Essential Elements of a Digital Strategy for the Launch of a New Product

MEDICINMANField Force excellence

TM

October 2014 | www.medicinman.net

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Since 2011

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Ganesh Nayak, COO and Executive Director of Zydus Cadila, a legend in his own right, presented the lifetime

achievement award to Dr. Tarun Gupta for his colossal contribution to the Indian Pharma industry at the Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards function organized by AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS on Sep 25 at the Nehru Centre in a glittering ceremony.A galaxy of pharma leaders from MNC and domestic companies paid glowing tributes to TG as he is fondly called. Sami KhatibChairman & Managing Director of Medley Pharmaceuticals and Bhasker Iyer, Divisional Vice President of India Commercial Operations at Abbott India were the prominent dignitaries who did the honors.

Ganesh Nayak, COO and Executive Director of Zydus Cadila, presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Tarun Gupta

For more pics From the pharma marketing excellence awards visit medicinman.net

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Rewards and recognition are an integral part of of work-life and AIOCD Pharmasoftech AWACS did a splendid job of organizing and executing the first-ever Pharma Marketing

Excellence Awards for Indian Pharma marketing professionals.

Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards 2014 was presented to marketing teams under various categories on September 25th 2014 at the Nehru Centre Mumbai.

The Awards were an overwhelming success with over 300 marketing people gathered to witness the glittering event. Coffee networking in the afternoon followed by cocktails in the evening enabled Indian Pharma marketing professionals to meet and exchange notes - some, after a really long time.

The dignitaries present included Dilip Shah, the Secretary General of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and Jagannath S. Shinde, President of All India Organization of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) in addition to pharma CEOs, presidents and other senior managers from across the country.

Team AIOCD Pharmasoftech AWACS deserves a resounding applause for initiating Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards.

Team AIOCD PharmaSofttech AWACS led by Ameesh Masurekar and Hari Natarajan

See also Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar on page 30

Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards 2014

Good health is a fundamental human right. But despite recent rapid improvements, unprecedented

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plus a subsequent plenary presentation: M.K. Bhan (former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India) will deliver the October 16 keynote, followed by the Patients plenary session; G.N. Singh, Drug Controller General of India, will deliver the October 17 keynote, followed by the Access plenary session; and the plenary session on Innovations will follow the keynote delivered by Kiran Shaw Mazumdar (Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon) on October 18. DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference will be co-chaired by Padmashree Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury (Chairman, Task Force for Research, Apollo Hospitals Group) and Alexandra Pearce (Senior Vice President; Head, Global Regulatory Affairs; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals).To learn more about this DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference or to register online, visit www.diahome.org/India-9thAM.

About DIA: DIA is the global connector in the life sciences product development life cycle. An association of more than 30,000 key stakeholders, DIA builds productive relationships by bringing together regulators, life sciences professionals and academics, patient advocates and other influencers to exchange knowledge and collaborate in a neutral setting. DIA is a global community representing thousands of stakeholders working together to bring innovative, safe and effective products to patients.DIA is an independent, nonprofit organization with its global center located in Washington, DC (US). Additional regional offices cover India (in Mumbai); North and South America (Horsham, PA, US); China (Beijing); Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (Basel, Switzerland); and Japan (Tokyo). For more information, visit www.diahome.org or call DIA India +91.22.67653226

MEDICINMAN

MedicinMan Volume 4 Issue 10 | October 2014

Editor and Publisher

Anup Soans

CEO

Chhaya Sankath

COO

Arvind Nair

Chief Mentor

K. Hariram

Advisory Board

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Jolly Mathews

Editorial Board

Salil Kallianpur; Dr. Shalini Ratan; Shashin Bodawala; Prabhakar Shetty; Vardarajan S; Dr. Mandar Kubal; Dr. Surinder Kumar

International Editorial Board

Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay

Executive Editor

Joshua Soans

MedicinMan Academy:

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi, Dean, Professional Skills

Development

Letters to the Editor: [email protected]

revive pride in the professionLess talk and more action is needed to attract, nurture and retain talent in pharma sales. K. Hariram

QASK AN EXPERTWhat are the essential

elements of a digital strategy for the launch of

a new product?

Doctor’s are not Pharma’s only customers and Pharma needs to reach out to the broader community of stakeholders and win their trust.

INDIAN PHARMA’S IMAGE PROBLEMNoumaan Quereshi

PERFORMANCE – THE UNKNOWN CREATURE

Hanno Wolfram

Performance KPIs need to be well-defined and unambiguous or else they lose their power to drive outcomes and affect change

9

10

14

16

Salil Kallianpur

CONTENTS

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi’s incredible journey from a cycle-

cart salesman to an author, professor and industry mentor.

PROF. HATTAGADI’S FANTASTIC JOURNEY IN PHARMA BRAND MANAGEMENT!

DEAR MEDICINMAN

SEEN ON FACEBOOK

Get Answers to Your Career and work-relat-ed issues from MedicinMan Expert Panel

Interesting discussions seen on the social media

9 Talent-Management Challenges Brief from the 2014 OPPI HR Summit on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent”

Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar at the Marketing Excellence Awards Ceremony 2014

21

2628

29

31

K. Hariram

CONTENTS

*Optional: A psychometric assessment for a more specific intervention. Psychometrics assessments give in-depth insights into one’s personality preferences and its impact on interpersonal relationships and teamwork.

