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Effective Change Management – The Magic Wand For Business Success And Sustainability

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Change – just as it’s an integral part of our life, so is for any business, including pharmaceutical or healthcare. Interestingly, the phase of transition of such changes isn’t always slow and gradual. In many cases, especially for business, or for a lifestyle too, these transitions could also be faster and disruptive.

The speed of many such changes is now driven by rapidly evolving technology. Or these could often be triggered by some unanticipated event, like the Covid-19 pandemic that we all experienced, very recently. Such changes may impact people working in different functions, in different ways. Which is why, organizations need to be all-time ready, with a robust process in place – known as Change Management.

In this article, I shall focus on the relevance of putting in place a well-validated system driven Change Management process within, especially, the Indian pharmaceutical organizations. Let me start with my understanding on what is the Change Management, so that all of us be on the same page in this regard. 

To be on the same page on what is Change Management:

There are several definitions of the change management process expressed differently, but it’s core concept remains unchanged. One such illustration comes from The TechTarget network. It says:“Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization’s goals, processes, or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change, and helping people to adapt to change.”

Why many pharma majors are considering it now, more than ever before:

Being amid a technological revolution, encompassing almost all aspects of life and then in the post-pandemic area, change is being expected as a way of life and business, more than ever in the past. Although pharma industry a late learner - and is also traditionally late to change – these can’t be now pushed to the back burner, any longer, as was happening in the pre-pandemic era.

‘Change Management’ can’t be pushed to the back burner, any longer:

This process has now attracted a sense of urgency for many pharma players, as we read and look around. Several big companies have already started addressing the leadership challenges to manage and leverage the evolving changes, as I wrote in my article of October 3, 2022, in this blog.

To be in sync with both customers and employee expectations on an ongoing basis, the change management process in an organization has assumed a priority. User friendly state of the art technology is facilitating to effectively address the growing intricacies of today’s field staff role by infusing leadership mindset change in the organizational culture. Emphasizing this point in my article on July 19, 2021, I underscored that such change should necessarily reflect the company’s vision for the future, unambiguously.

Most companies have changed over a period of time in varying degree:

Most companies have changed over a period of time. Nonetheless, today’s need, pace and the process of change demand a data science based customized approach. The good news is several pharma majors have also started feeling that they require not just to change with time, but also need to put more data science based cerebral input to fathom why and how it changed to be more effective in the future.

An insightful understanding is essential to put in place and kick start a right change management process. To give a sense of it, let me cite a contemporary example of one of the successful global pharma majors – GSK. This case study was prepared by the Project Management Institute.

Achievement of a key milestone could make all the difference:

When GSK initiated this process in 2009, the organization realized that an important milestone in the implementation of the company’s change initiative must be to gain the trust and belief of leadership—many of whom were neutral or cynical about it.

To achieve this goal a custom made ‘Accelerating Delivery and Performance (ADP) program; was found to be quite effective for the company. It delivered both hard business benefits as well as softer organizational development benefits. This approach allowed the team to gain the attention of those leaders who wanted both.

Five principles formed the bedrock of the ADP approach:

The following ADP principles are time-tested, contemporary, and several of these were practiced by GSK in their change management process when it started in 2009.

  • Changes should begin with the initiator of change and focusing on greater customer satisfaction.
  • Active support of all stakeholders in the process of change is critical.
  • Include all staff who will be impacted by the change – while defining, explaining, and ensuring accountability and continuously measuring the time bound shared goals, especially the business and financial ones.
  • Make sure they all share ownership for the outcome of change, through seamless teamwork.
  • Make a pilot study before pan organization implementation.

The change management process continues:

That the change management process needs to be ongoing even for successful drug majors – such as GSK, is particularly evident from their Press Release on June 23, 2021.

The communique giving details of the organization’s strategic and other transformation pathways, also highlighted, “New GSK to deliver step-change in growth and performance over the next ten years driven by high-quality Vaccines and Specialty Medicines portfolio and late-stage pipeline.” 

Specific areas of change, as the pandemic wanes:

There are several studies in this area, such as the one published in the Growth Faculty Learn, published on February 07, 2023. Let me paraphrase its summary as follows:

  • Although the pace of change in different businesses may vary but will certainly keep changing. The leaders should, therefore, act proactively to lead their teams through a well validated change management process to gain a competitive edge.
  • Full preparedness for the change and garnering change management skills before the process begins are critical.
  • Advance planning for employee wellbeing, well structured individual and collective communication strategy, deciding on specifics of a hybrid work culture – all based on data-science, are of great importance.
  • To ensure the effectiveness of the change management process a positive workplace environment is a must, which will stand on five pillars - Trustworthiness, Empathy, Genuineness, Self-awareness, and a Learning mindset.

Thus, it’s high time for all to realize that the pharma business ball game is now changing fast for all, creating an urgent need to focus on the critical areas of change.

Conclusion:

It now boils down to an important point, which was also echoed in an article on this area published in the Pharma IQ on November 23, 2022. It underscored just as any living being keeps moving on the pathway of change, pharma and healthcare industry should proactively follow a similar path.

External environmental factors would play a catalytic role to accelerate the speed of change. These include fast evolving consumer friendly digital applications and health apps - newer, better, and more targeted drugs and treatment processes, or even unprecedented disruptions of lives and livelihoods, just what we all have recently experienced.

A study published in the Pharma Marketing Network on October 27, 2021, also reiterated that the main goal of any change management approach is to foster support of all concerned that leads to good outcomes within an organization. It found that an effective way to implement a change is by engaging and inspiring employees to adopt new (and improved) ways of working.

Against the above backdrop, putting a structured change management process in place by Indian pharma players, I reckon, is now essential. This approach seems to be a Magic Wand, as it were, for ongoing business success and sustainability in today’s rapidly evolving paradigm.

By: Tapan J. Ray       

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Deliver Patient-Perceived Value – Not Incrementally But In Quantum Measure

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Many critical functional areas of most drug companies, such as, marketing, manufacturing, supply chain, medical affairs, human resource, R&D, quality assurance, information technology – traditionally work in silos. It doesn’t mean, though, that there isn’t any interaction between them. Nevertheless, a large majority of them don’t work as a team with a purpose or to achieve a shared goal of delighting customers with value delivered. Such a silo-mindset could often be detrimental to smooth and sustainable business operations. This was also vindicated during the recent pandemic.

