stragtegy of "hips & strips". Unfortunately, it appears the "downward spiral" metaphor is completely accurate. Some of the best friends I have came from my days at Roche and continue to this day.

Can't comment on DC, but the way MT is running the business, it will likely not experience single digit sales decline in 2010, but rather double digit sales declines! Sad to say it is well understood by senior Basel management what MT doesn't bring in terms of skill or ethics and they allow him to grind the company into the ground. Heard he has a new "Roche Culture" campaign coming. WBS one hint as you build MT's culture campaign-you can't shine a turd! I imagine the slogan is "Shut up you American whiners!"

Puerto Rico is already manufacturing srtips - comfort curve, aviva and performa will be in the works. SSCI is also assembling care kits. Get the picture? It's happening right before our eyes. Be prepared for all of this to hot. We lost a person the other day and was told more to come - probably within six or more months. The numbers MT sent out don't look good at all either. DC and Roche has seen much better times. I think Indy is soon to be a distribution center for Roche. Pretty sad for the people who worked hard and continue to do so.

To clarify, I meant better quality AND lower cost

When referring to Puerto Rico labor as "better quality," I think you meant "lower cost."

DC will transition to Puerto Rico; high quality work force and lower taxes.

Is Diabetes Care Production gone also?

It was part of the RDO reduction and eventual closing of Indy production after the first of the year. They already said months ago that they would let another wave go in Sept. in preparation for shutting down production in spring of 2010.
It was already planned and the people in RDO were told months ago it was coming.

Can anyone provide the details of the RIF?

Another downsizing/layoff/RIF took place across the Roche organization on Friday. As usual just in time for the 2010 budget process.

MM and KK canot make their bonus targete without lowering product quality requirements. Tre to tradition the incentives system is based on making short term profit even at the expense of quality. MM and KK are swiss "puppets" inthis respect.

Speaking of maltose, the FDA wouldn't let Roche launch the Nano no code system. Roche is not to launch any new meter using the current chemistry of test strips. So what is Markeing up to? I hear a black Aviva meter that is the same internal workings as the current Aviva so that no new 510k is required. Why doesn't Roche stop letting Marketing call all the shots and also let profit drive the business? Roche is in the medical device market, period. Roche should launch a solid sound and reliable blood glucose system that can take away market share from lifescan. I don't think a new black Aviva meter is the answer to market share.

Not only did COAG specs get chnaged, how about the PQQ on Aviva maltose free strips? They passed them regardless of the reuslts and data. Look where we are with the "Freedom" chemistry and strips. DC has known about maltose interference for years and chose not to address it. Now, it's biting Roche's profit margin, not to mention loss of customers. When will the FDA step in and actually do something? Who will be the scape goat this time?

KK and MM I got your pick 3 lotto Numbers "483"
I'm sure you are ready to play these numbers again!

FDA WILL STEP IN ON ROCHE"S TEST TILL PASS OR MAKE PASS POLICY...OH you didn't know? If raw Material does not meet spec the specs are changed and all the sudden you have good product to sell. Ask M.Braun - COAG

Just heard that the cobas 6000 is having even more low drift Na+ issues. Are they ever going to figure out the ISE's on this thing? How many more bad patient results are going to be put out before the FDA steps in?

Ortho? Sorry, not sure ringing a bell right off. Who are they? I assume for Beckman, you're talking about their Coulter LH series analyzers, they're comparable to the Cobas?

that's a good point about the acquisitions- i wonder how long til they put europeans in place to run them into the ground?

I agreed the Swiss should be upset with the old German culture. However, if the Swiss are worried about the old German culture, why did they put an old fart German in charge (JS) followed by a young lap dog German who can't think his way out of a box (MT)?

If the Swiss are really concerned with the eliminating the old German culture, seems to me they need to cut the heads off the monster! Maybe do something radical like hire a team of innovative U.S. people to run diagnostics. They have failed to figure out that the 2 largests aquisitions the past 24 months have been run by U.S. people (Ventenna and Genetech)

too bad the swiss haven't realized that many of the folks who could've helped lead the change are gone. and many of the long-timers who remain don't have the backbone to drive it. sounds like what happened when roche moved jobs from mannheim to rotkreuz--couldn't manage the old german culture, so break it by moving it. indy is just next in line.

The Swiss are alarmed at the cuture in Indy, and the only way to deal with it is to replace management and purposefully transition operations to Switzerland, Germany and other US Roche sites. This has been in the works since 2006. Those who deny it are not looking at what has happened over the last 4 years since Indy's performance, as a site, is the worst in the Roche business. This is complicated by the fact that the US is the largest market. If this was say a Portugal or Argentina it would not be the big issue it is for the Swiss since this is the US.

Moreover, don't buy Roche because the North American CEO, MT, has demoralized his employees so badly that you are likely to have significant employee turnover and a bad service experience.

you're right, if low market share is bad, then definitely don't buy roche.

Otho Chemistry? True the dry slides offer a bunch of advantages, but what is their market share? Maybe 6-8% on a good day?

for clinical diagnostics, your best bet is ortho for chemistry or beckman for both. siemens was good but have too many integration issues. the old pieces of siemens had great immuno meno--best in market. avoid roche.

This is Roche Molecular Diagnostics right? I thought they were consolidating all their operations in Europe now, and taking down the US facilities.

Is this due to the poor management that everyone is mentioning here. As for their systems, I had heard that the Cobas was supposed to be a leading instrument for blood analysis. If it isn't Roche Diagnostics that is the leader, who is these days?

