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Today's Thought-The Amgen CEO |
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 |
Kevin W. Sharer, CEO of Amgen, a global leader in pharmaceuticals developed using biotechnology, got his leadership skills and personal drive from his training at the U.S. Naval Academy. He developed his ambitions through a series of corporate executive positions (none of them the top position) after he left the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander in 1978. Determined to rise to the top position in some company, Sharer saw potential in the position of president and COO at Amgen when he took the job in 1992. Sharer got the top job, CEO, in May 2000. His goal was to move Amgen from its leadership position in biotech pharmaceuticals to a top position among all pharmaceutical companies, putting him as CEO of Amgen on a par with CEOs of such major health-care leaders as Johnson & Johnson.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP AMBITION
At the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Sharer majored in aeronautical engineering, receiving a bachelor's degree and a master's degree. His initial ambition was to be a navy pilot like his father, but his eyesight precluded that goal, and he went into the submarine service instead. He told Arlene Weintraub in an interview for an article in BusinessWeek Online (March 18, 2002) that "he decided he was meant to be a leader just about the time he started taking orders" in the navy.
Sharer served on two nuclear fast-attack submarines during the cold war. As chief engineer he oversaw the construction and trained the crew for the second sub, the Memphis. Admiral Hyman G. Rickover had to approve the ship before it was launched. When Rickover, known as the creator of the "nuclear navy," questioned the young officer, Sharer told Weintraub, "I had to tell him I was right" (BusinessWeek Online, March 18, 2002).
In 1978 Sharer left the navy as a lieutenant commander. He was impatient to move ahead, but he realized that it would take years of service to rise to the top job in submarine service. Moreover, a career in the navy required too much time away from family. Sharer decided to redirect his ambitions to be at the top in the corporate world. His first job was with AT&T, where he worked from 1978 to 1982. During that time he earned an MBA degree from the University of Pittsburgh, graduating in 1982. With a new MBA in hand, Sharer talked his way into a consultant position with McKinsey & Company, a management consulting firm that serves top management in major companies and institutions on issues of strategy, organization, and operation. Sharer's navy experience and his tremendous ambition to lead caught the attention of Ron Bancroft, also a Naval Academy graduate and a partner in McKinsey's Washington, D.C., office. General Electric (GE) recruited Sharer for a position in corporate development in 1984.
Sharer made an impression on Jack Welch, GE's CEO, who offered him a chance to lead the GE jet engine division. Sharer refused the job because that position was not high profile enough. Sharer left GE for an executive vice president position in marketing at MCI Telecommunications Corporation in 1989. At MCI, Sharer became convinced that internal politics would keep him in a number three position and that he would never get to be the CEO. He left MCI in 1992 to join Amgen as president and COO because he could see the potential in the Amgen job to match his ambition to become the company's CEO. Amgen was the world's largest biotech company, but it was a midsize company when compared to the major pharmaceutical and health-care products companies.
WYD Team |
posted by Win Your Dreams @ 9:01 AM |
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