FRONT-LINE MANAGER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

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9 | MedicinMan October 2014

Time and again, I have heard the senior members of Pharma companies talking about the quality (or the lack if it) of MRs including the status of

their not getting enough ‘in-clinic’ time.

What baffles me is that everyone keeps talking about it and no one is willing to do anything about it. I can understand if industry outsiders talk about it. However, insiders talking about it is bordering on helplessness and accepting the ‘status quo’.

Is it so difficult to have quality MRs?

Is it impossible to make the ‘ordinary’ to ‘extraordinary’?

Is it the fault of MRs, if they lack the quality?

Has the current selling and marketing approaches contrib-uted to this deterioration?

Who is responsible?

I have successfully trained a couple of BCOMs and BAs as effective MRs and I am very proud of their accomplish-ments in their career growth. Quite a few of them are into responsible positions in the industry today and they can talk better science though they are from commerce or arts background. The ‘fire in the belly’ is important and so also the grooming. I am not undermining the im-portance of science in selling in anyway. All I am saying is “challenge and change the limiting beliefs”.

My outlook and strong beliefs based on experience got further reinforced after I read an interesting blog by Mr. Tapan Ray , dated, September 15, 2014 titled, Ringside View Of A Key Pharma Job Missing ‘The X Factor.

Yet another hard hitting story based on the recent real life experience with clear suggestions as to how one could improve the status of MRs who continue to be the lifeline of the industry.

There are a handful ex-industry people and experts who are very keen to help the industry formulate such an accreditation programs. Is the industry ready and willing to support such programs?

Will leaders of pharma industry take a cue and become proactive to arrest the deterioration of the quality of MRs?

Industry leaders - please take note and ACT. Building quality MRs is in your (and our) hands. Build quality and instill pride…the joy of Pharma selling.

“For an organization that seeks to lead in the 21st century, pride is a form of investment currency that is growing in importance. The challenge is to capture its value, deploy its power, and multiply its benefits throughout the organiza-tion.” - Jon Katzenbach - KH

K. Hariram

E

Less talk and more action is needed to attract, nurture and retain talent in pharma sales.

K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at Galderma India.

He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a regular contributor. [email protected]

revive pride in the profession

The ‘fire in the belly’ is important and so also the grooming. I am not undermining the importance of science in selling in anyway. All I am saying is “challenge and change the limiting beliefs

”

http://www.tapanray.in/ringside-view-of-a-key-pharma-job-missing-the-x-factor/

http://www.tapanray.in/ringside-view-of-a-key-pharma-job-missing-the-x-factor/

Q


First of all, do not despair. A digital strategy is not as intimidating as it sounds. It is just a document outlining how your company or client should

handle the different aspects of digital from the website and mobile to email, social media and digital marketing. It doesn’t need to cover everything in huge depth (it would be unreadable if it did), but instead should estab-lish some general approaches to these different areas.

The Scope Of Your Digital Strategy

I will not deal with target audience and key messages as that will not be any different from the brand strategy. It is important to remember that digital platforms are just another channel of communication. While the function-alities of your communication will change (add better features that accompany technology), the essence of your targeting and communication does not.

That said, the exact scope of your digital strategy will vary depending on the organization and what they do. That said, your digital strategy should encompass a lot more than a website. Digital is further reaching than that.

In most cases a digital strategy should encompass:

w Mobile – Are you going to build a responsive site? Do you need native apps? If so, what platforms will you support?

w Social Media – What platforms are you going to support? How are you intending to use social media?

ASK AN EXPERT

SALIL KALLIANPUR ANSWERS

What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the

launch of a new product?

E

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Who is responsible for it? What policies exist around acceptable behavior? How are negative events (cus-tomer complaints, bad comments, adverse reporting etc.) handled?

w Email – This should cover everything from newsletters to trigger based emails. You should address who is responsible for email correspondence and how your email lists are maintained and privacy is protected.

w Digital Marketing – This would encompass every-thing from SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) to banner advertising and affiliate schemes.

w Website – What features should you support on the website? How do you decide on content? Who is responsible for site maintenance from design, content and technical perspectives?

In each area the digital strategy should look at the bene-fits these technologies have for your business, assess its current performance and make recommendations over the short and long term.

This scope can prove challenging for an individual to ad-dress, as it requires broad knowledge. If that’s the case, it may be that your digital strategy will have to recommend getting in experts to provide more detail in certain areas. It is better to be upfront with your limitations than leave the strategy vague.

With so many competing areas fighting for attention and only limited resources available, it is hard to write a digital strategy without looking at budget.

You can’t avoid talking about money. Although it is im-possible to define your digital strategy accurately enough to create detailed budgets, that does not mean you can avoid the subject of money. Senior management will need some indication of budget in order to plan expendi-ture going forward.

A good place to start is by shifting managements think-ing away from a series of fixed cost projects to a program of ongoing development. This concept needs to be sold to management as this works like an open source pro-gram which is not heavy in artifacts or processes. Yet they contain quality and rich functional capability to users. Look at this site for better understanding the concept. A program of ongoing development is much better suited to the evolving nature of the website and its features. A common approach to this kind of ongoing development is to adopt an agile model. This uses a continually evolv-ing stack of prioritized features and content that needs developing. As elements from the stack are developed, new elements are added in a continual cycle.

