Cees Heiman
By : Greg Goodale
Cees Heiman's studies in pharmacology at Leiden University in the Netherlands did not lead him down the same path as the majority of his fellow students. Determined not to spend his entire working life behind a pharmacy counter, he joined Pfizer, where he spent three years as a pharmacist. A desire to move up the corporate ladder prompted him to complete a two-year marketing degree, and five years after joining Pfizer he was transferred to his dream job at the company's U.S. headquarters. But commuting from his home in Connecticut to New York where he was one of Pfizer's marketing managers soon became mundane and three-and-a-half years later he was ripe for a new challenge.
On to India, where Pfizer had four manufacturing plants but no intellectual property rights, meaning that generic versions of their products were often on the street before their own drugs were launched. During his four years in Bombay Heiman rose to the post of marketing and sales director and was only lured away when offered the prestigious job of country manager in Hungary, where Pfizer had a market foothold for more than 50 years.
He said the most fascinating time in his career took place when he became vice president of marketing in Japan-Pfizer's second largest market after the U.S. But after learning valuable lessons in the art of negotiating and respect for people, which he saw as extremely important in Japanese culture, he boarded the plane for Poland. He said that despite the ethnic charms of Japan, the lure of the position of country manager in Poland was too much too resist.
Past notes:
1982 Graduated in pharmacology from Leiden University in the Netherlands and joined Pfizer as a pharmacist
1995 Appointed country manager of Pfizer Hungary
1998 Appointed marketing vice president of Pfizer Japan
2000 Appointed country manager of Pfizer Poland
A word of advice:
"If you enter a business where performance is not all that good, and you start to look at all the processes, it's very clear that unless you have the right people in the right positions it doesn't matter what you do to the processes, you will never fix them."
