Too Early to Tell if Pfizer Job Cuts Tied to More Virtual Meetings Will Be a Trend
Photo Credit: A vaccination station at Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona. Flickr / Russ Allison Loar
Skift Take
The vaccine maker’s decision to axe client-facing sales roles, and increase the number of virtual meetings it has with customers, shouldn’t ring alarm bells among the travel industry just yet.
Pfizer’s long-term virtual meetings push has not come as a shock to the corporate travel sector — experts have said it could be unique to the pharmaceutical sector, rather signaling a major shift in the way organizations conduct business.
The vaccine maker said it was “evolving the way we engage with healthcare professionals in an increasingly digital world," with a report on January 11 stating the company would eliminate a "few hundred positions" that would impact sales representatives.
Skift reached out to Pfizer for comment, but did not hear back.
The organizational shakeup appears to be emblematic of ongoing changes in this particular sector, however, and those changes were overdue, according to one business travel expert.
“The pharmaceutical sector has a reputation for being ‘sales heavy’ so it’s probably no surprise that a company whose business has shifted from selling to individual