In each area the digital strategy should look at the benefits these technologies have for your business, assess its current performance and make recommendations over the short and long term.

Salil Kallianpur | Ask an Expert: What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the launch of a new product?

https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/agile/index.html


This approach recognizes that your website and other digital assets are never finished and that it therefore makes no sense to apply a fix price budget to them. In-stead, expenditure on digital should be thought of as an annual, ongoing budget like you would spend on market-ing. By shifting to an annual ongoing budget rather than a series of one off projects, budgeting becomes much easier.

If the company wants to manage digital in-house, then it is a matter of establishing approximate costs for an internal Web team. Looking at the proposed work levels will give you an approximate idea of how big the team will need to be and who to include. This in turn will allow you to establish costs once you include salary, equipment and training.

If the company needs to outsource some or all of their digital work then things become a bit trickier. Ideally some form of retainer at an agreed level will probably work best. However, most organizations don’t like work-ing with external contractors in this way. In that case it is a matter of quoting on some of the work scheduled in the roadmap and extrapolating this over the year.

This may all be sounding a little vague and that is because it is. As I implied at the beginning, budgeting digital work is notoriously difficult. However, it cannot be entirely ignored. A best guess, with a suitable amount of contingency added, is better than nothing. At the very least it will start a discussion with senior management about the level of investment they can maintain. - SK

Salil Kallianpur | Ask an Expert: What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the launch of a new product?

”

A program of ongoing development is much better suited to the evolving nature of the website and its features. A common approach to this kind of ongoing development is to adopt an agile model.

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Guess, what was the topic that got the highest media coverage for pharma sector in the fi-nancial year April 2013 – March 2014 in India?

The two highly covered topics in the last one-year were ‘quality of drugs’, followed by ‘patents’.

In Public Relations parlance both are ‘issues’ – subjects that pose reputation risks. On a comparative basis, pharma industry had negligible visibility in Human Resources stories, CSR initiatives, etc., which are repu-tation building blocks, effectively utilized by most in-dustries or at least by leading companies of a sector. Is exclusive focus on one customer segment i.e. Doctors, becoming the nemesis of the pharma sector?

Pharma spends millions on disease awareness cam-paigns, but the focus is gaining visibility for KOL’s: a little thinking can get companies more bang for the buck. A telecom company runs a social awareness campaign and leverages ‘reputation capital’ out of the exercise by engaging multiple stakeholders and going to town profiling it. But the pharma industry seems to be finding solace in the notion that ‘pharma industry is different’ and is getting isolated in general public opinion, focusing exclusively on Doctors commu-

Noumaan Quereshi

Noumaan Qureshi works with the healthcare practice of one of India’s leading Public Relations firm. Views

expressed are personal.

Doctors are not Pharma’s only customers and Pharma needs to reach out to the broader community of stakeholders and win their trust.

INDIAN PHARMA’S IMAGE PROBLEM

E


nication. Is it really focus on business or a comfort zone that pharma managers are getting into, without realizing the overarching impact it is creating on the sectors reputation and no gain for their corporate’s reputation!

Pharma sector is an important player in the Indian economy, contributing through exports, employment, capital flow, etc. But is the industry getting its due respect in public perception and media coverage? One may debate that pharma industry is under the spotlight around the world, but aren’t the issues of pharma in developed markets different from issues in India, which is a pre-dominantly generics market? India today is touted as the pharmacy to the world for supplying cost-effective medicines, can this be the first step in pharma’s reputation building in India!

This brings us to the point as to why reputation is important. For corporates, a strong reputation helps attract resources (human, financial, etc.), provides support to marketing initiatives and provides lever-age in a crisis situation. An industry’s reputation is important to be engaged in policy discussions, for attracting and retaining talent, to get positive tone in media coverage and above all, how favourably the public perceives it.

In business organisations, the CEO is the driver of corporate reputation supported by the corporate communications team. For an industry, the industry association has to play a pivotal role. Keeping aside their differences, can the multiple pharma industry associations in India come to some common ground that helps boost the industry’s image! For a change, can the medical representatives take the first step and work towards positioning themselves as ‘information facilitating healthcare professionals’, not just to the Doctor but to the larger populace as well. It will be a small step, but a leap for the pharma industry’s and medical representatives’ public perception. -NQ

Noumaan Qureshi | Indian Pharma’s Image Problem

”

This brings us to the point as to why reputation is important. For corporates, a strong reputation helps attract resources (human, financial, etc.), provides support to marketing initiatives and provides leverage in a crisis situation.

PERFORMANCE – THE UNKNOWN CREATURE


The number of buzzwords in our industry are many and so are the consequences of using them without much thought.

Our industry is flooded with consultants who keep talking about benchmarks and best practices trying to establish high performing companies with high per-formance people. The problem with many consultants is that they seem to use buzzwords. Sometimes these words miss a clear meaning at all and often these buzz-words are used with very volatile meanings, differently understood by everyone.

