Journal of Medical Marketing: Device,Diagnostic and Pharmaceutical Marketing

This paper examines key success factors for effective collaboration in the pharmaceutical industry. In an industry where speed to market is critical and where informed and timely decisions can have large financial implications, collaboration is a key factor to ensure value is delivered. Consequently, considerable investment is being made by pharmaceutical companies to enable project teams to work more effectively together across departmental, functional, company and geographic boundaries. Investment in collaboration has varied tremendously across companies – both in the level of investment and in the degree of success. It is against this background that British Telecom (BT) commissioned RM Consulting (RM) to research the key strategies for effective collaboration. A major finding of the research was that while technology is a strong enabler to better collaboration it must be intuitive, easy to use and enable natural people interaction for widespread adoption. The correct technology can allow richer social collaboration and more intuitive usability.

Purpose: To provide executives in the pharma/biotech industries with a pragmatic understanding about a holistic approach for dealing with ‘leadership'issues relating to knowledge utilisation within organisations and teams.

Methodology/approach: this paper proposes a methodology which addresses issues raised about the failure of strategies, projects and knowledge management programmes. An illustrative case study of a real-time exercise involving a number of these issues provides real-world understanding of the approach.

Findings: Complex issues around leadership and knowledge can be handled using an holistic, systemic approach and delivering outputs and outcomes across a number of areas of key importance to the team or organisation.

Research Limitations/implications: The methodology has been tested in numerous organisations over a 10-year period across the private sector, the public sector and the not-for-profit sector. Examples include Organon pharmaceuticals across three continents; Biogen biotechnology in France and Netherlands; Turku School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland; and Henley Management College, UK. The leadership components come from a DBA thesis by author P.A. The thesis includes a review of the leadership theory. The Leadership Culture Display diagnostic covers values and behaviours across the team. The repository of scores is growing as the instrument becomes more widely used.

Originality/value: The strategic techniques used come from the Seven Management and Planning Tools developed originally by the Japanese in the 1970s and 1980 s.

This original approach has been further developed by the authors. The knowledge constructs are not only systematic, but also systemic. Parts of the approach make use of analysis, but the systemic parts make use of synthesis. The ‘big picture'or roadmap, that is generated, is an example of real-world ‘joined-up-thinking’.

The global markets are becoming increasingly competitive, making the critical knowledge within a company's business of even greater competitive advantage and one that needs pro-active protection. With competitors becoming more willing and capable of gathering senszzitive knowledge, its safeguard is an even higher priority into the future. The differences in competitive capability in the future are likely to side with those companies that can find the right balance between protecting their own proprietary knowledge most effectively from their competitors, yet share it sufficiently within the business to create optimum value among its employees. This is a key challenge for companies in the future.

This paper presents a view of how interchange of information in the pharmaceuticals and medical sector is best accomplished, drawing on recent studies. Key barriers are identified and an analogy is drawn with the oil exploration industry.

This paper considers the possible ravages which time can wreak on digital data, and its implications for trust both in digital objects held over time and in the organisations which own or manage the data.

The focus of this paper is on the benefits of visual analysis for pharmaceutical and healthcare companies particularly in relation to their sales activity; however it is easy to see how these benefits can transfer to other areas of the organisation, whether this is marketing, research or clinical trials. To illustrate the benefits of visual analysis, this paper will base its arguments on a case study for a ‘flu vaccine. The benefits of such analysis can assist all levels of the organisation from strategic planning at board level through to tactical managerial decision-making through to assisting in the day-to-day planning and operation of the field sales representatives.

The Regulatory Department is sometimes unfairly seen as a bottleneck in the process of getting a new drug to market. Perhaps this is a natural response given their pivotal role in ensuring compliance of all manner of aspects of the drug compound discovery through to manufacture and distribution. However, it is reasonable, given the internal and external pressures upon this department to change, that the Regulatory Team has the potential to significantly change and improve their impact upon the whole approval process. The changes that they face can lead to an opening up of company knowledge and content. The following paper describes the situation that the Regulatory Departments currently face. It considers how the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) is causing change and offering the potential for process change, not just in the Regulatory Department but also in other departments of both Research & Development (R&D) and Manufacturing.

The healthcare sector is a dynamic and constantly changing place, facing increasing pressures to ‘balance the books’, yet deliver increasingly higher levels of patient care. Against this backdrop, how can you set up a long lasting and value creating partnership? One sure and clear route to long-term success is through the development of a strategic partnership as a way of working, bought into by all sides. This approach offers the opportunity to achieve improved long-term influence within the relationship, while using less commercial resource in a far more targeted and effective way. Beware, it is not right for everyone and care needs to be taken at the initial commercial opportunity stage to ensure value exists for both parties. This paper provides a ‘step-by-step’ guide, built around four clear stages that take you through the development of a strategic relationship between supplier and healthcare customer. A key measurement area for the strategic partnership is the progress towards the realisation of both: identified value and patient benefits. Our experience points to significant value and benefit potential, with at least 3 years worth of profit and patient benefit opportunities for both parties.

It has become a truism that the ability to learn is an organisation's only sustainable source of competitive advantage. In practice, this means the capability of translating data about customers into customer preference and hence shareholder value. Firms with superior data-to-value capability understand both the stages in this process and the organisational actions that determine their efficacy. Our research-based understanding of how firms achieve such superior capability is extensive and wellfounded, but scattered and fragmented across various academic disciplines. This paper summarises this understanding of the data-to-value process and identifies 12 rules for creating and using customer insight.

Competitive intelligence (CI) has become a vital part of the emerging knowledge economy. Careful analysis of competitors and the global marketplace allows companies to effectively anticipate market developments and respond proactively. But while many companies have their own dedicated CI function, many organisations, both large and small, have yet to develop a formal programme and are being left behind. Where do they begin? Instead of falling into the trap of trying to design the perfect CI system from scratch, covering every competitor, market and technology, one approach with a greater chance of success is to go back to basics and take ‘baby steps’ to develop a solid platform for future growth. The approach outlined here comprises three basic activities: holding CI and counterintelligence seminars; vulnerability testing; and establishing a strong ethical and legal footing. While simple, these steps, properly implemented, represent an excellent, low-cost start for a company with no current coordinated CI activities.

This paper focuses on the use of IT systems in pharmaceutical companies and how useful IT is in present day working. The information on the pharmaceutical industry in India and its impact has been gathered from reading the relevant literature and from the internet. It is intended to help the reader to get a general understanding of IT systems' application in the pharmaceutical sector and how IT can improve organisational efficiency.

More and more pharma and biotech companies are realising the value of taking on experienced personnel on a short-term basis, to do project work, to fill in while a permanent recruitment is made and to add value to an existing position. It is also becoming more common these days that younger executives are seeking out interim positions as a career, since they enjoy the new challenges and flexibility of the appointments. The experience that an interim manager can bring into a company, on a short-term assignment, cannot be over-estimated and more and more bio-pharma organisations are realising this.