Janifha Evangeline | Thursday, 15 September 2022
Like many other industries in the pharmaceutical industry the pandemic suddenly made enterprises to operate differently. For example, all the in-person meetings became virtual. Also those with healthcare providers if indeed had the time to engage with field representatives at all.
Furthermore, different ways had to be finalized in order to make decisions faster, although it was at times hard to convene all those in the company who would usually be part of the process. The consequence was an augmentation of specific commercial-organizational trends that already afoot-companies doubled down on creating digital capabilities in order to enable virtual connectivity with healthcare professionals as well as patients, for instance.
However, that was not all. The pandemic ensured the power of such initiatives. Most organizations already accustomed to agile ways of working had the capability of adapting faster to the pandemic. However, it called into question the value of others. The plans for restructuring the business units around several teams of HCPs for example actually looked relatively unimportant and these were put on hold. This also resulted in new problems which resulted in search of solutions. How for instance could enterprises best engage with already-overstretched stakeholders? The aforementioned elements have made organizations to not only reassess their commercial-organizational models but are aware they are operating in a next-normal environment.
Pharma organizations have to radically rethink their commercial operating models to serve patients, engage employees, as well as respond to competition. These needs looking at those models holistically & putting in place the right human & technology enablers.
Stakeholder-engagement initiatives While most of the initiatives fall into the stake-holder engagement category, the broader development of digital & analytical capabilities tops the list. This development was of high priority prior to the pandemic however most of the organizations are now doubling down on developing these capabilities in order to strengthen virtual interactions with healthcare professionals, render several employee abundant data as well as information in order to make fast decision & enable seamless engagement with stakeholders. A pharma enterprise used advanced analytics in quality management for reducing deviations by more than sixty-five percent & to find & eliminate various root causes of recurring deviations which had been impossible to detect with traditional roots.
Agile initiatives Agile initiatives are perceived as key priorities, & most of the organizations which have implemented them have reaped rewards. For instance, prior to the pandemic a pharma firm which was striving to expand its R&D capacity extended agile working to more than 12 departments & more than seven hundred scientists a year. The consequence was capacity doubled without adding extra resources. This was mostly possible owing to faster decision making & augmented development.
Nevertheless, organizations have not yet begun implementing agile initiatives or they are only in the early stages of doing so. The consequence of slow progress has been made clear during the pandemic times when all organizations have been forced to be more agile. When working in a virtual world, interactions with coworkers, cross-functional experts and managers cannot happen by chance. They need higher intent, that has often led to smaller meetings & more careful consideration of who should be present & decisions are required quickly.
However, it has been the organizations with huge experience in agile practices which have had the competitive edge under crisis conditions. And, these are accustomed to working in smaller, empowered, cross-functional teams in order to augment progress & are familiar with practices which have helped them adapt. However, such kind of capabilities take time to establish.
Organizational initiatives While there are talks on how the pandemic has augmented a few trends in the world of work, not everyone is talking about the initiatives that have been deprioritized. Most of the companies today are following organizational initiatives. For instance, low value was offered to reassessing the size of the field workforce this was a common, pre-pandemic initiative that actually aimed at using resources as cost-effectively as possible. Low value was also rendered to structuring business units that were around the capabilities that are required to serve HCPs as well as stakeholders instead of traditional therapeutic areas, functions & geographies.
Miscellaneous initiatives A 4th group of miscellaneous initiatives which have not gained traction and falls within a low-value, low-implementation cluster exists. A few of it, such as having marketers take up scrum master roles in agile teams, should have depended on organizations that are making considerable progress in implementing agile ways of working & even then they may not have been seen to render much additional value.
The road ahead The future operating models may not be crystal clear for the pharma organizations. However, the choices which organizations make now will however help in influencing the performance of the models and the other factors such as speed to market, efficiency as well as ability to serve more patients with better treatments. Hence pharma companies should prioritize those components of the model which are most likely to drive success and deprioritize those that aren’t.
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