You have to check out this interview with Carolyn Buck Luce, global pharma leader at Ernst & Young, that appeared on Feb 10th in PharmaExec. Carolyn discusses the E&Y report dubbed Pharma 3.0 that predicts changes for the future operating state of the pharmaceutical industry.
One predicted change that resonates strongly with me is the need to move from a product centric approach to one that is customer-centric. This is a challenge we've been working on as a supplier for the last several years. The real key is how do you operatonalize customer centricity? Carolyn's response,
It's less about how my business model changes, and more about how my model fits into the business model of nontraditional players coming into the healthy model space. Those players are IT players, data information players, retailers, insurers, consumer products companies, telecommunications companies. The core of this industry has been innovation and it will stay innovation, but the bulk of the money and the effort has been in the innovation of the product pipeline. What we are seeing going forward is the need for innovation of the commercial model in order to be able to respond to the mega changes of healthcare reform globall
I concur that the challenge is not in how you deliver your product but how do you identify and deliver appropriate solutions to the customers issues almost independent of the particular product that you happen to be talking about. It becomes much more of an issue as to how to best collaborate with your customers, and how to maintain good internal communication and coordination around projects, and good communication with and integration of solutions with customers. This definitely requires a culture shift from product centricity and a rewiring of internal thought and delivery processes. It almost out of necessity requires that new capabilities be accessed through relationships with 3rd parties to "create and deliver the solutons."
If you can make that transition, you become a much better business partner for your customers and more formidable competitor in the market.
Posted by Bruce Lehr Feb 12, 2010
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