Is Bausch & Lombs run over?
(FORTUNE Magazine) – In early May, Bausch & Lomb CEO Ron Zarrella hit the road to tout his company’s turnaround to Wall Street. From a distance, he appears to have plenty to crow about. Shortly after taking the top job at the struggling eye-care company in November 2001, Zarrella, who returned to B&L (BOL, $77) after a seven-year stint at GM, announced a major reorganization and set three-year financial targets for increased sales, margins, and research-and- development spending. Since then, sales and profits have risen sharply, and the stock price has more than doubled. “The turnaround is complete,” he declared in a January conference call with investors. Look closer, though, and things aren’t as rosy as they appear. Zarrella, 55, easily met his first target of boosting annual sales at a mid- to high-single-digit rate, to $2.2 billion last year. But he fell short on his other two goals. Operating margins improved to 12.5% of sales at the end of 2004 but fell short of his “mid-teens” t
