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EXCITING TIMES FOR THE PHARMACEUTICAL SECTOR

The pharmaceutical industry is traditionally one of the most innovative of them all,

developing better and more effective medicines that alleviate disease, pain and suffering.

Recently, though, the industry seems to have lost its traditionally innovative streak. Yet,

instead of getting despondent, I would like to think that strategic planning in such an

organization should be a very exciting time. A time when people, who are the best at what

they do - at least in that organization - come together to collectively develop solutions to

problems that hold it back fromsurpassingits expectations. It should be a time when cross-

functional teams work with each other on a venture, learn from each others diverse

capabilities and add value to both themselves and cumulatively to the organization. If that

happened, it would be exciting indeed for that would make the organization a very

progressive and forward looking one. And who wouldnt want to be a part of such an

organization?

Yet, sometimes, the excitement gets lost in the processes and SOPs. And this dogmatism is

dangerous if it threatens to enforce boundaries in a place such as a meeting to plan strategy.

These boundaries often define methodology - requiring someone to do something this way

and not that. A golden rule to such planning sessions is to not start with the methodology,

but with the problem. Many times, work on a venture tends to start with the methodology.

And it is most likely, thats where most of the time gets wasted. It is quite rare that team

members would agree upon methodology if it is discussed before the problem is analyzed

threadbare.

When a team starts with a problem thats of interest and applies whatever methodology is

appropriate, the team members have quality time to focus on finding never-done-before,

innovative solutions to the problem rather than focusing on how to do it. After all, the

problems of greatest interest are those that you cannot explain with the current prevailing

solutions the so-called benchmarks.

If an organization aligns its growth plans with the problems currently prevailing in the

environment in which it operates, it is best suited to find opportunities to develop solutions

for those problems. And these are where it has the highest probability of finding not just

new, but breakthrough growth opportunities.

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The sad part is that teams that are tasked with developing breakthrough plans, barely

recognize these opportunities even when they stare them straight in the face. The think-tank

gathers in a plush hotel conference hall, listens patiently to the CEO and other senior leaders

urge them to think differently and then goes about working in the very same manner as it

did in the preceding days and weeks, not realizing that it is that very style of functioning that

necessitated the workshop they were in!

This has a lot to do with dealing with the pressure that the team faces to convince the

company leadership of commercial viability of their ideas. A critical aspect that senior

executives forget at this stage, is that the most powerful ideas that could put the company

on course to the next BIG thing - would not come out of multiple examples or benchmarks.

They come out of intuition, business acumen and single case studies. Big impactful ideas are

conceptual breakthroughs, not descriptions of common patterns.

Now this may sound contradictory since business acumen and intuition comes from loads of

experience. And experience brings with it the need to fall back on best practices.

Breakthrough ideas are to borrow from C.K. Prahalad next practices not best practices.

You cant define the next practice with lots of examples and benchmarks. Because, by

definition, it is not yet happening.

If a pharmaceutical company looked for the ever-eluding growth opportunity, it wouldnt

have to look very far. Instead of focusing on the problems that the company faces such as an

over-regulated environment, non-level playing field (domestic companies vs. MNC pricing &

promotional practices), fragmented and complex healthcare delivery and distribution

framework etc., what if it focused on the environment and on the customer instead?

The problems that the healthcare consumer faces are quite obvious. India is yet to measure

up to international standards of domestic healthcare. A majority of citizens still struggle for

access to primary healthcare, and diseases such as malaria and cholera continue to kill. Other

challenges include inadequate affordable healthcare infrastructure, especially in rural areas.

Also, in times of calamities, the protracted response time of emergency services drives up

the number of fatalities. As I had written earlier, simply focusing on creating awareness,

access, availability and applicability provides vast swathes of opportunities for companies to

create meaningful value for society and economic value for themselves. When this balance is

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struck in strategic plans, they move from being capitalistic messes to becoming socially

responsible andcommercially viable.

With so much to do, especially when India is one of the two most promising pharmerging

markets, strategy teams in pharmaceutical companies must be bursting with ideas. It is, but amatter of time, that mainstream pharmaceutical companies will find their lost streak of

innovation. This time in services too, if not in products alone.

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SALIL S. KALLIANPUR

I am just another guy caught in the quagmire of pharmaceutical marketing,

trying to get my two cents across through my blog and this newsletter. I

haven't worked outside the pharmaceutical industry and outside the sales &

marketing function. I sincerely hope that there will be people from other

industries and domains who will deem it fit to share their views and rich

experiences. Last but not least, I am no John Mack, so do forgive the

limitations in views expressed! It is my sincere hope that this newsletter helps

each of us understand how our work in healthcare marketing intersects with

life, in general, and helps us to become better human beings.