For example “Benchmark” or “benchmarking” is often used in the sense of “good example”. However “bench-marking” is a methodology or an exercise comparing one’s business processes to other companies, drawing conclusions and making managerial decisions based on these findings. The drawback of using benchmark in the sense of “best practice” or “good example” lies in the fact that consultants often tell pharma managers that “doing what the others do” will deliver additional value or a competitive advantage. But the principles of marketing tell a very different story: a company can only gain a competitive advantage by doing some-thing different - making the difference. Marketing is the art of differentiation.

Worldwide market-leading companies show, that there is only one IKEA®, one apple®, one Carrefour®, one Aldi. Nobody in these companies would think of copying

Hanno Wolfram

”

The problem with many consultants is that they seem to use buzzwords. Sometimes these words miss a clear meaning at all and often these buzzwords are used with very volatile meanings, differently understood by everyone.

The author Hanno Wolfram is the founder (1996) and owner of www.

Innov8.de , a Germany based company offering change and

consulting projects and KPI-seminars for pharmaceutical companies.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Performance KPIs need to be well-defined and unambiguous or else they lose their power to drive outcomes and affect change

E


Hanno Wolfram | Performance - the Unknown Creature

Sales managers at every level talk about your, their, the company’s and others’ “performance”. Often you can hear them talk about “high-performing teams” or “low-performing reps”. The core question is what they mean with this word, which often is used to start or justify managerial consequences.

”

something from their competitors. And no company has ever gained a competitive advantage by copying the

“best practice” from someone else.

Sometimes one of these crucial buzzwords for Pharmaceutical Reps is “Performance”.

What consultants and their clients often tend to forget is to ask the question: “What is performance?”

You may have heard the reporter com-menting on a football-match like this:

“The cricket team showed a great perfor-mance, but sadly lost!” The week later the

same reporter could have said: “The cricket team showed a great performance and won.”

Sales managers at every level talk about your, their, the company’s and others’ “performance”. Often

you can hear them talk about “high-performing teams” or “low-performing reps”. The core question is what they mean with this word, which often is used to start or justify managerial consequences.

It is a great exercise to define the word “performance”. There must be a clear and unambigous definition, since talking about high-or low-performers is something of paramount importance.

If a manager simply means good results then he should use the word “result”. If someone talks about working long hours every day you call this “input” or “effort”. Don’t call it performance, call it input”. The word “performance” is used very often, by almost every manager and in many situations, usually indicating either input or output. On the other hand, creating a ranked list of performers in the field force needs something to calculate. What is used then? Sales, number of calls, call frequency, etc.

These metrics and measures are usually called Key Perfor-mance Indicators – KPIs.

A metric is what you need to create a combined value you want to measure. The best example to illustrate is “speed” measured as Km/h. The two metrics you need are time and distance. Once you divide distance by time you will get the value needed.

The rationale of measuring something in a business lies in the fact that there are managers who must make sure their company is moving into the intended or planned direction and therefore they must measure.

William Hewlett, one of the founders of HP is often quoted to have said: “You only can manage what you measure”. The message is clear but the problem pops-up when the word performance or Performance Indicator come into the play. “Performance” makes metrics and measures unclear, it puts them behind a buzzword-fog. High and low suddenly look easy and the ranking of reps


is the same as their territories. Territory is a geography, a medical rep is an individual. Often a low result territory is seen as equal to a low performing rep. In most cases the high performing rep is seen as the one with high results. In the case of high results this does not create any problem. If you look to the opposite end of the raking ladder, far too often, in a territory with low results the rep

is blamed being a low-performer. This can end with job loss and other hardships. Yet again: it

must be very clear what “performance” means. Clear in detail with the same

meaning to everyone involved.

Case study:

The average / expected num-ber of calls per day for a rep in a specific company is 8.8.

Rep A delivered 11.2 calls per day in the last period. Rep B de-

livered 7.5 calls per day in the same period. Rep A’s market share growth

was +1.2%, Rep B’s market share growth was +8.5%.

Question: Who of the two reps is a high-performer and why?

The sentence from William Hewlett has a second part which is just as relevant: “You only can manage what you measure, and what you measure gets done!”

What you measure in a company makes the real differ-ence, because measures give direction. There is a very good and illustrative example in the daily life of the field force: your company car measures and displays a number of values besides the current speed in km/h. Very com-monly you can set your car’s display to show a value like “fuel consumption” in l/100 km. Often you could as well change the display to show “average speed” or travel time etc.

Exercise: see for yourself what happens to your driving habits when you change your car’s display.

Try one day with the car’s display showing fuel consump-tion and write the value down in the evening.

Next day set the display to average speed, and in the eve-ning check the value for fuel consumption and compare with the previous day.

This is why the second half of the sentence from William Hewlett is so important for managing a company: “…. What you measure gets done!” Metrics carry a huge and often underestimated impact for behaviour and actions planned and taken.

A very recent article in Harvard Business Review (Steve Kerr, August 12, 2014) carried the headline: “Do Your Company’s Incentives Reward Bad Behavior?” Increasingly managers realizing the huge impact of KPIs on legal com-


What you measure in a company makes the real difference, because measures give direction.

