Flawless Execution The most successful brand and product managers are the ones who look to their suppliers as partners rather than just “vendors” of a narrowly defined product or service. Kathleen A. Bonetti VP of Marketing LeveragePoint Media/Rx EDGE Raise Your Voice — Letters
More than a vendor
I just read the article contributed by Mike Miller in the October issue of PharmaVOICE: “Flawless Execution is Critical to Marketing Success.” I completely agree with the points Mr. Miller made. The most successful brand and product managers are the ones who look to their suppliers as partners rather than just “vendors” of a narrowly defined product or service. Most of these companies have extensive industry expertise that’s been built from years of working with a multitude of manufacturers, brands, and therapeutic categories. Marketing and brand managers can — and should — leverage this knowledge to maximize their product’s success. Mr. Miller rightly points out that suppliers can be “an extended team of brand champions committed to driving brand growth.” A successful brand is the shared goal of all involved. Kathleen A. Bonetti VP of Marketing LeveragePoint Media/Rx EDGE Editor’s note: Please note that the correct Web address for Healthcare Fulfillment Services is hfslogistics.com. The URL printed in connection with Mike Miller’s article on page 76 of the October issue of PharmaVOICE was incorrect. We apologize for the error and any inconvenience this may have caused. Brave new world? Feeling a little under the weather, I posted my symptoms on md-bay.com to solicit bids for treatment; within a short while, Doctor Jones offered the best price on my auction. I checked out his bedside manner on casebook.com — you can never be too careful on the Internet — and logged on for a video consultation. I had my e-prescription in minutes. Now, if I could just find some way of filtering my e-mail inbox of all those generic substitution offers from froogle-pharma.com. Jim Haupt, Ph.D. Associate Creative Director, Copy AbelsonTaylor Reward, incentivize, and recognize innovation Research-and-development-stage companies often have the organizational flexibility to allow employees to allocate a percentage of their time to support innovation. Encouraging employees to spend flexible work time in crossfunctional, hybrid teams can be a powerful tool to facilitate innovation. Rewards might include: public acknowledgement of success at company meetings, extra vacation time, or gift certificates depending on corporate culture. Access to a discretionary budget to fund projects that may deliver exceptional value for the company can also be a powerful incentive for leaders within an organization. Karen L. Moynihan, Ph.D. Associate Professor Keck Graduate Institute Vendors going green too Going green is more than just a trend; it’s a commitment to a business philosophy that includes looking beyond our own walls. The truly conscientious and committed turn to their business partners — vendors and service providers — to share the responsibility of operating in environmentally responsible ways. Good business partners are ready to accept that responsibility when it is extended to them — great partners take on the responsibility proactively. For more than 35 years, Nimlok, a display and trade show exhibit company, has set the pace in the exhibit industry by producing sound and sustainable display and exhibit solutions in the United States and abroad. Perhaps because of the temporary nature of trade shows, the industry has been considered wasteful. As you’ve seen yourself when you’ve worked or walked a trade show, a tremendous amount of resources go into its production — power, water, carpeting and décor and, of course, the exhibits themselves. We take an active and serious role in helping our clients achieve their goal to “go green.” We focus on ensuring we create exhibits that maximize recycling content. Our new designs specifically include components that are produced using easily and commonly recycled materials including aluminum, polyethylene, and cardboard. As a result, approximately 95% of the materials in our new designs can be recycled. We also have instituted an exhibit recycling program, designed to keep old exhibits out of landfill sites. At the end of an exhibit’s life, our clients are invited to return it to Nimlok. We will then sort the components by content and return them to the recycle stream, at no additional cost to our clients. It’s simply a part of the total exhibiting solution that Nimlok provides. Simon Perutz President Nimlok