Having gone through the harrowing experience of recent disruptions in the lifesaving pharma business operations, a fresh realization has dawned on many leaders’ mind. This point also came to the fore in many studies. One such is the article on ‘Overcoming industry obstacles with a cross-functional strategy’, published by the strategy&, which is a part of PwC network.

The paper came out with some thought-provoking findings. It said, while in the pre-Covid days, mostly competing business pressures used to drive the operational strategies, today the drivers are quite different. ‘Factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, inflation, geopolitics, new therapeutic modalities, and new ways of working make it vital’ for pharma players to make such transformational operational overhaul for long term excellence.

The spotlight needs to shift from continuous incremental improvement, such as, cost savings, quality assurance, and readiness to deliver—to long-term external challenges. ‘These include high inflation and an increase in complexity and risk, as well as the compounding effects these forces have on each other.”

Several studies have underscored that this approach can ‘make sure operations can protect enterprise continuity while still delivering to patients.’ this article will venture to simplify this complex, yet critical issue. The aim is to achieve a quantum increase in value offering to customers that this strategic approach can potentially deliver to accelerate growth momentum the pharma business.

Some see pharma business as usual, astute leaders see a unique opportunity for change:

An interesting point to note. As the disruptions caused by the Covid pandemic are fading away, some critical health safety norms are also being eased by the authorities. Apparently, the overall daily working-life seems to be limping back to normal. Many pharma leaders are, therefore, considering that the industry operations are going back to pre-pandemic normal, and the business operations will soon revert to the old normal mode soon.

On the other hand, we find some astute leadership who could derive a long-term lesson from the above disruptions and are already in the process of executing those operational changes. This leadership mindset gets reflected in two recent media reports related to two pharma majors – Sanofi and GSK.

On November 28, 2022, it was reported, ‘Sanofi moves into swanky new Paris HQ designed around hybrid work and sustainability.’ Again, on December 12, 2022, another media headline flashed as ‘GSK embraces hybrid work for the long haul at new London HQ.’

To me these are interesting examples to convert problems into opportunities for long-term business success and sustainability, in the new normal. These tasks entail the transformation of business infrastructure alongside its operational strategies.

The need for re-strategizing reverberates across several recent studies:

The need for such an action, as captured by researchers, is prompted by more waves of innovation coming in various operations and functions of pharma business, mostly triggered by the pandemic. The spectrum of innovation, as reports reveal, ranges ‘from new treatment modalities, to smart machines, advanced analytics, and digital connectivity.’

Hence, the future of pharma operations strategy needs to be different now from the past. This finding was also published by the McKinsey & Company on October 10, 2022. It reiterated, as pharma companies are emerging from two years of intense firefighting, now is exactly the right time for their renewed emphasis on a new operations strategy. It emphasized: ‘Succeeding in pharma under these new and challenging conditions will require succeeding in operations.’

This point was further vindicated by the results of the latest McKinsey Global Survey, which states:‘Less than one-third of the surveyed respondents, all of whom had been part of a transformation in the past five years, said their companies’ transformations had achieved a sustained performance improvement.’

Another study very specific to India:

Another survey on ‘Indian consumer sentiment during the coronavirus crisis,’ published by theMcKinsey & Company on October 13, 2022, also reconfirms the subtle changing trend in Indian consumer behavior. Its findings include some of the following areas:

  • More than 70 percent consumers are engaging in modified out-of-home behavior, even as social gathering returning to almost normalcy.
  • Digital continues to hold sway with more than 75 percent consumers using either digital or omnichannel while purchasing across categories.
  • Social media continues to be an important influence while shopping.
  • Gen Z and millennial are leading in new shopping behavior, with value being the top reason and sustainability as an emerging factor.

Hence, to engage with such healthcare consumers and deliver the value as they perceive, pharma operational strategies may call for a rejig – for longer term success and sustainability. That said, a key point to remember is that the marketing function is central while redrawing new operational strategy.

The marketing function is central while redrawing new operational strategy:

The need for the above was well articulated in another study published by ResearchGate in May 2020. It pointed out that many drug companies invest lots of funds to be more productive in various key operational areas, like R&D, manufacturing, or supply chain. However, if marketing strategies are not in sync with contemporary market dynamics and customer behavioral trends, despite game changing improvements in those areas, achieving business growth objectives will be challenging.

Based on the study, the researchers concluded, “an effective marketing in the organization has significant impact in achieving Organizational goals and Operational Excellence in Pharmaceuticals.” The study further emphasized, ‘Operational Excellence and marketing are always interlinked. Therefore, marketing plays a vital role in achieving Operational Excellence in Pharmaceuticals or any other industry.”

Conclusion:

As we know, market dynamics keep changing with time. Generally, some strong trigger factors, such as, Covid related disruptions of lives and livelihoods, may hasten the process of this crucial change. Such changes necessitate long-term transformation of pharma operational strategies, as initiated, for example, by GSK and Sanofi.

As McKinsey & Company articles have articulated, the transformation process and scale may differ from company to company with common long-term challenges remaining the same. Such operating model transformations – involving digital tools, data science with analytics capabilities across the company, often ‘help companies interact with healthcare professionals and other stakeholders more effectively’.

Consequently, the company garners greater capabilities to deliver new patient-perceived value – not just for incremental, but quantum business growth. This, I reckon, could be a game changer for long-term success and sustainability in the pharma business.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Leveraging Data Science To Deliver Unique Patient-experience

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“Changes in consumer behavior, many of which were accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, are fueling a redesign of the health ecosystem.” This finding was revealed by a recent study of the PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI). The research provided insights about how and why specific groups of consumers used health services during the pandemic – from mental health and telehealth to in-home care and other non-traditional care sites.

The study also captured ‘their willingness to use them again in the future,’ and suggested, those pharma companies that closely monitor these consumer signals and design, accordingly, will likely emerge as more customer centric, as the pandemic wanes.

From this perspective, effective application of data science for creating a unique patient experience by listening to patient voice, is now an imperative for pharma players. Which is why, this approach is nowa key business success ingredient in the changing paradigm. It helps offering a holistic disease treatment solution to patients searching for an effective and affordable disease treatment process.

This article will, therefore, focus on leveraging data science for strategic use of Real-World Evidence (RWE) based on Real World Data (RWD) – on how customer characteristics and behavior impact health outcomes. This initiative is fast becoming a key driver to excel in contemporary pharma business.

Strategic use of RWD/RWE increasing in pharma marketing plans:

RWE, as the name suggests, is the evidence derived from RWD. These are collected outside of clinical trials from various sources, such as, patients and HCP surveys on treatment outcomes, electronic health records wherever available, Wearable Health Devices (WHD), insurance claims, data from connected healthcare records, custom study and many others.