”


pliance in pharma field forces. There are global pharma companies which have fully given up on measuring “rev-enue” or “sales”. Why? Because the metric US$ or “PLN” or “Units” drives habits to achieve what is measured. In some cases the actions taken by medical reps to achieve and meet the metric today are illegal or at least contradicting the Pharma Industry Codex. Any publicly listed pharma-ceutical company with their HQ or shares traded in the US is subject to be prosecuted if the representatives mis-be-have, bribe or press physicians to prescribe inappropriate-ly. The fines which have been paid by pharma companies in the last 2 or 3 years in the US exceed 3 billion US$!

The world of healthcare around us is turning up-side-down, everyone is talking about the omnipresent political and market changes, physicians do no longer want to spend time with reps, and patients are getting more and more demanding. In such a situation many still use the same Key Performance Indicators. This does not fit and must show weird outcomes.

Sometimes you can find consulting companies “selling” KPI-projects. They take what they have learned from other companies, and suggest this as an assumed best practice. The immediate problem is that KPIs vary by company and must be different by company in the very moment objective and strategy are different.

Case study:

A pharmaceutical or medtech company has just received approval and launches a new product. Launch date is four weeks after approval. The launch objective is that 50% of the target group knows the product and its main benefit after 12 months.

A pharmaceutical or medtech company has just received approval and launches a generic version of a product know to everyone. Launch date is at the date of approval. The launch objective is that 15% of the prescribing doctor target group prefers the launch product over the original after 12 months.

Which would be your suggestion for the Key Indicator “objective achieved = performance” in both cases?

In principle KPIs will and must vary not only per company, but often even per portfolio or product. In essence it is not very professional to look over the fence, check what other companies do and do the same.

Not only academically there should be a very clear pro-cess to develop such KPIs across the company. It is called the KPI detection process. This process starts with the identification and writing down the objective. Once the answer is clear “who, what or where” the company wants to be next year or next quarter, it must be available in writing and communicated across all involved. The next question sounds like: “How will we achieve the objective?”


In principle KPIs will and must vary not only per company, but often even per portfolio or product. In essence it is not very professional to look over the fence, check what other companies do and do the same.

”


All answers to this question are called strategy. When strategy is clear there are some prerequisites which usually are called Critical Success Factors. A descriptive example of a CSF, critical to meet the objective, can be “having the right people at the right place with the right skills and attitude”. After you know a number of these CSFs you try to find out which metrics you need to derive from the CSFs to best serve the purpose giving direction. It is a wise decision to clearly check each metric and measure about the repercussions they might have in the organization. Will the measures de-liver and ensure consistency across all people involved? Which messages are sent? Does very measure show coherence with the objective and will we be in the situ-ation to know or evaluate the respective metrics?

Questions might be many more and every question needs to be asked and answered.

There are companies which measure KPIs that turn out to be contradictive to the top-level company objec-tive. Imagine you measure call frequency with target doctors. The immediate consequence is that the target doctors are selected by their degree of accessibility. Targeting and segmentation exercises and requests for selection answered by the field force will be biased. Selection criteria most probably will not allow expected results. This is the moment when metrics and measures give a direction contradicting company’s objectives.

Imagine the top objective of the company is “client-cen-tricity”. What will measuring call-frequency contribute to client centricity? Assumedly the opposite of custom-er satisfaction.

Summary:

There always have been buzzwords around in this world. This is not the problem. Buzzwords will cause problems when inappropriately used and applied with-out having been fully defined.

Performance is one of those undefined words with a high prevalence in our daily language carrying risks of mis-understanding and perceived mis-use.

Believing that “one size fits all” or “doing what everyone does”, cannot be successful or deliver a competitive edge.

There should be SOPs (standard operating procedure) to identify appropriate “indicators of achievement”. It must be clear that “what you measure gets done.” Co-herence and consistency of the metrics selected across the organisation is a must. -HW


“You only can manage what you measure, and what you measure gets done!”

”


Q.1. Prof. Hattangadi, can you tell us something about yourself, how you came to join the pharma industry and your journey so far?

Those who know me very closely and have read the book “PHARMA FIRST-LINE LEADER TO CEO: THE ROAD-MAP TO SUCCESS” are aware that this book is virtually my autobiography. The names and the periods have been changed. After my mother stopped me from joining the armed forces, I became a sort of rebel and as a ‘protest’ did not pay proper attention to studies. I passed B.Sc. with barely 37% marks (36.5% to be pre-cise!) and soon was dubbed a ‘useless fellow’. Naturally, no employer would touch me even with a barge-pole! I now started repenting for my ‘rebellious’ attitude. With great difficulty I landed up as salesman with ‘India Distributors’ as a cycle-cart salesman. ‘India Distributors’ was one of the stockists for the OTC Division of Warner Hindustan (now merged with Pfizer). Warner Hindu-stan had just launched Halls Cough Lozenges and was campaigning heavily for the product. My job entailed traversing about 8-10 km with a cycle-cart puller car-rying ready stocks. I covered around 50 dealers a day, supplied goods on-the-spot and collected cash. My dealers included ‘paan-bidi wallahs’, green-grocers and even chemists – whoever stocked Vicks Cough Drops. My salary - a princely sum of Rs. 8.00/day! Yes, I was a daily wages worker! It was at one such chemist shop, a district manager of a small company (Chowgule & Co. Hind Pvt. Ltd.) met me and taking pity, offered to refer me to his boss for the position of medical representa-tive. I couldn’t believe this! I was selected and sent to Bhopal. One afternoon while making a doctor’s call in

”

My job entailed traversing

about 8-10 km with a cycle-

cart puller carrying ready

stocks. I covered around 50

dealers a day, supplied goods

on-the-spot and collected

cash. My dealers included

‘paan-bidi wallahs’, green-

grocers and even chemists

– whoever stocked Vicks

Cough Drops.

