THE LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE FOR CLINICAL DEVELOPMENT
“When understanding human beings becomes more than essential”
In the 21st century, society is evolving faster than ever before with a wider globalization, the entry of digital generations into the workforce, the development of new technologies as Artificial Intelligence and the urgency of protecting our planet as a result of COVID-19. Therefore, a new kind of leadership is needed to face all these rapid changes. How companies’ leaders will embrace this mutation? Moreover, how a critical and former industry as pharmaceutical will adapt to this new state? [1]
Consider three dimensions applied to a clinical development process: developing and setting up a digital business transformation, inspiring people while working remotely and taking advantage of digital solutions to protect our planet.
1. SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: WHERE TO BEGIN?
Digital transformation is about talent, vision and leadership [2]. Technology is only the tool to implement the leadership vision. The most successful leaders are those who will anticipate, drive, and embrace the digital changes. Good leaders will be those who will have the vision to transform business by adopting the digital turn. And this is particularly true in the pharmaceutical industry environment, future leaders will have to quickly drive their teams towards this ecosystem change.
Taking our example of the clinical development of a new drug, digital solutions are shaking the traditional clinical development model bending the time and cost curve. But this is not all, digital solutions will change the relationship ecosystem between the clinical development team, healthcare professionals and patients. Faster hospitals and patients’ recruitment solutions will drive cost and time savings. Smarter & digital data collection tools will reduce burden on physicians. Biosensors, mobile application, connected watches will closely monitor patients and adopt a more patience centric solution. Getting access to different types of data (social media, big data, machine learning) will improve data reliability and strengthen healthcare decision. Clinical studies for COVID-19 treatments and vaccines widely opened the doors to this new digital era and removed some regulatory hurdles.
The next pharmaceutical leaders will have to understand this new ecosystem and be able to build tailored made solutions using the full scale of these digital tools. The pharmaceutical leaders will have to instill the subject matter experts & technology team with a clear vision to remain at the top of the edge in terms of innovation ensuring the company resilience in this competitive landscape.
2. MANAGING TEAMS REMOTELY: THE KEY
As it becomes obvious future leaders will need to re-invent their way of motivating teams as a consequence of adopting digital solutions on a daily basis. Leaders will identify added value activities for physicians and service providers employees while developing pride and gratitude for working on a highly multi-functional team. Leaders will be judged on their ability to drive this new digital change by trusting younger generations of pharmaceutical companies and service providers employees, as millennials and generation Z. In a near future, this population will educate patients and healthcare providers to use biosensors and mobile applications.
Working remotely means creating a new organization which allows collaboration by using virtual solutions. In order to maintain the same level of engagement, leaders will show passion for their mission and empathy to understand people emotions and constraints. Defining communication channels [3] in advance as calls or video-conferences at the beginning of the clinical development process between pharmaceutical companies and service providers will give a boost to the study which could be done more efficiently.
As pharmaceuticals transition to digital, using Big Data & Artificial Intelligence in several steps in the process as for example to identify the right sites to recruit patients and therefore saving time and money, leaders need to energize the whole company by sustaining the people and installing a caring culture. Teams working remotely will also require a more deliberative focus on openness, respect and courage [4].
3. PROTECTING OUR PLANET: THE WAY TO DO IT USING DIGITAL SOLUTIONS
There are positive outcomes from each crisis. The main positive impact of the COVID-19 confinement is the breath we gave to our planet and nature. Most of the companies have learned how to work differently using more digital communication tools and have realized that they can keep the same level of productivity with employees working from home. People realized that working from home was an opportunity to build even stronger relationships with their colleagues and save time spent in transportation. Leaders have to think about how at their levels they can reduce the carbon footprint of their teams by traveling less or differently, meeting online and working remotely while improving the work-life balance of their teams. Regarding our clinical development example, digital solutions will also have a positive impact on earth as the new model will require less travels from patients to the hospitals using telemedicine, mobile applications to collect data from the patients use of biosensors and connected watches. In the same way, less travels on the pharmaceutical companies or service providers’ side would be required. This new model will help to keep the focus on essential data to be collected and allow for more remote work with new types of interactions in this healthcare ecosystem.
Leaders will have to clearly communicate to their teams the positive impact of their actions and convince their team to adopt strong and long term green behaviors in their daily job. Leaders will also have to find a way to challenge the new generation and make sure they can inspire new “green” solutions to the companies.
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
As an outcome of this new era of digitalization in drug industry, the definition of leadership needs to be updated [5]. We need humble leaders to motivate teams as physicians or service providers employees, to talk to patients and most of all, to understand others. This requires to building a new more collaborative work environment in which each stakeholder trust each other. A leader will be a passionate open-minded person able to have a vision of the future of medicine and to meet the high expectations of the industry empowering their teams to do their best in any event.
Raquel NAVALON DE LA ROSA is a digital advisor for international companies and a leader in transformation digital programs.
Loïc DARTOIS is a Senior Account Director in the Healthcare industry with a strong background in clinical development processes.
Raquel NAVALON DE LA ROSA and Loïc DARTOIS are also Executive MBA Candidates 2021 at ESSEC Business School. This article has been written for the Leadership Challenge 2030 course, given by Michaela Merk.
References:
[1] Drug Development Process: https://www.nebiolab.com/drug-discovery-and-development-process/
[2] Harvard Business Review, digital transformation is about talent not technology: https://hbr.org/2020/05/digital-transformation-is-about-talent-not-technology
[3] McKinsey, a blueprint for remote working:
[4] McKinsey, revisiting agile teams after an abrupt shift to remote: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/revisiting-agile-teams-after-an-abrupt-shift-to-remote
[5] McKinsey, redefining the role of the leader in the reskilling era: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/redefining-the-role-of-the-leader-in-the-reskilling-era