The McKinsey & Company article in this area, published on July 23, 2020, also indicated so. Although, some leading pharma companies have already been using RWE. However, recent progress in digital and advanced analytics allows it to be employed in new ways to deliver impact at scale, the article highlighted. When used by hands-on- professionals of repute in this area, RWE can help pharma marketers understand how patient characteristics and behaviors affect health outcomes.

The research paper on how Biopharmaceutical companies are embedding real-world data and evidence use across the enterprise, published in Deloitte Insights on September 21, 2022, presented an interesting contemporary example. It wrote: ‘During the COVID-19 pandemic, RWD/E played a key role in enabling Biopharma companies to innovate and bring novel vaccines and therapies against this highly contagious disease to market in record time.’id-19,

The approach gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic:

The above research study of Deloitte brought out this fact succinctly. It found; unprecedented challenge posed by COVID-19 pandemic prompted several drug companies to leverage RWD/E to innovate faster than ever before. More than half of the companies surveyed by Deloitte used RWD/E to understand the incidence and severity of COVID-19 and its variants for vaccine and drug development.’

The survey found: ‘Many vaccine developers, such as Johnson & Johnson analyzed RWD to predict COVID-19 hotspots across geographies to optimize site selection and collect data from diverse racial and ethnic groups.’ Besides, RWE also played a critical role for these companies in understanding vaccine effectiveness across demographics such as age, gender, race, and ethnicity and determining the need for boosters.

Improves patient experience for business excellence:

A systematic and ongoing tracking and analysis of well-identified RWD, by pharma marketing analytics professionals, can help in-depth understanding of changing pharma customer characteristics and behavior, more precisely. Such initiatives include patients, HCPs, hospitals and even the policy makers. Several drug majors have adopted this practice, immediately after absorbing the initial shock of unprecedented disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Similarly, RWD can help map the exact available space for demand where a brand is being used and potential competitive value-space for its further demand extension – based on real time customer behavior with changing characteristics. To shape customer journeys, such findings may immensely help while strategizing for more targeted content delivery, with sharper segmentation and brand positioning.

Therefore, finding such gaps in various areas of patients’ journey – in their search for an effective and affordable treatment, and appropriately filling these up with brand value delivery is critical. This will help improve patient experience manifold, accelerating business excellence, in tandem.

A recent paper titled, ‘Maximizing your role as a newly appointed real-world evidence leader,’ published by the ZS on March 23, 2022, made similar observations, as above. The study reiterated that patient-generated insights obtained through RWE, are uniquely capable of adding value at different stages of a pharma brand’s life cycle. Or, throughout a patient’s journey on the care pathway of the value delivery system. It concluded: “Carrying out a successful RWE study is a fine balancing act – but its inconveniences and risks are almost certain to be outweighed by the eventual benefits.”

Increasingly used to gain actionable insights to improve patient experience:

In the contemporary market dynamics – driven by changing customer characteristics and behavior, several pharma companies are now effectively combining and analyzing RWD to retrieve RWE. The objective is to gain actionable insights for effective customer engagement for better patient outcomes, to drive business growth. According to a recent podcast by PwC on using data to shape customer journey, the process includes the following:

  • Focusing on the value and outcomes of treatment protocols and less about specific products.
  • Gaining a better understanding of pharma customers and what drives their behavior.
  • Reaching beyond the barrier in driving differentiation amongst competitors.

Conclusion:   

The Forbes article on the Data Science trend in 2022, published on October 04, 2021, aptly epitomized its relevance in today’s business, including pharma industry. It articulated, data science encompasses the practical application of ideas generated by credible and meaningful data from various relevant sources, predictive analytics, and artificial intelligence. Our ability to use such data to our advantage across wide areas in business, would help deliver increasingly worthwhile, valuable, and enjoyable patient experience. 

The article also underscored: ‘If data is the oil of the information age and Machine Learning (ML) is the engine, then data science is the digital domain’s equivalent of the laws of physics that cause combustion to occur and pistons to move.’

Thus, I reckon, both intrinsic and extrinsic brand value creation process, driven by its effectiveness, would increasingly call for Real World Evidence (RWE) based on top-quality Real-World Data (RWD). This is increasingly becoming so critical for success – spanning right across, from product development, launch planning with value propositions – to launch and beyond.

The core purpose of leveraging data science in pharma is, as I see it, is effective decision making throughout the brand life cycle, to deliver a unique patient experience in patients’ journey – with better treatment outcomes.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

Why And How To Be In-Sync With Gen Z As Pharma Paradigm Shifts?

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As science and technology, across the world, are progressing at a scorching pace – Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding, today’s generations are growing up tech savvy – more than ever before. The trend will keep going north faster and with a steeper gradient. This is being driven by transforming social and economic environments – necessitating quicker solutions to any needs, problems, and expectations.

The current signals, as underscored by an article appeared in the Abbott Website on November 19, 2019: ‘Generation Z’s relationship with technology will also influence how the group relates to healthcare.’ Thus, it’s no secret that millennials approach their health care in drastically different ways than members of the Silent Generation, baby boomers or Gen Z, the article added.

Which is why, gradually shifting paradigm of the pharma industry would also eventually create a brand new one – with the Gen Z population growing at a faster pace. From the above perspective, in today’s article, I shall focus on the importance of this shifting paradigm, especially from the pharma industry perspective, including India.

Expectations and experience of Gen Z are contrasting:

Let me start with the definition of Gen Z. In January 2019, Pew Research defined Gen Z as anyone born after1996, just as ‘anyone born between 1981 and 1996 (ages 23 to 38 in 2019) is considered a Millennial.’ Gen Z grew up with technology, the internet, and social media. Moreover, according to another study of Pew Research, published on May 14, 2020, Gen Z is growing up having experienced catastrophic disruptions in almost all spheres of life and livelihoods, triggered by Covid-19 pandemic. It further ascertained, ‘the oldest Gen Zers have been particularly hard hit in the early weeks and months of the Coronavirus crisis.’

Thus, I reckon, the experience and expectations of many of such Gen Z from business and overall environment around – are quite different from earlier generations. More importantly, they will also have a strong influence on younger ones. Hence, the expected transformation would be much broader than what is currently visible today on the ground.