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi’s fantastic journey from a cycle-cart salesman to an author, professor and industry mentor.

Prof. Hattagadi’s fantastic journey in Pharma Brand Management!

E

Prof. Hattangadi Talks PMT


Gwalior, an outstation then, the Regional Manager of Carter-Wallace Late

W.R. Joshi noticed my detailing skills and offered me to refer

to the sales manager of Carter-Wallace for a posi-tion in Ahmedabad. On 1st March 1974 began my true journey into the pharmaceutical in-

dustry. With my ‘brilliant’ academic record, I knew

it would be difficult to get another job and decided to

excel in this job. I found the job very interesting. The brand wars I waged

- Diovol vs. Digene; Walamycin vs. Kaltin; Sensival vs. Tryptanol; Colimex Drops vs. Piptal Drops were heady – akin to the wars I perhaps would fought if I had joined the armed forces. The training I got in Carter-Wallace sharpened my skills and made me look forward to a bright career in this company and in the industry.

It was my keen desire now to be a brand manager but no good company would accept my candida-ture. One day I saw an ad in the Times of India for the position of Product Manager in Sun Pharma and applied. I had a day-long deliberation with Dilip Shanghavi. He enamoured me. I took a calculated risk and joined Sun Pharma. Much later I realised that my gamble paid off. From there to Intas where I applied all my learnings in Sun Pharma! Later I joined Torrent where I headed two divisions. To be very honest, I must acknowledge that my career success has been because of my 14-year association with Carter-Wallace (for sales management functions) and Sun Pharma (for brand management functions). My success as a consultant was because of the frequent development programs conducted by Torrent for top level management.

After I started my consultancy in 2004, I prepared the curriculum for the Vidyasagar University who were to commence a specialized MBA course in pharma-ceutical management. I later wrote the entire MBA course material in brand and sales management for the students. I am now a visiting faculty in many business schools and even an external examiner in pharma brand management. From a medical repre-

”

One day I saw an ad in

the Times of India

for the position of

Product Manager

in Sun Pharma

and applied. I

had a day-long

deliberation with

Dilip Shanghavi. He

enamoured me. I took

a calculated risk and joined



sentative to an academician!

Q. 2. What in your opinion are some key changes in PMT over the years?

In those days the concept of ‘brand management’ was hardly prevalent

in the Indian pharma industry. Only sales promotional activi-ties existed, which were man-aged by the Sales Manager or Sales Promotion Manager. Our SPM then was Mr. P.M. Sapre

(who later was President Lupin, till he retired in the late nineties)

and he truly fascinated me. The first product manager in Carter-Wal-

lace was inducted in 1979! Glaxo was one company which was the strongest in brand

management under the leadership of Prof. Tarun Gupta. The product managers of Glaxo later prolifer-ated into several Indian companies at senior levels and brand management came of age. Two personal-ities, Prof. Chitta Mitra and Prof. Tarun Gupta can be considered as the pioneers of brand management in the Indian pharma industry. I was indeed very, very fortunate to have Prof. Tarun Gupta as my teacher and mentor. Prof. Tarun Gupta had joined as brand management consultant in Sun Pharma. It was as if Dilip Shanghavi had hired a personal tutor for me!

Q.3.What are the non-negotiable competencies required to be a product manager in a pharma company.

In the first place, I prefer calling them as brand man-agers for obvious reasons. The competencies which I feel are extremely necessary for a brand manager include:

Ø Analytical skills - It is the basic skill required for a brand to increase effectiveness at work.

Ø Communication and presentations skills – with-out these, he cannot exist.

Ø A very high level of technical knowledge of his brand – he should know more about the brand than anyone else in the organization.

Ø Penchant for field-work - Any brand manager, (irrespective of gender) who works for less than 2 weeks in the field, is an armchair brand man-ager. Or from where will he get first hand feed-back on the success/failure of strategy, customer

”

The competencies which

I feel are extremely

necessary for a brand

manager include

analytical skills

communication

and presentations

skills, a very high

level of technical

knowledge of his

brandand a penchant

for field-work



insight and competition?

Q.4. You have worked both in MNC and Domestic pharma companies. In your experience,

what are some key differentiators?

There are two types of domestic companies - the transnational’s

and small to medium players.

First I shall refer only to the transnational’s. The earlier differences in professionalism between transnational’s and the

MNCs have narrowed down or are almost non-existent now. The suc-

cessful Indian entrepreneurs like Dilip Shanghavi, Sudhir Mehta, Nimish Chudgar,

Habil Khorakiwala. Y.K. Hamied and Desh Bandhu Gupta, to name a few, have delegated the tasks and decision making roles to professionals.

The problem is with the smaller and midsized com-panies where the owner continues to be the produc-tion manager, distribution manager, sales manager, the brand manager, the production planning ma-terials manager, and the finance manager all rolled into one. They have not learnt to delegate, neither will they ever. These companies therefore continue to remain small. The unprofessionalism truly is a hin-drance to the healthy growth of the industry. These are the companies who mainly indulge in corrupt and unhealthy marketing practices. Well, of course, there are exceptions.

