Happy Friday! As expected, I got tons of emails on last week’s post “So does Pharma NEED to change?” People were simply confused (or maybe did not read the last paragraph) but in any case.. I want to put it on record again - the industry IS changing and NEEDS to continue to change. Someone I spoke to just earlier today did refer to the typical example of Kodak - they were making healthy margins.. until they were not. suddenly..
Things happen “Gradually and then suddenly” -from Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Sun Also Rises
As I expected, Paul Simms had a lot to say about last week’s post but you will need to scroll further down to read his deep thoughts but for now a short teaser on “We Have Always done it this way”
The biggest challenge for me personally, but I am sure for many other intrapreneurs is the proverbial “We have always done it this way” and a sudden realization that “but this could actually work” does not convince anyone to change anything.
One thing that needs to be remembered is that an astounding 85% of employees are NOT engaged in the workplace according to the latest Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace. 85%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Look around and 8-9 co-workers around you generally don’t care. Good summary of the report here
Note: Actual Rebel sticker :) Be a Rebel Ninja! ☝️☝️☝️
So whats next? When it comes to moving shit forward, one has to take some calculated risks, build your tribe and don’t ask for permission. Be a Rebel Ninja!
Now for Paul’s wisdom:
Fuck no: If pharma execs want their next bonus and don’t want to rock the boat, and that means sucking every last penny from their customers in the short term, then they don’t need to change one bit. Because the traditional model still works. Hey, a lot of companies still increased margins on older products during 2020.
Fuck yes: Or, if you care about the longer term, maybe take the same attitude as Jeff Bezos did. When announcing his Q1 results in 2020, investors thought they were going to have a field day. The entire world had been shut down, $2 trillion of stimulus checks had been sent to American households (many of whom didn’t need them) and pretty much the only game still in town was eCommerce and cloud computing. Perfect storm for Amazon.
But then Jeff told investors to ‘take a seat’. Because that $4bn extra revenue was going straight back into the company, to create the Covid-secure supply chain, to double down on tech investments, and to hire more staff (an average 4500 per day since March 2020, pushing overall headcount from 600k to 1.3m).
Because this was the perfect opportunity to serve customers better, invest in finding new forms of value, create a new type of relationship with stakeholders. Joe Jimenez said to me in October that for the first time, those outside R&D need to take responsibility for innovation – R&D takes a decade to pivot and the rest of us need to (a) focus on chronic disease, and (b) find new ways to plug the value gap. Like with digital health.
The truth is, in pharma, our customers are still struggling. HCPs are having a tough time. Telemedicine is only delivering a mediocre experience. So yeah, the whole Digital Health industry might be a small proportion of revenues of a single blockbuster today. But what will it mean to be a pharma company in the future? Are we patient-centric or are we really just science-centric? I tell you, Amazon sees a lot of opportunity in the areas that pharma is blind to. As do others…
Till Next Time,
If you are also swallowing the hard pill or know a colleague who is , do me a huge favor and forward this or hit the “Share” buttons conveniently placed all around this post.