Wow, that is an amazing stat. However, considering how obvious it is that MT is driving the company into the ground ( first half 2009 sales are DOWN by 4%), and senior management stands by and lets it happen (in the case of JS he delights in MT's management style of beating Americans) I think the volume of post represents the frustration held by all employees and customer that used to believe in Roche.

This is one of the highest volume topics in history for the Rumor Mill. It is currently in 2nd place for total number of replies. Sad, considering how rare it used to be to even see a Roche thread on here, now it dominates.

Is the construction of customer service centers at PL and BB sites a further demolition of Indy.

NC had considerably higher ethical standards than KK, that is one of several reasons why MM has survived under KK, and for the other reasons noted by others in earlier posts.

Actually, KK is just as bad as MM. As he is the one that has put up with her poor leadership/management over these past 4 years. Remember, NC was about to deal with her when he left, so it's been going on for a long time. I've seen KK in action, and he is not a leader.

If KK ever does get the guts to deal with MM, maybe she can go to work for MT. It sounds like those two share a common leadership style - use, verbally abuse, and berate your employees and if they don’t run away, abuse them some more.

Roche will continue to miss plan because they are launching products that are crap. The Cobas 6000 fiasco and the death spiral in Molecular due to the HCV crappy product should be proof of that and will not even get into DC.

When Roche stopped standing for quality products customers wised up and stopped buying them

Any idiot can fire people it takes a leader to lead...to bad Roche has the idiot in MT...

KK will protect her because MM helped him out with providing a place to live after his ugly divorce when he came back from Puerto Rico.

I know Mary McCain is in tight with SCI. I heard she is sending business that way and will shut down Building O production. The trend is that way. DC is begining to build launch kits with SCI - another proof it's going to happen. She has no ethical or quality spirit. She is a bean counter and driven only by money. Don't ever get on her bad list. I worked for her once and got out from under her asap! I'm tired of Kent Kost protecting her.

Has anyone looked at the free gifts and extravagent entertainment MM has been given by suppliers? Check with Sanmina SCI.

MM in particular does not like men who prefer men. Must be the Catholic upbringing....

Insider information says MM has finally reached the end of her reign of terror. Legal has so many ethics complaints that even KK can't ignore them anymore. Let the count down to her last day begin.

"Missing plan" and growing the business are not mutually exclusive. Actually, with the bull $hit plan numbers, certain businesses grew faster than market, and were actually growing nicely, but were beneath "plan." Now they're not growing, which I assume means missing plan, but MT may have negotiated a friendly plan since he's German. Now that would be funny.

all of the Roche Diagnostics US divisions were missing sales plan beginning in 2005. The FDA issues started in 2004/2005 which severely impacted growth, business focus and created huge expenses. Ethical issues with DC top management (D.D.) were in 2007. Transitory CEO site leadership started when MM left in 2004, and with HVP and TO were incompetent in the site CEO role. Early market failures (first 3 years) and quality issues with Aviva started in 2005. The "crash" of the diabetes business (sales, market share) right after B.L. left in 2005. Indy unable to sell to maintain Roch's position in molecular. The crash of the diabetes business by the way has had the largest impact on the cash being sent back to Basel.

Yes the death spiral started well before MT, and yes he will have to take additional measures, and yes they will not be popular and will take time to show impact.

Perhaps you are a new employee and did not live through these times?

If the leaders before MT were so incompetent, how is it that they delivered growth year over year? The death spiral in this post refers to the death spiral begun by MT. Let set the record straight, MT is the incompetent leader and in no way will save the day at Roche.

M.T. needs to take additional draconian measures to clean Roche Indy up. This will take time and the results will become transparent in 18 mos - 3 years. M.T. cannot reverse the death spiral that was put in motion by his incompetent predecesors and bad decisions made in Basel.

Ah-ha! Thank you for the clarity on the initials. I think it's sacrilegious to have the same initials for two completely different people. MM will always be Martin Madaus - Leader, and the snake-in-the-grass Mary McCain should be stricken from our vocabulary along with KK, MT, etc.

I think Pharma matters. If DIA can help pharma everything is fine, if not ...they cannot justify their existence. Get real people. There is no longer any DIA if it does not support a Pharma product. Molecular has finally understood this. They will be assimilated by Genentech. Actually, they are hoping this happens. It is so much easier to justify their research budget.

The evidence is in with Roche's half year results. When you exclude DC sales (MT doesn't manage that group) his stellar management yielded a -2% growth over half year 2008! STUNNING! Refer to slide 120 in the investor presentation on the Roche web site. J.S. tried to hide MT's failure, but the investment community demands transparency, not smoke and mirrors.

He will try to blame it on the economy but the only question is then why is the ROW is growing at Roche?

Do you think leadership matters?

If divisional leadership would read beyond the fear, frustration and anger, they would find a group of employees that are absolutely starving to be LEAD, not bullied and that care deeply about the outcome of Roche.

M.T. is not capable of leading. He has created too many enemies and his arrogance makes him despised by employees and CUSTOMERS alike (if you think customers don't know about M.T. and his antics, think again-the entire IVE industry knows he is a moran!).

SS would be wise to, in a very public and humiliating way, fire both M.T. and J.S. Through them out with the trash. Actually, the trash is too good for them, the dung heap is more appropriate.

Then, bring in someone who can LEAD by example with courage, integrity,honesty and a knowledge of the U.S. customer. That leader would win the heart of the the hard working people of Roche, and they would also dominate the U.S. IVD industry.