Some core characteristics of Gen X from pharma business perspective:

Various studies have captured the core characteristics of Gen Z, some of which are very relevant to pharma industry and are worth taking note of – for excellence in business performance. These include the followings:

Digital natives:

As McKinsey & Company highlighted in an article, published on November 12, 2018 that Gen Z is the first generation of true digital natives, and they are expanding. Whereas Millennials were regarded as ‘digital pioneers,’ who bore wit­ness to the explo­sion of tech­nol­o­gy and social media, Gen Z populations are born into a world of peak tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion. In that environment infor­ma­tion is imme­di­ate­ly acces­si­ble and social media becoming increas­ing­ly ubiquitous – endorses another study by the Casey Foundation with its own findings on the core characteristics of Gen Z.

Financial minded:

Finan­cial mind­ed­ness is anoth­er core char­ac­ter­is­tic of Gen­er­a­tion Z for several reasons. A major one being, as discussed – many of them grew up witnessing unprecedented impact on lives and livelihoods caused by Covid-19 pandemic. Several other studies, like the one published recently by the Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, indicates that millennials and Gen Z are especially sensitive to healthcare costs.

Shrewd consumers and cost-value conscious:

Gen Z show characteristics of shrewd consumers and are also cost-value conscious. Being tech savvy, they are more influenced by fast-expanding digital, world and would like to make well-informed purchasing decisions after evaluating a range of options – both for products and services. They tend to be more influenced by the experience of real-life users, rather than a celebrity endorsement and val­ue per­son­al­ized prod­ucts.

Gen Z to herald metamorphosis of future healthcare:

That it is happening gets retreated in the caption of the Fierce Healthcare article of June 16, 2020 – ‘Industry Voices -Generation Z is a game changer for healthcare.’ It emphasized, ‘Generation Z – are likely to turn the health industry on its head with their unique expectations for how healthcare should be delivered.’

Convenience is such a paramount for Gen Z that they are often willing to forgo a personal relationship with their healthcare provider. Besides, they will come to their physician and provider armed with data, information, and knowledge, unlike the past generations. Consequently, the danger for providers is, if Gen Z doesn’t get that desired convenience, they’ll go elsewhere, the article says. Simultaneously, ‘they also want a trusted adviser who can guide them toward holistic health and wellness.’ Thus, delivering patient-centric care, capitalizing on real-world data and automated care experiences, will be key to the transformative process of healthcare.

A recent survey also vindicates that the transformation has begun:

A recent Accenture healthcare consumer survey reiterated: “The new healthcare consumer is here.” The study clearly signaled a paradigm shift in this space spearheaded by millennials and Gen Z. Some of the survey findings encompass the following areas:

  • This group of healthcare consumer expectations for convenience, affordability and quality are redefining how they engage at each stage of care.
  • They are most dissatisfied with health care’s status quo and more willing to try non-traditional services, such as, virtual care and retail walk-in clinics, which are gaining in popularity and use with them.
  • With greater health care needs, they will increasingly look for services to satisfy their expectations for effectiveness, convenience, efficiency, and transparency.
  • With millennials and Gen Z to become the largest generation in not-too-distant future, they hold the most power to influence future healthcare models.

Some pharma players are tracking Gen Z and the changing paradigm:

Some global majors, such as Abbott, are also writing about it in their website Abbott.com. The Company has noted some of these changes, as follows:

  • Generation Z’s relationship with technology will influence how the group relates to healthcare. While growing up in a fully connected world, they ‘are less likely to have primary care providers and are more likely to use apps for scheduling, viewing medical records and paying bills.’ They are also more receptive to telehealth visits and connected healthcare than previous generations.
  • With the wait times for an appointment with a doctor growing longer, Gen X populations are more likely to use walk-in clinics or opt for urgent care centers which are more convenient.
  • Self-service and convenience play into Gen Z’s interactions with doctor’s and the industry as a whole. They prefer email, texting, and apps to manage their appointments or communications with doctors. Finding ways to communicate with this younger generation in their preferred modes, can help keep them engaged with the industry.
  • Millennials and Gen Z populations are most likely to use a wearable device. They typically reach out to friends or online communities to ask about a particular health condition before speaking with a doctor. Although they aren’t the groups using the more healthcare services, millennials and members of Gen Z are showing what the health industry needs to do to provide the best care.

Size of Gen Z population in India:

According to EY Gen Z survey, released on November 04, 2021, the next decade will be shaped by the maturation of Gen Z, the largest generational cohort in history, where India stands out with a population that includes 375 million people or 27% of the total population in Gen Z. Besides, the survey also underscores the importance of Gen Z in the shifting paradigm of market dynamics for the pharma industry, as well.

Conclusion:

Currently, healthcare industry, in general, and most drug companies, in particular -especially, in India, don’t seem to nurture the fast-growing population of Gen Z with a customer engagement strategy that they can relate to. What these players are currently marketing is mostly aimed at traditional customers, and who still form the majority.

Exploring these evolving changes, I wrote an article in this blog, on November 07, 2016. This was titled ‘Millennial Generation Doctors And Patients: Changing Mindset, Aspirations, And Expectations.’ However, the unprecedented impact of Covid-19 pandemic, alongside rapid advancement and adaptation of digital technology, tools, and platforms, has expedited this process.Apace with these changes the pharma paradigm is also shifting, at a much faster pace than ever before. Which is why, I reckon, it’s important for the entire health care industry in India to be in-sync with Gen Z expectations and engage them, accordingly.

By: Tapan J. Ray

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Enhance Customer Experience By Enhancing Employee Experience

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Pharma is slowly but surely realizing that enhancing their customer experience can help reap a rich harvest by maximizing the business Return on Investments (ROI), significantly. However, the key architects behind creating a roadmap for the same are employees of the organization, at various levels of the hierarchy. They ferret out the cutting-edge and data-based inputs. This may, therefore, prompt a very pertinent question for many – what could then be the key drivers for enhancing the customer experience?

A Gartner research paper on ‘customer experience’ found, two-thirds of the drivers for customer satisfaction are related to “feel factors,” or how customers feel during and about their experience. It suggested that ‘leaders should take a similar approach to employee experience, focusing on influencing and improving employees’ feelings about their overall experience through the use of psychological, motivational and social principles. Improving the way the experience feels, can lead to a boost in employee engagement and support a positive company culture.’

Consequently, better the employee experience with the organization, more productive is expected to be the customer experience with the Company’s brands and services.

Against the above backdrop for the pharma industry, this article, besides exploring further developments in this area on a contemporary critical need of today’s pharma leaders. This, I reckon, is - focus on enhancing the employee experience for enhancing the customer experience.

