Cover Story
Cultural vibe
How Bill Nelligan gets employees involved in creating a winning culture at IMS Health
By Erik Cassano
Smart Business Philadelphia | July 2008
Page 1 of 4
At first, it might seem like an impossible math problem. One
culture for 2,400 employees operating in 19 countries spread
across two continents.
But that’s the problem that Bill Nelligan faced — and continues to face.
Nelligan is responsible for forming and perpetuating the culture across a large portion of the global footprint of $2.2 billion
IMS Health Inc. As the president of the health care strategy and
consulting company’s operations in the Americas, which generates about $975 million in operating revenue, he is responsible for relaying a uniform culture to employees in 19 countries
with differing languages, customs and customers, all as the
business evolves to meet the challenges of the ever-changing
health care industry.
“It’s not uncommon today in the press to see the challenges
that the entire health care industry is going through, whether it
be pharmaceutical, biotech or organizations looking to provide
and manage care for their population or constituency,”
Nelligan says. “There are fundamental challenges in the current health care industry, and the reality is the challenge, while
it resonates in our business, it creates a significant opportunity for us to go and do what we do, which is to help our clients
understand what is happening in our business and help them
drive the performance of it.”
Nelligan says a high-performance business must maintain a
high-performance culture that is centered on communication,
new ideas and a willingness to adapt to changes in the markets it
serves.
But it all starts with a message from the top.
