additional content
that can be the foundation of product
development and patient outreach
programs. Processes are in place to
enable full transparency of interaction
between the medical affairs team and
healthcare professionals, and systems
are used to track the effectiveness
of different channels and campaigns.
Collected information is proactively
shared throughout the organization to
increase touch points and outreach to
the medical community, while reactive
responses will become a thing of the past.
Medical affairs teams
identify opportunities for
pharma to partner in the
healthcare system.
• Skills and culture: Strategic
channels to key opinion leaders and
clinicians are opened, providing data,
ideas, and insight for brand planning.
These dialogues and analytical insights
are crucial in translating healthcare
professional needs into opportunities
for pharmaceutical companies.
Scientific strength is balanced
with commercial acumen, strong
relationship building, and alliance
management skills, fostering public–
private collaboration.
These descriptions portray the ideal
state for pharmaceutical companies,
when operating levers and critical
teams are perfectly aligned; silos are
eliminated; cross-functional, open
communication is the norm rather than
the aspiration; and strategic goals mesh
with tactical product development and
go-to-market campaigns. In actuality,
though, given that most pharmaceutical
companies have some critical team
activities but usually in silos, change
will be gradual. More commonly,
companies will go through a series of
organizational maturity stages as they
implement each aspect of critical team
capabilities: reactive, tactical, strategic,
and leading (see Exhibits 4–7).
118
world monitor
Most pharmaceutical companies
are currently in the tactical stage.
Depending on where a company's
critical teams are on the maturity
curve at subteam level or collectively
across the subteams, a decision can
be made about whether to simply
improve capabilities in the current
organizational model or more radically
turn the operating model upside
down — in other words, begin again
in light of the disruptive operating
environment. Experimenting with a
company's operating model is more
easily done locally, where there is
less complexity and fewer moving
parts, but we have observed that
some pharmaceutical companies are
taking aggressive steps to transform
themselves at the corporate level.
Typically, the demands for greater
connectivity across critical teams are
motivating more sweeping changes. To
accomplish transformation, companies
will need to answer a number of key
questions about how their critical
teams will operate: Should there be one
critical team leader across subteams?
Where should critical teams sit within
the organizational structure? How will
the critical viewpoint be represented at
the board level?
Two companies, two
successes
To illustrate the potential impact
that building more integrated critical
team capabilities can have on a
pharmaceutical company, consider
the case of a global pharma company
that assessed the cost of government
activities — including regulations,
insurance and payor policy decisions,
and agency rule making — on its
business at US$1 billion a year. In
doing this analysis, the company
realized that its operating model
lacked strong and cross-functional
critical teams, particularly pertaining
to understanding and anticipating
policymaker sentiment and decision
making. As a result, the company was
in reactive mode, unable to respond
effectively to government actions in a
timely manner.
With a lack of visibility into regulatory
deliberations, pricing, and market
access, each sector of the operating
model acted independently, ensuring
an inefficient outcome. For example,
in the absence of relevant intelligence
to guide strategic launches, the
company would begin to think about
preparing the market for a drug just a
year before the product’s introduction,
far too late for a successful
pharmaceutical launch. But without a
connected critical team, there was no
other option for developing an external
strategy aligned to the business
strategy.
Unhappy about the money it was
losing due to its own shortcomings,
the pharmaceutical company created a
framework for building a critical team
capability that most mattered to the
success of the business. Specifically, it
created subteams to support ongoing
communication and interaction with
marketplace influencers, regulators,
pricing decision makers, and the
healthcare community. Members of
these teams were not just policy wonks
but also business strategists. This gave
them credibility within the company
to help craft strategic options as well
as the ability to be on equal footing
with outside sources whose activities
affected the company.
On the wings of this organizational
transformation, the company has
succeeded in areas where it was
previously failing. The primary change
is that the company is now a close-
knit partner with regulators and
government agencies, helping to craft
healthcare policy. Simultaneously, it
has opened vital external channels for
collecting intelligence and insight that