Damon Richards
CompaNy Name:
Port-to-Port Consulting
ServiCeS DeSCriptioN:
A small, outsourced computer support and
consulting firm located in Indianapolis
SmarteSt buSiNeSS ChoiCe:
“i chose to break away from the
traditional time-and-materials,
or hourly billing process, that is
an industry standard and provide
clients with a suite of services
at a fixed monthly fee.”
Richards’ new business model streamlined the
billing process and enhanced his customers’
experience.
Richards was one of three finalists who traveled to
Silicon Valley to pitch their ideas at the Under the
Radar: Mobility conference. As the contest winner,
he received $2,500 and a Brother MFC-6490cw
Color Inkjet All-in-One.
NEXTiNNovaTioN
WhaT’S ThE diFFErENcE?
• Biotech:
Employs living microbes
(often E. coli or yeast) to churn out
complex “large molecule” drugs that
are similar to compounds that occur
naturally in the human body.
• traditional pharma:
With chemical-
synthesis methods, produces “small
molecule” drugs from plants or other
materials. The drugs don’t resemble
substances found in the human body.
Biotech’s products—a move meant to
send a message about the future of
the company as a whole. The biotech-
business culture that had fostered so
much innovation needed to be allowed
to flourish. “It’s almost like academia,”
says biotech-project specialist Lisa
Housiantis. “You’re given the freedom
to try out your ideas.”
What nobody expected was that
the biotech unit would send not just
products and revenues but also strategic
cues to the parent company. When
Kamarck spearheaded a program to give
performance-based bonuses to workers
at a Wyeth Biotech facility in Ireland,
suits at HQ initially scoffed. “They said,
‘Why would you even think of giving
a bonus to plant workers?’” Kamarck
recalls. But when the Irish workers met
all of their stretch performance targets
without logging a single hour of over-
time, those skeptical senior managers
started paying attention. Today, Wyeth’s
traditional pharma plants in China and
Spain are implementing reward-driven
compensation programs modeled on
those pioneered by the biotech unit.
Another biotech mainstay that
Wyeth has adopted is building produc-
tion equipment that can be repurposed.
Wyeth Biotech’s scientists have devised
ways to manufacture many different
drugs using a small number of process-
es. When one drug’s production run
is finished, the equipment can switch
seamlessly to the next. This approach
lowers the cost of drug development:
If a drug doesn’t work out, you don’t
have to shutter that production facility—
it can be used to make something else.
“Our typical changeover time from
molecule A to B is less than seven days.
Theoretically, I guess you could do
24 hours,” says Wyeth Biotech senior
director Kevin Hanley, gesturing at
a cluster of many-valved production
tanks in Andover. Similar multipurpose
production facilities are now being built
at Wyeth plants all over the world.
The folks at Wyeth Biotech learned
lessons from Big Wyeth as well. Kam-
arck, a scientist by training, deployed
a kaffeeklatsch strategy to ensure unity
and strong communication among the
corporate units. “Just having people
from the different sides sit together and
have coffee had a huge impact,” he says.
Hubert Scoble, Wyeth Biotech’s VP of
development, credits the interaction
with teaching him about the importance
of focusing research on products likely
to find a market niche. Now, he says,
“we don’t work on something for five
years and then say, ‘What are we going
to do with this?’”
The reputation of Wyeth Biotech
and the resources of Big Wyeth have
helped secure partnerships with small
firms that can benefit the mammoth
drug-making infrastructure while
offering novel products that comple-
ment its internal pipeline. When Peter
Thompson, president of the small
biotech firm Trubion, was seeking a
larger company to help develop some
of his firm’s treatments for auto-
immune and inflammatory disorders,
he chose Wyeth Biotech without much
hesitation. “I had a sense that there
was going to be a shared culture and
understanding,” Thompson says.
“Wyeth made a significant internal
commitment to biologics. That puts
it in an enviable position now relative
to its competitors.”
That’s the kind of thing the Wyeth
Biotech folks love to hear—and it
reinforces their belief in their relent-
lessly forward-looking model and
process. “When I look back at our early
roots, it’s clear we were establishing
a blueprint for where the biotech
industry is today,” Scoble says. “We’re
in the process of establishing the next