Q.5. What does the future of pharma product management look like, given the current market challenges?

It is time we, the brand managers, remember the basics – true brand management is building brands by increasing prescription demand through ethical means. The oft repeated quote of Prof. Chitta Mitra – “The health of a pharma company in India is directly proportionate to the number of prescriptions gener-ated for the company.” If this prescription generation route is followed, brand management will continue to blossom. Brand managers, especially of smaller and midsized companies, need to influence their proprietors on the need of building truly strong brands the ethical way – brands which can withstand the oddities of our industry.

Nevertheless, considering the very high attrition rates of the brand managers, I have always been of

The problem is with the

smaller and midsized

companies where

the owner

continues to be

the production

manager,

distribution

manager, sales

manager, the

brand manager, the

production planning materials

manager, and the finance

manager all rolled into one.

”



the view that the Chief Custodian of the brand must be the CEO / entrepreneur himself. This does not mean he should micromanage the brand managers. May be a position equivalent to a CEO or at least COO should be created – a CBO (Chief Brand Offi-cer). He should be made responsible for a brand’s image, and promise. At the helm, the CBO should be passionate and even fanatical about the process of branding.

Q. 6. Tell us something about the books you have written on Brand Management.

Well, till 2010, I never thought I would be writing books – but I was inspired by my student from Nepal, the late Arpana Dangol. After a brand manager’s ses-sion in Kathmandu, she kept on asking me questions on brand management. I kept replying to her via e-mail. At times, to answer her queries, I had to keep myself busy in the British Library. She called me one Sunday afternoon and told me that I should write a book on the basics of brand management. I said ‘yes’ to her. Thus my first book was born – ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’. I consider her as one of my gurus as I went on to enrich myself through her queries. (It was one of the saddest days in my life when I learnt she had passed away at the young age of 26; the pharma world lost a promising brand manager) The second edition was inspired by the report published by Mckinsey & Company: ‘India Pharma 2020: Propelling access and acceptance, realizing true potential’. The second edition has three additional chapters relevant to the Mckinsey Report. One is ‘The Building Blocks of a Pharma Brand’. This will certainly become useful to the young and the veterans alike. The second is ‘Blue Ocean Strategy for Pharma India’ – which will tell the brand managers how to create an uncontest-ed market space and monopolize it. The third is on ‘Patient-Centric Marketing’; the novel way to build a pharma brand.

Q.7. Your advice to practicing and aspiring prod-uct managers.

All the pharma brand managers should swear by and adhere to the ‘Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath’ and subscribe to Good Marketing Practices (GMaP). Build brands using ethical means.

And they should also remember that their person-al branding is as important as the branding of the products they handle. -MM

...till 2010, I never thought

I would be writing books

– but I was inspired by my

student from Nepal, the

late Arpana Dangol. After

a brand manager’s session

in Kathmandu, she kept on

asking me questions on brand

management. I kept replying

to her via e-mail... She called

me one Sunday afternoon and

told me that I should write a

book on the basics of brand

management. I said ‘yes’ to her.

Thus my first book was born –

‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO

WANTS FROM THE BRAND

MANAGER’.

”

Dear MedicinMan,

I wanted your suggestion on a difficulty at my current job. I am a Management Trainee joined a leading MNC few months back. I am assigned tender business of Gujarat. My team is filled with experienced people of around 5-7 years of experience. As a tender team mem-ber, I require support from admin staff quite frequently. But the admin staff is non cooperative. What measures should I take for their timely response?”

Dear Management Trainee of MNC,

I can well understand the situation you are into, hav-ing entered into an organisation. Couple of things that would help you to handle the situation are:

Maybe you being a new entrant and that too a Management trainee, the admin department feels typically ‘ BANDHA NAYA HAI. ABHI ABHI AAYA HAI. KARNE DO ‘. The best way is to be polite, humble but assertive. This also means that your side of the work has to be proper.

Start seeking help and support - Tell them in as many words “ I need your help/support to handle this tender properly”

See if there is a possibility of meeting them ‘in person’. this would help each other understand the mutual needs.

4. Apart from emails, talk to them over phone fre-quently.

5. Acknowledge heartily whatever spport they are giving currently. Finding fault and making sweep-ing statements are easy. Find some good things in the midst of non-cooperation. People love to hear encomiums.

6. If it is still not progressing positively, do seek the help of your Seniors to bridge this gap ( my pref-erence is still your personal efforts because it will foster involvement)

7. I’d also suggest reflecting on your own difficult personality quirks and considering how they affect them(unintentionally). Avoid the trap of “ I am OK. Others are not OK.” work towards “ I am OK. Others are OK.”

- K. Hariram


Dear MedicinMan,

Answers to your career and work related questions from MedicinMan expert panel

Dear MedicinMan,

My name is Raju M working as marketing executive in cardio diabetic of leading Indian pharma since June 2012. I joined as a fresher only at Jallandhar. I am doing well. Now I am getting an opportunity to be a part of a leading MNC Diabetes Division as Scientific Sales Executive at Chandigarh.

What would you suggest should i go for a change or not?

