Pharma has kept its engine running for a long time without annual service maintenance and it is quite likely that few of them got seized via Merger and Acquisition. Though many of the companies were prudent to change their wheels with organic and inorganic rubber, most of them were hesitant to do the necessary frequent change of oil.
Digital as an oil, has not only lubricated the growth engines of pharma but also harmonized its digital gears (Websites / E- Commerce / Apps ) and clutch plate i.e. closed loop marketing (CLM) platforms for optimal performance. The initial experience of many business drivers (Sales and Marketing) with these new growth pedals has been varied, as most of them have been driving off-road and often losing direction midway (suboptimal outcomes).
The current unprecedented environment has transformed this digital OIL into a new and fertile SOIL where pharma can now sow the seed of new “Pedigree” of WorkCentre – “DigiTree” that would bear fruits of productivity (Faster Decision Making, Actionable Insights, Quicker Iterations and Higher Throughput).
The seeds (Digital Data) of this tree have to be personally sown by the senior management and watered regularly by the various cross functional teams and stakeholders with seasonal pruning and weeding by the operational team (Sales and Marketing).
The good thing about the new found soil (Digital Transformation) is that it provides a prospect for all companies to plant their own variety of DigiTree that would either provide shade (operational efficiency) or bear fruits (better customer experience).
As normal, any new plant will require the right mix of sunlight , water , oxygen , nitrogen etc; for optimal growth, likewise this Digitree would require the following:
Data Culture: Most pharma companies have the HIPPO (Highest Paid Person’s Opinion) culture.
Data culture is a decision culture – amassing a large volume of data is NOT a viable data culture but analyzing and adopting the large data for making better decisions is.
This culture has to be watered top down by the top management, that encourages data driven conversation between decision makers and analytical leaders for imbibing new initiatives. The business outcomes have to be predefined for successful digital change management.
Process: Digital is like a perpetual rain that needs to be harvested – in a nutshell capture, process and democratise data. It is important to identify and capture all data points where there is even the slightest potential opportunity to make decisions, it can be anything from business application, product application, monitoring system, distribution channels, customer interaction points, or third party data providers.
The most critical being the ease of access (single source of truth – transparency) which is accessible to all relevant stakeholders for decision making without compromising data governance and privacy (Personal and Patient Sensitive data).
Infrastructure: Is the bedrock that holds the digital soil firmly, and this can be either physical storage or cloud-based platforms but most importantly, should be adaptable and expandable to meet business needs. The business tools are like gardening sickles (need to be the best in class) for analyzing and visualizing data, thus making complex data easy to understand and comprehend for different stakeholders.
Talent: Is like the new buds required for the organization that can toil the SOIL for meaningful insights (Data Scientist / Data Engineers and Analytics). They need to build mechanisms to capture organization data into a common platform for informed decision making.
Experimentation: Like crop rotation, digitalization needs experimentation where you need to create and test new hypothesis and success metrics. Like others, digital initiatives also need to undergo cycle of learning and iteration for success and business outcomes.
Value: Ultimately, it is the value – either in the form of shade (operational efficiency ) or fruits (better customer experience) that would be the differentiating factor. These must be predefined and should always be aligned with the business objectives like, Revenue Growth, Cost Reduction or Customer Satisfaction.
So, friends it’s time to take out your digital shovel and start digging for DIGITREE.
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