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Pharma Career Advice

Sleeping with the enemy: the hidden risks of M&As
14-Aug-17
The pharma and biotech sectors are awash with activity. Large and mid-sized firms are forecast for a strong and sustained uptick in deal activity, with 2017 already being hailed as a record year for pharma M&A by industry commentators like EY. But it’s no secret that the difference between a successful M&A and a failed one is often intangible, with a string of notable horror stories overshadowing the history of such transactions. The innumerable logistical, cultural and strategic challenges involved in making an integration work don’t paint the whole picture. Alongside all the ...

Engendering a resilient culture
08-Aug-17
Dean Becker, co-founder of Adaptiv Learning Systems reaffirmed the thoughts of many experts when he said” “More than education, more than experience, more than training, a person’s level of resilience will determine who succeeds and who fails.” So, what does this mean for us as individuals and employers, and what practical steps can we take to create and nurture a culture of resilience? A resilient organisation is one where strategy, process and decision making are aligned. This promotes a flexible, mature culture where individuals take ownership; and leadership can be devolved across teams ...

Negotiation In a time of change
09-May-17
In the pharma industry the one business dynamic we can all be confident in over the coming years is change. Political change, market disrupters such as the way we utilise technology and the innovation of new market solutions. Operating in a forward-thinking industry requires not only strong business acumen but the foresight to recognise the critical changes ahead, the enablers which are often business partnerships, relationships or contracts and how as a business leader you can best prepare your teams for such inevitabilities. If we accept that our job is to realise strategies ...

Ten things to know before becoming an interim manager
09-May-17
The interim management industry provides an often hidden, but essential role supporting the UK economy. Interims are proven executives who can be deployed on a short-term basis to support an organisation during a period of change, transition or crisis. Why people make the switch Changing career can be a daunting prospect, particularly for those who have been in similar roles throughout their working life. For many professionals, jumping in to an interim lifestyle is a great opportunity to take control over their own career, become their own boss, adopt a better work-life balance and ...

Nurturing talent
09-May-17
In the book of business buzz-phrases, ‘employee engagement’ occupies a pretty sizeable chapter. And, over the past decade, it’s a chapter that’s become incredibly well-thumbed. But are its virtues translating to the workplace? Perhaps not. In 2013, a Gallup study of the global workplace found that just 13% of employees felt ‘engaged’ with their work. More recently, a Virgin Pulse study revealed that around 70% of the American workforce is disengaged, pointing out that less-engaged employees are four times more likely to quit their job. The cost of replacing disengaged employees is, of ...

People have the power
08-May-17
What is the secret to engaging employees? A selection of sandwiches from Pret a Manger is often the first response of those who rank employee engagement and internal communication low on their priority list. A free meal pretty much ensures good attendance at a lunchtime talk, doesn’t it? This may well be true, but for the savvy communicator the answer is far more complex. Employee engagement has a return on investment as meaningful as the marketing and sales targets that keep pharma execs awake at night. Employees are brand ambassadors. Engaged, their willingness to back the vision and ...

On Flexibility
27-Jan-17
Over more than three years of conversation around people’s lives and careers in healthcare communications, I have heard hundreds of stories about career moves; both extremely positive, and unfortunately negative. We work in a remarkably fluid space compared with many other industries, and many of you will change roles within the next two years. How can you ensure that you are making the right move for you? First and foremost, you must ask if the company has a clear vision, and one that you agree with. Is the position offering the kind of progression opportunities that will make this the right ...

The world needs exemplary leaders
27-Oct-16
There’s a leadership shortage in the world. It’s not a shortage of potential talent. The people are out there. The eagerness is out there. The resources are out there. The capability is out there. The shortage is a result of three primary factors: demographic shifts, insufficient training and experiences, and the prevailing mindsets that discourage people from learning to lead. Currently 25% of the global workforce comprises millennials (those born between 1981 and 1997) and in some countries that number approaches 50%. (There are differing opinions on the exact years when the millennial ...

Team building
13-Jun-16
In his classic book, Good To Great, Jim Collins talks about the importance of successful companies getting ‘the right people on the bus’, a euphemism for hiring and retaining employees who fit a company’s culture. It is a concept that is relatively simple and makes perfect sense, yet somehow it is often overlooked, as too many leaders hire mostly for competency and technical skills. For organisations seriously committed to making teamwork a cultural reality, I’m convinced that ‘the right people’ are the ones who have these three virtues in common - humility, hunger and people smarts. I refer ...

10 steps to being a better manager
06-Jan-16
Functional leaders promoted to executive positions often find themselves lost at sea – unfamiliar not only with the responsibilities surrounding their new role but unsure of the skills and tools necessary to execute them successfully. The marketing manager promoted to partner; the communications lead moved up to the boardroom; the unit head who suddenly finds himself at the executive table. Individuals in such positions tend to quickly discover that the knowledge and capabilities that allowed them to thrive in their previous job have little bearing on the new one, and that a whole new set of ...