Enhancing employee experience - more important in the new normal:

A recent McKinsey & Company article on employee experience, published on September 30, 2021 – nearly two years after the workplace upheaval by the Covid-19ew pandemic, echoed the same. It reiterated: ‘In an era of workplace upheaval, companies that create tailored, authentic experiences strengthen employee purpose, ignite energy, and elevate organization-wide performance.’

McKinsey research also found, while most people have felt supported by their organizations throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, many have struggled. This continues to linger as some companies are exploring hybrid working models, while many are expecting a full return to the office. Consequently, a gap is getting created between employees’ new concerns and employers’ expectations from them. Some of the major concerns and related expectations of many employees in the new normal, need to be addressed, expeditiously.

Some major ‘employee expectations’:

The McKinsey survey to assess employee views on work and how it has changed, commenced since the Covid-19 disrupted the world, included almost 1,000 individuals. The experience of most respondents was personal in nature and specific to an individual. However, there were several common threads, which include employees’:

  • Desire clear responsibilities and opportunities to learn and grow
  • Expect their personal sense of purpose to align with that of their organization.
  • Want an appropriate physical and digital environment that gives them the flexibility to achieve that elusive work–life balance.

The challenge, therefore, is how do leaders create a win-win situation between an employee’s new expectations and the business interest of the organization while creating a new pathway for business excellence? The researchers opined, this process would provide the leaders a unique opportunity to listen to employees on an ongoing basis and engage them on what matters most for organizational excellence—both near and long term.

Employee experience to occupy the center stage as the pandemic fades:

Based on emerging data, many experts now believe – continuously enhancing the employee experience is a prerequisite to continuously enhancing customer experience, for any sustainable business excellence in the new normal. Thus, organizational focus on the quality of employee experience is expected to occupy the center stage as the pandemic fades.

Several research findings have even gone a step forward. For instance, the Harvard Business Reviewarticle, published on January 14, 2021, on – trends that will shape the work in the new normal, pointed to an interesting area. It said: ‘Employers will shift from managing the employee experience to managing the life experience of their employees.’

Elaborating this point the author reiterated, the Covid-19 pandemic has given the business leaders significantly more visibility in the personal lives of their employees. Particularly in the last two years, as they navigate through unprecedented personal and professional challenges. The study also emphasized: ‘It’s become clear that supporting employees in their personal lives more effectively enables employees to not only have better lives, but also to perform at a higher level.’

Obviously, the question that will follow: Is there any tangible evidence to establish that enhancing the employee experience will improve organizational performance?

Focus on enhancing employee experience improves business performance:

Among studies in this area. I shall quote here a study that was conducted amid the Covid-19 pandemic. This one is Gartner’s 2020 ReimagineHR Employee Survey, which found, among others:

  • When employers develop deeper relationships with their employees there is a 23% increase in the number of employees reporting better mental health and a 17% increase in the number of employees reporting better physical health.
  • Employers who support their employees more holistically realize a 21% increase in high performers.
  • At typical organizations where employees work a standard 40 hours per week in the office, only 36% of employees were high performers. When organizations shift from this environment to one of radical flexibility where employees have a choice over where, when, and how much they work, 55% of employees were high performers.
  • The researchers concluded: “Offering employees more choices, over when, where and how many hours they work, is not only better for employees, but also better for employers who end up with more high-performing employees as a result.”  

Positive employee experience creates 16 times more engagement level:

Another McKinsey survey noted, enhancing employee experience would basically entail what they value in the life stages they are. Different propositions may attract different people. Thus, an organization needs to ascertain by talking to them on an ongoing basis, how they view their employee journeys, for delivering well-tailored interventions to maximize satisfaction, performance, and productivity. It’s worth noting that some employees now may be happier feeling a powerful sense of being able to influence outcomes that matter to them—allied with a strong sense of identity and belonging.

It also found, people with a positive employee experience have 16 times the engagement level of employees with a negative experience, and that they are eight times more likely to want to stay at a company.

Conclusion:

Another article - ‘The future of work after COVID-19’, published by the same Company, on February 18, 2021, reported something that’s worth pondering. It said, ‘that jobs in work arenas with higher levels of physical proximity are likely to see greater transformation after the pandemic, triggering knock-on effects in other work arenas as business models shift in response.’ Many pharma marketing related activities will fall in this category.

Hence, the bottom-line is, enhancing the customer experience by enhancing employee experience, will be imperative for business excellence in the new normal. However, successful accomplishment of this task on the ground by pharma leadership may not be a piece of cake. They need to walk the talk, jettisoning the traditional top-down model in most organizations of the industry.

By: Tapan J. Ray        

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Shape of Future Pharma Operations – Emerging A Pragmatic Outlook?

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Just as newer reports come almost every day on safety, efficacy, dosage interval or span of immunity of Covid vaccines, similar reports are also reaching us about the possible future shape of pharma sales and marketing operations. Some hardcore optimists, apparently more from India, still believe that current changes in pharma customer behavior are mostly transient. All business processes will eventually fall in their traditional grooves, as the Covid menace disappears from our lives soon.

No doubt, several studies are also bringing out a number of respondent doctors’ preferences on reverting to F2F engagements, programs and events. Nonetheless, most other experts, including several large global pharma majors, believe that the future shape of business operations won’t be quite the same as the past. There are better ways to be more effective, leveraging the changing environment. Accordingly, they have initiated actions, reimagining the pathway of new operational frontiers. In this article, I shall explore the evolving pragmatic outlook in just two of these action areas:

  • The new and unique role of medical representatives
  • Digital health care solutions as a new growth opportunity

New role of medical representatives:

A recent survey published by Reuters Events Pharma on December 18, 2020, revealed that 30% of the respondents still expect that Medical Reps’ (MR) face-to-face access to HCPs would return to the status quo ante of Covid pandemic restrictions. However, a majority of 70% felt that the old normal is unlikely return as such. The study also brought out that the size and disposition of sales teams are under review by many of pharma players and smaller field forces look likely, as the industry moves on.

My personal experience with the Indian Pharma Industry sources suggests, when a Covid pandemic wave starts finding its peak, the feeling of the above 70% prevails. However, when the same wave climbs down from its peak to a transient trough, a large number of Indian companies and experts tend to feel somewhat akin to what the above 30% expressed in the Reuters Events Pharma survey. The process gets repeated with the emergence of the next wave.

