Who’s Role Is It? There is an issue that started several years ago in the pharmaceutical industry and is still continuing today — a lack of clear cut roles and responsibilities. In an effort to get the best decisions made in the pharmaceutical industry, input from all areas is critical. For example, a company can not have drug development alone make the decisions as to what indications it gets. Therefore the development of teams has become quite prevalent. However, as teams are created, the team members are taken away from their “department” and deployed to the team. This takes away their base of “institu tional memory” and the experts who can help them. To offset this problem, most companies still have some sort of dotted line from the deployed personnel to the department. The hope is that the department can still assist the deployed person in getting the job done well. Without clear cut roles and responsibilities defined, understood, accepted by all, the implementation of this model is doomed for failure. It can work if properly defined, under stood, and accepted by all. The results of less than welldefined, understood, accepted roles and responsibilities are many: Who is responsible for deciding what to do (team leader, team, team member, depart ment)? Who is responsible for deciding how to do a certain task (team leader, team, team mem ber, department)? Who manages the budget? How are decisions made? Who is involved in the decisions? Who has the final say in decisions? Are there any appeals available for decisions? How does a deployed person split his/her reporting relationship? Who does his/her review, bonus calculations, recommends pro motion, etc.? Who makes the decisions on issues that cross over several teams? Who is looking at ways to optimize the company resources (higherlevel view across all teams)? What is the role and responsibility of the department if all of its people are deployed? Is a department needed? How can the deployed resources get imme diate input into their decisions from their department if the department is in another building or site — often split between many deployed resources and perhaps the opinion is not wanted by the team? Team members in an effort to get “buy in” for decisions, often hold meetings to get input from all and to get team consensus. In my pre vious experience (backed up by a threemonth survey of actual meetings from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) the average time spent in meetings was five to six hours per day. This leaves very little time to do the actual work except after hours, on weekends, etc. To accomplish the work, more and more responsibility is being put on “external part ners,” which results in less internal institu tional memory, higher budgets, and the inter nal personnel being relegated to project managers. As a former employee Director of a Team and a Functional Unit of Astra Merck, (Astra, AstraZeneca), the first major company to truly try to implement the team/functional unit concept, I have seen the positives and nega tives from both points of view. It can work, but it requires a lot of work in defining, understanding, and accepting clear roles and responsibilities. However, often in our haste to get the job done, very little is done on roles and responsibilities. Sal Guerriero PRESIDENT WANAMAKER EDUCATIONAL SERVICES AND WANAMAKER MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS OPINIONS What keeps you up at night?
In the November/December issue, PharmaVOICE asked readers what drives them to succeed, what are their hopes, frustrations, satisfactions, and fears? What are the issues that are most pressing as they face myriad business challenges, and not only because of a tough economy. Executives are being asked to serve as company leaders,visionaries, and strategists.They are being asked to become change agents for their division,group,or corporation.These activities require time and committed focus because they determine the success or failure of their business.
PharmaVOICE asked how these executives are adapting to these new paradigms. Chemistry Set With respect to running an agency, what keeps me up at night is making sure there is the right match and chemistry between the personalities of our agency teams and our clients’ teams. Everything from working style, personality, communication style, and experi ence on both sides can have such a significant impact on how effectively and efficiently those teams interact. Finding the right synergy is critical. When one gets it right, it can yield a marvelous working relationship.
Mark Perlotto VP, MANAGING DIRECTOR ADAIRGREENE HEALTHCARE COMMUNICATIONS Driving Sensibly For someone who only averages 4 to 6 hours of sleep a night, this was an interesting question. Some of my staff may consider me a “work oholic.” I prefer driven. What drives me is a desire to solve prob lems, and knock down challenges that others have not. To build a communication company that proves people are the real resource, and that these creative individuals build profits, not organizations. However, these drivers are not what defines me. What defines me is my family. My ability to partner with my wife to raise our two small children (Morgan 2 1/2, and JR 6 months) to be good caring people in a world that occa sionally goes mad. To provide them with the emotional security so they are comfortable and confident to take on life’s challenges. To let them know that it is ok to be happy. To let them define their happiness. John J. Racik GENERAL MANAGER SENTRIX GLOBAL HEALTH COMMUNICATIONS A YOUNG & RUBICAM COMPANY WHAT’S on your mind The Strong Survive 2001 has been a fascinating year for the phar ma business arena, but then again the great thing about pharma is that it never stands still. Currently, the biggest business satisfaction must be that as many other market categories are suffering