Early in life there was no indication that Miles
D. White would wind up in the pharmaceutical industry. He did exhibit
traits of leadership in his high school years being club president and the
like. In his college days he was the first undergraduate to be the financial
manager for all student businesses at Stanford University.
Obtaining a degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford in
1978 he then continued and got an MBA degree in 1980. McKinsey and Company was
his first job after graduating and he stayed there until 1984 as a management
consultant. With an engineering
background his next career move was supposed to be in Silicon Valley.
A job interview with Abbott Laboratories which wasn’t
really his priority ended up with him being offered a management position. He
became sales manager in the domestic diagnostics division of Abbott. White rose
through the ranks and became the division head in 1994. He made his mark in
this division by increasing its sales to 11 percent in 1998 which was four
times the industry average. He also led in the acquisition of a company that gained
Abbott entry into the area of blood-glucose monitoring for diabetics.
A management change took place in 1998 with the retirement
of the Chairman and CEO and the president and COO. While the company produced profits if was
lagging behind competitors and was becoming a takeover target. The race was on
for the top company position. White was the dark horse in the competition, he
did not have a pharmaceutical background and his division was not a top earning
unit.
His detailed planning on how to rejuvenate the company and his
ability to handle pressure won the board over and White became the company CEO
in 1999. He went to work stream lining the number of products under research
while constantly increasing overall budget for research and development.
As was his hallmark in his early days with Abbott he began
acquiring companies to further growth and gain access to new products and
research capabilities. Early on he made
over 60 acquisitions in his drive to grow the company. He also increased
employee benefits and compensations.
Today Abbott has regained its place as a major industry
player and much of the credit goes to White.
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