Alongside, as the above survey also finds out, most physicians are no longer expecting – brand-driven high sales pitches, during any MR-Doctor interaction or the engagement process. Instead, they are increasingly looking for insights – in an integrated, personalized and value-driven interactions with the Reps.

Considering this as a trend of over last one year or so, it is likely that MR-doctor interactions will now need to be on digital and omnichannel platforms to deliver a personalized and value driven an experience to the customers. In this environment, the field force may be smaller in size than what it used to be in early 2020 but will have a unique new role to play. This process will come with a new challenge, especially to those inbred companies, who are still undecided about the road ahead for business excellence, in the new normal.

Three new pharma leadership challenges:

Apparently, a large number of domestic drug companies, irrespective of size and scale of operations still feel comfortable to be in the old comfort zone that had propelled the business in a growth trajectory. Most pharma sales and marketing staff members, at several levels, have grown within the industry, consistently delivering high performance.

This situation by itself, as the above research paper revealed, poses three fresh challenges for many companies to make their field-staff ready to play a unique and fresh role in e-marketing. Thus, the three new knots to untie in the virtual world, are the following:

  • Currently, most MRs are not proficient in selling in virtually,
  • They are being led by people who have also never sold virtually,
  • They are being trained by people who also have never sold virtually.

MRs will continue to have a role to play even in the digital world:

To overcome the above challenges, today’s reality prompts new L&D needs of pharma’s new e-environment. And from this perspective, I think, they would need professional domain experts’ hand-holding, at least, in the transition phase of digital marketing. Some companies have initiated this process for greater sales force effectiveness, since 2019. A recent example in this area may be quoted from a report on October 01, 2019.

The article highlights, ‘AstraZeneca sales reps have some new help in the coaching department, resulting improved interactions and better development of sales reps’ strengths. While leaders still manage reps, artificial intelligence—in the form of data generated from thousands of field-coaching forms—now adds machine-learned analysis and advice.’

Thus, it is worth noting that MRs will continue to play an important role, alongside remote digital marketing using omnichannel or multi-channel engagement platforms. The same also came out clearly in the latest study from healthcare consultancy ZoomRx, reported on April 08, 2021, where its findings raised an important question - ‘Did pharma overshoot digital sales rep calls?’ This dilemma was prompted by the study charts reflecting a decline in its effectiveness, during this specific survey period.

Thus, in my opinion, a hybrid business model for better performance will be more effective in the new normal. However, ascertaining the right mix of digital and MR’s in-person interactions, may pose a challenge for many pharma marketers.

Entry into digital health solutions – an opportunity for growth: 

Before Covid pandemic, digital therapeutics or digital health solutions were not an unknown area for several pharma companies, as a growth booster in the modern world. But, it wasn’t explored so intensively as it is being discussed today, for the same. A recent paper titled, ‘Digital health during COVID-19: lessons from operationalizing new models of care in ophthalmology,’ published in The Lancet on February 01, 2021, vindicates this point.

The paper emphasized, due to Covid pandemic ‘the traditional face-to-face patient–physician care model has had to be re-examined in many countries, with digital technology and new models of care being rapidly deployed to meet the various challenges of the pandemic.’ It further highlighted, these new models incorporate digital health solutions such as telehealth, AI based decision support for triaging, besides clinical care, and home monitoring.

Global pharma majors, such as Novartis, have publicly acknowledged on January 21, 202 that ‘digital innovation looks set to dominate the 2021 healthcare agenda.’ The statement said, COVID-19 was a catalyst for change in healthcare during 2020 and an accelerator for digital health. Similarly, 2021 looks set to continue the revolution – exploiting ‘an explosion of interest, traction and scale’ in the potential for digital solutions. These would not only support remote working, but also keep the very fabric of business, healthcare, education, and essential services in operation.

Other important and recent examples of digital health care solutions: 

Witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic pushing more people toward virtual doctor visits over the last one year, AstraZeneca, as reported on April 06, 2021, is preparing for it in the new normal, through a novel project with Massachusetts General Hospital. The Company is now in the process of establishing and validating its ‘recently launched digital health platform, designed to help patients with chronic illnesses manage their conditions without stepping foot into the academic medical center’s clinic.’

Similarly, several other companies, are also investing to be early entrants with user friendly state of the art technology in this space. Interestingly, many of these ventures were reported during March and April 2021.

Conclusion:

Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death of a Salesman,’ broadly addressed the loss of identity and a man’s inability to accept change within himself and society. Although, the book depicts a larger philosophical perspective of life – many pointed out similar issues in the drug industry perspective, as well.

Nonetheless, many studies have established, pharma MRs have been effectively delivering, since long, the endpoint deliverables, as expected of them – sales. However, the question that still haunts many – can this core process be re-imagined for greater efficiency and effectiveness at a lesser cost, harnessing modern technology. An article, published in the Pharmaphorum on March 11, 2011, has also suggested – ‘in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an even greater need to re-examine the rep’s role. How can a field force evolve to deal with current challenges and be future-fit for the way we will be working in the post-pandemic world?’ 

There is no confusion today that MRs’ will have a key role to play in pharma’s digital endeavor. However, the key purpose of having them has evolved during the pandemic. Such as, from being an efficient way to achieve personal communication objectives – to be an orchestrator for physicians to navigate the difficult landscape, providing them a differentiated service. For this purpose, I reckon, a hybrid business model for better performance, will be more effective in the new normal, while quickly adapting to digital transformation. However, arriving at the right mix of digital and MR’s in-person interactions, may pose a challenge for many pharma marketers, as it will be a company-specific need.

Similarly, the criticality of leveraging opportunities to provide remote delivery of digital health care solutions to patients, has also come onto the radar of many pharma players, during this difficult time. Several players have already added this area as a lucrative business expansion platform – many more are expected to follow. Thus, in my view, the fast-evolving data-based trends are now giving a pragmatic shape to future pharma operations – especially on the new and unique role of medical representatives and the relevance of digital health care solutions, as a growth opportunity.

By: Tapan J. Ray   

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

How Pharma To Stay Relevant To Customers In The New Digital World

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Covid-19 vaccination has commenced in India on January 16, 2021, as in several other countries of the world. A few million Indians, across the country have already received their first shot, according to media reports. But, this isn’t the endgame of pandemic by any measure. Covid-19 will get over – only when it gets over.

