Is 'collaboration' more than just another buzz word? How can tapping into our innate instinct to collaborate help your team achieve incredible results?
Collaboration is one of many buzzwords in the life sciences world right now. And as a leader, it can be hard to know which particular trend to focus on and invest in.
But unlike employee experience or HR design, collaboration is intricately connected to survival. It’s a primal instinct. Animals intuitively know that working in a group drastically improves their chances of getting fed — and staying alive.
Humans, however, are a little more complex, particularly when it comes to the workplace. Deep down most people realise that many heads are better than one. We’ve all experienced the exciting buzz of a successful collaboration, yet all too often employees are operating in a culture that fosters internal competition and personal gain.
I see this happen in most industries, but the issue is particularly prominent in the life sciences sector.
Why does this matter?
Because collaboration is arguably the only way pharmaceutical companies will succeed in this rapidly changing environment.
What’s wrong with the current organisational structure of pharmaceutical companies?
Despite the paradigm-shifting disruption of the last few years, most pharmaceutical organisations continue to operate in distinct silos. R&D create new products, sales own the clinician relationship and medical affairs are rolled out whenever the salesperson requires scientific support. Everyone knows their role — and heaven help the employee that dares to step outside their remit.
I often speak to pharmaceutical leaders who justify this siloed structure by reminding me of its success over the last twenty years. But this is exactly where the problem lies. We’re no longer operating in an industry that’s the same as it was twenty years ago. In fact, the sales process of 2022 bears virtually no resemblance to the sales process of even two years ago.
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 catapulted the sector into a vastly different working environment. But even pre-pandemic, McKinsey had acknowledged the impact of digital transformation (and data availability) on traditional prescribing behaviour.
"Advanced analytics of patient data have become central—for example, to support decision making on product use and to demonstrate patient value in a real life setting”1
When that McKinsey report was written in 2019, clinicians were already seeking greater value from their interactions with pharmaceutical partners. Now, the ubiquity of Zoom means that resource-stretched clinicians simply won’t entertain face-to-face meetings unless they’re guaranteed a meaningful and personalised interaction.
Clinicians are seeking conversations that stretch way beyond the point of prescription. They want to engage with scientific experts that understand the entire patient journey and have the ability to make personalised and patient-focused recommendations — in an increasingly complex therapeutic arena.
This requires a skillset that a sales representative alone cannot deliver. And it’s the reason why it’s critical that Medical Affairs gains a seat at the strategic table.
Why Siloed Organisations Prevent Growth
Working in silos fails to recognise the needs of both the clinician and the patient. True clinician-centricity can only occur when R&D, Market Access, Sales, Marketing and Medical Affairs are working in harmony.
For many many life science companies, this will require a significant organisational shift — from a siloed to a collaborative structure. And as most leaders know, cultural change is never easy.
But if you get it right, everyone will win. I’ve worked with enough leaders within this space to see the impact of programs such as these on both employee and clinician engagement — and ultimately on business performance. Incredible things happen when teams shift from internal competitiveness to a state of collaborative flow.
So as a life sciences leader, what can you do now to ensure a thriving (and profitable) collaborative and customer-centric culture in the years to come?
