Pharma’s Powerful Productivity Hack – Have You Got It?

Big pharma, often criticized for being too big and too slow, is capable of surprising speed and agility. That is thanks to a powerful new productivity hack, centered on cross-functional teams and their unstoppable leaders.

Some suggest that big pharma is too big & too slow. When they look at the org chart they see a hierarchy, with functional lines of reporting. But that is not how you map productivity or innovation in big pharma today.

Rather, it is happening in a matrix or network of teams that span boundaries & functions. These product or platform teams are the ultimate productivity hack! They bring all the skills required to deliver on pharma’s ambitious strategies for growth, innovation and transformation. That is scientific, commercial, compliance, marketing and all others working together in common cause, to deliver key projects and initiatives.

Cross-functional product teams represent a once in a millennium change in organizational design. But of course, such a revolution in ways of working brings challenges.

Those pioneers who first championed this new operating model were often frustrated by organizational impediments to speed and agility. But organizational resistance to this new way of working is fading fast.

There is now widespread appreciation that sequential handovers & solo-runs between departments and teams cannot deliver on business unusual strategies. Pharma is seeing more and more cross-functional teams while, existing teams are growing in confidence & skill.

As organizations develop the muscle of cross-functional collaboration, the gains being realized by product and platform teams are becoming more obvious. Already we are seeing big leaps in terms of speed, agility, collaboration and innovation.

This is reflected in project milestones and deliverables being met months and, sometimes even years, faster than before.

Yet, it is relatively early in the evolution of pharma’s product and platform teams. Indeed, our data puts the productivity of pharma’s cross-functional teams at just 66 per cent.

This is not because their members don’t have the talent and determination needed, but rather because of the reality of working within large organizations. Many teams are wrestling for greater autonomy and empowerment, as well as for greater organizational alignment behind their efforts. Moreover, they face real challenges in terms of juggling multiple projects, scarce resources, changing business priorities and divergent stakeholder needs.

However, what is inspirational about these teams is that despite everything that is thrown at them, they keep on going. They ‘go through walls’ – administrative, bureaucratic, hierarchal walls to make it happen.

This is the inspirational story that we tell in Super Projects. It is the side of Big Pharma that analysts and activist investors don’t see. Yet, it is the ultimate source of big pharma’s competitiveness.

What do your project and platform teams need to succeed?

Are they ready to become super teams?

In super projects, leading product and platform teams share their stories, their success strategies too.