Interestingly, on March 07, 2021, the Union Health Minister claimed, ‘the country is in the end game of the COVID-19 pandemic. Curiously, the very next day – the Indian Medical Association IMA termed it as: ‘Unauthorized political statements on Covid-19 pandemic invokes a false sense of security.’ Moreover, vindicating the IMA statement, the Coronavirus trend report, updated as on March 05, 2021 clearly demonstrated that ‘The pandemic is far from over.’

As a fallout of this pandemic, alongside many other nations of the world, most industries in India are going through a recovery process of disruptive changes in the business processes, after a harrowing time. Pharma industry is no exception in this area. Recreating contemporary operational processes to excel in the new normal, would call for not only jettisoning many practices from the old normal by the new ones, but also the creative deployment of the precious resources, by each pharma players.

Accordingly, the need for avant-garde digital-based customer engagement services, is gathering winds on the sails of the ships of pharma marketers, signaling a ‘never before’ urgency to move in this direction. It’s a new business imperative to survive, perform, and excel in pharma. At the same time, the industry also should examine other critical changes required in its primary interfaces with customers, in today’s fast evolving scenario.

This process would involve redefining the new roles of some critical positions in the organization. Today’s article will explore how pharma will stay relevant to its customers, increasingly getting more and more involved in the new digital practices.

Some key challenges in pharma digital strategy:

One of the key challenges for a productive ‘company – physician engagement’, in the new normal, is to be available at any preferred time of customers’ choice and the way they want. This may include, both virtual and in-person F2F engagements, along with customized contents for the same. This need is universal and, by and large, remains the same for key stakeholders of all drug companies.

This point was further reinforced, in the February 22, 2021 article on capacity building in the digital space, published in Reuters Events, Pharma. It focused on demands in new era of ‘digital-first customer engagement’, where content creation and omnichannel engagement also play equally vital roles.

Besides, the paper emphasized, today’s need is investing in the type of contents that add clinical value, as opposed to overtly commercial marketing type material. The primary task for marketers is now, therefore, to use updated, high-quality, neutral content on customer engagement platforms that will offer value – the customers are looking for – and not just values from a company’s self-serving perspective. From this angle, the new content model prompts greater customer involvement for meaningful outcomes.

In tandem, company staff members – including medical representatives, need to acquire multi-tasking expertise, being equipped with – required digital knowledge, skills on using digital platforms and ascertaining individual key customers’ engagement needs. Whereas a company’s digital strategist will work on “digital initiatives, solutions, products and how those will be integrated locally.” Thus, this is not about making everyone a digital expert, as the article underscores.

Need to redefine work processes and realigning the staff members:

As the above article from Reuters Events reconfirms, the digital approach that several pharma players were taking even a year or two ago is redundant in the new normal. Amid rapid transformation in the drug business, ‘pharmaceutical industry can no longer act like ostriches. Digital is no longer a fancy add-on, it’s an integral part of everything we do,’ the study highlighted.

Thus, to move in this direction effectively, pharma companies would require redefining many work processes and realign the staff members in sync with their new roles, accordingly. Further elaborating this point, the Accenture study – ‘A digital booster dose for health care,’ identified a few such roles that will undergo a metamorphosis to meet with post Covid challenges. Following are some, where urgent transformations required are, as follows:

 A.   ‘Intelligent representatives’ – not just ‘medical representatives’: 

In the current scenario, rep’s engagement process with the medical profession calls for leveraging specific intelligence based on behavioral preferences. This is fast emerging as a key requirement. Thus, the paper underscores: “Armed with a closed-looped CRM, representatives can effectively use data insights to plan, deliver and report calls.” I also indicated earlier – to succeed in this effort, individual skill sets, such as digital awareness and analytics will be of great use. The core objective is, looking through physicians’ eyes to understand their needs and solve problems by ‘serving customers as individuals, not as numbers in a call roster,’ the study emphasized.

B.  ‘Customer experience managers’ – not just ‘brand managers’: 

While using omnichannel digital platforms, doctor-patient interactions become more content dependent. Accordingly, brand managers’ role will be pivotal to facilitate a uniform interaction experience across all channels.

Therefore, for targeted communication, better understanding of doctors and patients and how they want to be engaged, is a key requirement. Which is why, brand managers will have to acquire skills, such as content management for continuous engagement across multiple channels. This is now absolutely necessary for effective branding in fostering a new genre of ‘customer-brand relationship’ model, across the company.

C. ‘Helping doctors manage their practice and patients better’ – not just ‘brand marketing’: 

‘Think beyond the patients’ – suggests the Accenture survey. This is because, virtualization of healthcare is all about doctors making further customizations into how they operate, both clinically (teleconsultation) and commercially (payments). This is, another important area where pharma companies can further differentiate themselves, by helping doctors manage their practice and patients better. The process entails acquiring critical skills in disease awareness, identifying key gaps that impact patient experience and clinical outcomes, alongside various digital engagement tools to perform these functions.

Conclusion:

The current year is expected to witness flooring of the gas pedal, as it were, in pharma’s digital transformation process, while navigating through humongous challenges on the way. The process includes, redefining work processes and realigning the staff members to establish a new customer-brand relationship’, based on Covid triggered changes in the customer behavior.

A quantum improvement in the usage of digital tools and platforms, alongside targeted content creation will be pivotal in pharma’s customer relationship management to excel in the changing business environment. Many doctors and patients have already signaled their acceptance for digital or virtual interactions, besides some well identified F2F engagements with relevant and personalized data-driven content as they expected from each drug company.

This need arises when one considers the findings of another Accenture Survey. It reported, while 39% of doctors want all medical representative meetings to be virtual, even post pandemic, ‘around 10% of key doctors still want to go back to pre-COVID-19 norms for in-person meetings.’ Thus, the point to ponder in this area is how to structure these F2F meetings for highly productive outcomes.

However, it’s also a reality that during Covid days, doctors wanted to interact with the Medical Reps more than what they used to do in the past. This offers a huge opportunity to drug companies in leveraging pharma rep’s interaction to accurately understand their customer-insight. Consequently, the new approach will help pharma companies, not only in staying relevant to its customers in the digital world, but also, to keep themselves prepared to face similar challenges in the future, proactively.

By: Tapan J. Ray     

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.

 

Appears On Radar New L&D Needs For Pharma’s New e-Environment

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As drug companies were desperately trying to navigate through the operational disruptions due to Covid crisis, the Learning and Development (LD) plans of most organizations, considered so important for employees, got badly impacted. This was ably captured in the article – ‘Adapting workplace learning in the time of Coronavirus’, appeared in the March 2020 issue of McKinsey Accelerate.