stalled or negative growth, our industry is still creating rising sales (+10% globally and a fantastic +16% in the U.S.). My allied hope is that the turnround for the economies of the West does come before the latter part of 2002. Overall, I would like to see that some ini tiatives proposed by the European Union aimed at stimulating growth and investment for pharmaceuticals come to full fruition. I am thinking specifically of the proposal to reduce EMEA approval times to 9 months and the experimental relaxation of regulation for DTC, or at least the recognition of DTC, in diabetes, HIV and chronic respiratory. Togeth er, both would improve the strength of the European market and hence overall stimulate more evenly balanced global competitiveness and growth. The leadership challenges we face are about maturation of prescription medicines to become truly sustainable global brands, and the need for handinhand development of the manaufacturer’s corporate brands to become trusted and respected with consumers in the same way that other great global companies are. Finally, my personal “brand of the year” has to be the United States of America. September 11 demonstrated just how much brand capital the U.S. has and how that was released around the world in friendship, respect, and admira tion for the people of the U.S. Leigh Featherstone EVP GLOBAL BUSINESS GROUP HEALTHWORLD It’s a Small World These are the same questions Sir Martin Sor rell asked each of us just after he bought the Young and Rubicam Group. Drivers: Supporting/protecting/providing for my family is the No. 1 driver, closely fol lowed by a personal quirk of finding satisfac tion in fixing things/solving problems. Frustrations/fears: Not being there to pro vide all the answers. Not being able to stay ahead of all the issues, to proactively see the shifting dynamics of the marketplace. Issues: Most of us never imagined we’d actually be in positions as company leaders, visionaries — there’s a scary thought! — strategists, change agents, etc. It’s sometimes frightening to think about all the things we still need to learn to help both our clients, as well as our employees to grow; whether it’s their products and their bottom lines or our own employees growth and development. Keeping pace, or trying to stay ahead, of all the aspects our jobs is an ongoing learning process. Sometimes we’re so wrapped up in our own little worlds that we forget that our peers face the same challenges with both their profes sional and personal lives. It’s only when we get together at various professional or personal functions that we are reminded that our worlds are much the same. Jed Beitler CHAIRMAN AND CEO, WORLDWIDE SUDLER & HENNESSEY Point Spread The amount of time drug companies waste using Paper rather than EDC. Did I remember to remove my radio from my car? Achieving crystal clarity in a twoword e mail subject heading to ensure my message will be read. Conveying the importance of our product offering to MD.s, Ph.D.s, CPAs, and MBAs. How long have my clothes been at the dry cleaner? Will Michigan win this weekend? Preston T. Moritz DIRECTOR, GLOBAL MARKETING ARACCEL CORP. Changing Channels One thing that concerns me is whether all the money being spent in DTC advertising is truly helping patients — helping them stay compliant and helping them stay healthy. Spending great sums of money in traditional mass advertising may build awareness for brands, but we need to go beyond this with messages that are directly relevant and mean ingful to the patient. Targeting messages to patients based on their illness or prescription drug is an essential step in effectively educating patients. Ed Rhoads SENIOR VP OF NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT HEALTH RESOURCE Patients Are a Virtue What is heartening to me, is the recent upswing among pharma companies that are embracing a database driven patient recruitment strategy, which allows superior targeting of patients with less cost andproject risk, as opposed to the front loaded media strategy of years past. Mark Eisenach CEO ACURIAN INC. Balancing Act Balancing personal and professional demands. While the company I work for is unique in its willingness to provide flexible work opportu nities, at the same time, the world has indeed changed. I find there is far more to think about from both a personal and professional perspec tive, and this added pressure makes it more dif ficult to feel as if you’re doing your personal best in any role. Inevitably, one needs to make choices —and those choices don’t come with out lost sleep! It’s never been easy to wear mul tiple hats, but on top of that, today each hat alone doesn’t fit quite the same as it used to. Eleanor Petigrow CHANDLER CHICCO AGENCY Surfing My business keeps me up at night, often with concerns about how pharmaceutical marketers perceive the Internet. Among them is that mar keters will fail to recognize the branding oppor tunities the Web offers, relying on it solely for directresponse campaigns. This perception could, and already is, harming many market ingbased ehealth initiatives, resulting in the loss of one of the most costeffective massmar keting tools industry leaders have. My hope is that marketers will begin to appreciate and use the Web to its full potential. Ash Nashed, M.D. PRESIDENT AND CEO MDCHOICE.COM INC. Goal Line Meeting financial goals in an environment where some clients are treating agencies like substitutable commodities. Joe Torre CEO AND CHAIRMAN TORRE LAZURMCCANN HEALTHCARE WORLDWIDE Details, Details, Details Ensuring that all the myriad details of various projects are taken care of, meeting deadlines, and still having time to plan; seeing the big picture and staying focused on strategy. Juvy Raguini PRODUCT MANAGER DEY L.P. Jolt Caffeine. Mark Sackler SALESMANAGER DELPHIAN TECHNOLOGY 9 PharmaVOICE J a n u a r y / F e b r u a r y 2 0 02