Major behavioural change programs require strong strategic and communication support to achieve long-term success. Trying to implement a change program between company divisions can be a mighty challenge, whereby strategic and cultural differences can hamper even the most well-intentioned efforts to collaborate. I was closely involved with developing and implementing a number of cross-divisionally multi-facetted change programs including large company wide communication campaigns. One of which won an internal communication award for ‘Achievement in Communications Excellence’ as well as an HR award in the “Culture & Energy” category.

Faced with the need to reduce expenses (do more with less) I led a team charged with exploring a way to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Marketing investment. Most Pharma companies struggle with identifying the level and drivers of efficiency and effectiveness of the Marketing Mix. For this multinational company the solution was the rollout of a Marketing Mix Platform to support country organisations in their decision making, ensuring the mix sufficiently covered key customers and consumers. The platform supported Key Strategic imperatives and improved the transparency on spending across functions (Marketing, Sales and Clinical). The implementation required intense Change Management as the transparency allowed Country, Regional and Global organizations to criticize the Brand Teams strategy and execution. Transparency improved strategic discussions.

Large clinical trials, often costing tens of millions of dollars, are a standard requirement from regulatory authorities in the drug-approval process. However additional evidence is requested by other stakeholders in the Health Care system to allow for effective negotiations with reimbursement authorities as well as for formulary listings. The biggest hurdles teams responsible for the development of a product face, are that they don’t start from the same platform across functions and between Headquarters and Country organisations to address the needs of all external stakeholders . I was instrumental in implementing a robust process which includes early input of multiple functions – such as Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Clinical Development, Marketing and Pricing and Market Access to ensure availability of data evidence for all stakeholders: Registration and Brand Optimization Strategies. The resulting program effectively provides the power of data for successful market access and penetration of brands.

For a large Pharmaceutical Company, to support cost savings and tighter headcount control, we explored the opportunity for outsourcing certain global and local marketing activities by leveraging the use of centers of excellence based in India. This required both a paced change-management program as well as a process to identify those activities. A phased roll-out allowed marketing teams to bridge cultural and functional obstacles and develop working relationships with highly qualified teams to ensure deliverables matched expectations and demand.