ABSTRACT
Michael Porter, one of the most famous management gurus and the inventor of the concept of competitive advantage, has set himself strongly against strategic alliances. The apostle of disruptive technologies is Clayton Christensen. He has shown through dramatic examples the consequences of new technologies taking over from old, such as the wiping out of Kodak by digital photography. Clayton Christensen has broad experience across many industries including in the healthcare sector. It was in The Innovator's Prescription, which he coauthored in 2009 that Christensen came out against outsourcing. Pfizer eventually began outsourcing certain R&D functions in the late 1990s. Christensen has failed to understand that in pharmaceuticals outsourcing not only works but it is favoured increasingly by pharmaceutical companies who have seen over three decades now how it can work for them. Of course, the Japanese pharmaceutical industry has had its successes outside Japan.