It highlighted, as businesses around the world postpone and cancel in-person meetings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, “workplace learning is emerging as one of the earliest and hardest-hit business activities.” The paper further elucidated: “Based on our observations as of early March, roughly one-half of in-person programs through June 30, 2020, have been postponed or canceled in North America. Whereas “in parts of Asia and Europe, the figure is closer to 100 percent.”

Interestingly, no one is talking much about it as much as the need for quick digitalization in the pharma industry, to respond to the challenge of disruptive changes. A quick return to employee L&D initiatives in the new normal, I reckon, would encourage, particularly the hands-on staff members on e-marketing to come out with more innovative digital solutions to reap a rich harvest from remote engagement with customers, on an ongoing basis.

In this article, I shall explore this area from the perspective of increasing employee productivity in the digital work environment of the new normal.

Why is L&D more relevant to pharma employees, now?

To effectively respond to post-Covid changes in customer behavior – aspirations – expectations – other market dynamics, alongside a different genre of competition, new learnings in the digital space, is critical for all employees. Which is why, it is so important for pharma players to quickly refocus on this process, just as digitalization. Without requisite digital skill development, corporate performance may look lackluster, eventually.

It is important for all to recognize that just digital transformation of business isn’t a panacea. For example, e-marketing is certainly a powerful contemporary marketing tool that a company must go for. But, it is no less important to know how making effective use of this versatile technology would appeal to individual customer emotions, with personalized content. Medical Representatives of pre-Covid days may not be generally well-versed in this area, at least, as much as they ought to – now.

Some pace-setting Indian examples in this area:

According to an article, published in leading Indian business daily on June 17, 2020, the Indian pharma major – Lupin, reportedly, used the lockdown as an opportunity to train its sales teams on medical acumen, soft skills, disease knowledge, effective communication etc. They conducted over 200 sessions using Microsoft Teams. In some sessions, the attendance count reached 8000 people.

As the article points out, using digital tools and platforms, the company reps were enabled to record a video of brand detailing and share it with the doctors who can view it as per his or her convenience. It also says, ‘Lupin team reached out to more than 1 lakh doctors through live webinars, ECMEs, e-mailers, webinars to update them with the latest medical and therapeutic advancements.’

The core idea of this initiative is undoubtedly worth imbibing, although, it is still not clear to many, how effective were those digital marketing strategies in the form as it has been described.

The new e-environment needs new sets of L&D models:

From the above perspective, the take home message, I reckon, is - in pharma’s new normal, digitalization isn’t just about a modern and contemporary technology. It is much more profound – signifies the criticality of credible data-based, novel decision-making process, offering high yield solutions to complex sets of disruptive problems in business.  Consequently, now appears on the radar a new set of L&D needs for the new e-environment of the pharma industry.

Ramifications of e-environment changes in pharma business: 

Many studies have pointed out to a number of changes in pharma industry’s e-environment, in the new normal. Just to give a sense of such mega changes, let me quote another recent paper in this regard. The paper on ‘Telehealth’, published by McKinsey & Company on May 29, 2020, writes: “Our claims-based analysis suggests that approximately 20 percent of all emergency room visits could potentially be avoided via virtual urgent care offerings, 24 percent of health care office visits and outpatient volume could be delivered virtually, and an additional 9 percent “near-virtually.”

The paper further adds, ‘up to 35 percent of regular home health attendant services could be virtualized, and 2 percent of all outpatient volume could be shifted to the home setting, with tech-enabled medication administration.’ These changes will overall add up to US$250 billion in healthcare spend in 2020 that could be shifted to virtual or near-virtual care, or 20 percent of all office, outpatient, and home health-spend across all types of health care, the paper highlights.

Although, this article was written against the US pharma industry backdrop, considering the current Indian government’s strong push on telemedicine – as a facilitator, one may envisage similar changes in India too, over a period of time.  

Covid-19 could still be a long-haul battle, pharma should be prepared for it:

Echoing this sentiment, ‘The Washington Post’ flashed a headline in its February 10, 2021: ‘Variants mean the coronavirus is here to stay — but perhaps as a lesser threat.’ Elaborating the point, it said: ‘In early December, the end of the pandemic glimmered on the horizon. Blockbuster vaccine results suggested a clear path forward.’ However, thereafter, ‘the euphoria dissipated,’ as mutation-ridden variants of Covid-19 with concerning new characteristics were detected. ‘The path forward is still hopeful, but longer and more labyrinthine’, the news report added.

It is now becoming increasingly clear that Covid-19 variants can slip past some of the immunity generated by vaccines and prior infections.  Vaccines may have to be updated, perhaps regularly. And the world will have to prepare for the possibility, even the likelihood, that over the long term, the novel coronavirus will become a persistent disease threat.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O) also confirmed this point on January 21, 2021. It said, ‘Yes, this is a very important point that vaccine developers keep in mind. Covid-19 vaccines could possibly be like vaccines against the influenza virus, where ‘scientists have to change the structure of the vaccine every year, based on the circulating strains and WHO coordinates this global network that actually identifies which strain should be used every year.’

Conclusion:

The bottom line, therefore, is, no one can vouch with any degree of certainty, as on date, when exactly Covid crisis will get over completely, despite Covid-19 vaccines being available now. At the same time, even after several disruptive covid related changes in business, the need for rapid adjustment to further changes of similar in nature and scale, may continue to exist.

To properly understand these changes, their implications on business, impact on customers, re-engineering needs of marketing strategies and then thrive, are of fundamental importance. Thus, along with on-the-job learning, contemporary e-learning of employees – is a critical success ingredient for both individual and organizational development, especially in the dynamic digital environment.

It is worth noting that digital initiatives are not confined to modern tech-based apps and platforms. The basic prerequisite of any digital marketing strategy is to understand the versatility of its power and core values. This is essential to effectively influence customer behavior and their expectations, for creating a sustainable ‘doctor-patient- brand or corporate relationship. That’s why L&D remains a critical tool for capacity building, even for e-marketing. It will help ensure, employees are able to deliver expected deliverables by successfully meeting newer challenges in the digital space, in sync with the organizational expectations and goals, in the new normal.

Today, when digitalization has become a buzz word for pharma’ success – occupying virtually everybody’s entire mind space, also appears on the radar today new L&D needs for the new e-environment to make digitalization work, paying rich dividend to the business.

By: Tapan J. Ray      

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own, written in my individual and personal capacity. I do not represent any other person or organization for this opinion.