In March 2024, Bill Anderson, pharma giant Bayer’s CEO, wrote an op-ed in Fortune vowing to bust bureaucracy, slash red tape, and eliminate layers of middle management to create a more agile and innovative enterprise. “Our radical reinvention will liberate our people while cutting 2 billion euros in annual costs by 2026,” he wrote.

I wrote soon after that what Anderson was doing wasn’t genuine transformation but had all the telltale signs of transformation theater: a false sense of urgency calling for drastic action when none is needed, a rushed strategic process (with little or no time for analysis or dissent), and a large, premature public rollout.

Today, more than a year later, Bayer’s stock remains near all-time lows and investors are increasingly frustrated and it’s not hard to see

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