Dear Raju,

It is a pleasure to read your query and respond. First of all, great news that you are getting op-portunities, so soon. Obviously, other companies taking note of your good work, currently.

It is you who has to find an answer. i will certainly help you to think on these lines :

Reasons for making a change -

1. Better option in terms of MNC,

2. Greater exposure,

3. Organisational culture,

4. Exposure to newer markets,

5. Learning and developing opportunities,

6. Chances of growth,

7. Better package,

8. Place of work

If you find answers for the above, then your choice would be clear. Good luck and wish you all success.

- K. Hariram

E

Q. Sir, I’m Pritam. At present I am pursuing M Pharm in Pharmaceutics. I want to build up a strong career after this. So, can you plz guide me in this regard? Can you tell me what should i do after my masters to make a prosperous career?

Hello Pritam! You have some great opportunities in India! NCE’s are drying out whereas F&D is becoming a bigger opportunity area. You can focus on New Drug Delivery Systems, a field which is growing, as NCE discoveries have slowed down. Nano-particulate drug delivery systems show a promising approach to obtain desirable drug-like properties by altering the biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics properties of the molecule. Nano therapy will alleviate unwanted toxicity caused by non-specific distribution. You can think of this as your career path.Pharmacovigilance, although not directly related to pharmaceutics, is another significant branch which is becoming attractive. Those who have specialized in pharmaceutics will find this very interesting. And of course you could pursue PhD and switch on to academics! Another option - pursue a PGDM in pharma manage-ment and think of pharma marketing as your career.

All the best!

Editor’s Note: You could also explore studying law – both patent law as well as general law as pharma needs lawyers with pharma domain knowledge.


Dear MedicinMan,

Answers to your career and work related questions from MedicinMan expert panel


Seen on Facebook

A post on FB about a pharma company giving iPads to a non performing division. The device was GPS enabled and ONN 24x7. I reposted it and the response has been overwhelming – over 200 comments and still going.This shows that how even a beneficial tool like iPad can be looked at suspiciously as a tracking device to police the field force.However, what’s heartening is that there are equally good number of people who look at the move to equip field force with iPad positively.Below are some responses posted verbatim from Facebook. Names of the commentors have not been disclosed to protect their privacy.

It's wonderful - the manager can see - how medical representative worked in field, how much time they are spending in field. It is necessary for every pharmaceuticals company. From this activity at least they can observe & supervisor to our people for the right direction.

That's wastage of Managerial time & energy. They shud instead spend time with their reps & guide, motivate them to perform. What a misuse of technology..Sad

Disagree!! This is spying! Only supervision doesn’t help in improving the things, its involvement and the inclinic effectiveness, market knowledge that count, not mere tracking by this device

I can say with authenticity... Ipad has been given to all no distinction based on performance will be implemented across the organisation in a phased manner

Any system developed or institutionalized across an organization, however stringent be of a nature, doesn’t necessarily tantamount to be a decision based on breach of trust. The same may necessarily be an outcome of some unpleasant instances and developed to prevent a similar episode in future. That being said, to convert it into a system is

Sales is a function of passion and not number of calls that one makes.It can be very well explained by the job of an insurance advisor. Do you give policy to somebody who visit you frequently or to one you have warm relations with.You got the answer.These gadgets are just meant to show door to the employees who are not passionate about the job.It will not waver the fortitude of the committed worker.

This tool generates enough data for interpretation and drawing conclusion. How the higher ups handle it makes the difference.

Policing is not the way. It takes only few calls to see the regularity of the person. I pad should be a tool to get the medical help at instant. Only dialogue can be productive with a little help of visual impact. I am upset with this kind of mindset.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK

Join in the conversation. facebook.com/anupsoans

E

K Hariram | 9 Talent Management Challenges


Currently, the Indian pharma industry faces its set of dilemmas and challenges that managers and organizations must cope up with.

Recently, at the OPPI HR summit, I had the pleasure of chairing a panel of senior talent development leaders representing three very different stake holders with diverse perspectives: From the Industry, academia and consulting fraternity.

Interestingly, even with this diversity of perspectives, we found our views on today’s top talent challenges to be surprisingly aligned. I thought you might like to see our list—and would love to hear your thoughts on things you’re wrestling with that we missed.

Here is our list of today’s top talent challenges :

1. Attracting and retaining enough employees (tal-ent) at all levels to meet the needs of Indian phar-ma’s organic and inorganic growth. Talent crunch exists despite the favorable demographics that our country has.

2. The need to creat a talent value proposition that appeals to multiple generations. There are four generations working together in today’s workplace. So there is a constant struggle in most companies to cater to the diverse individual needs and also to create an employee experience that appeals to individuals with variety of preferences and assumptions.

3. The need for developing a strong leadership pipeline. The threat that is lurking in many organiza-tions is a lack of a strong talent pool from which to nur-ture and develop future leaders. It was also expressed by the speakers that many individuals were reluctant to move into senior leadership roles thus posing a challenge.

4. The disconnect between good technical skills and good people skills. It was felt that on one hand it’s relatively easy to identify and assess specialists and experts in specific functional or technical spheres. On the other, it was difficult to determine whether those

9 Talent-Management Challenges K. Hariram

K. Hariram speaking at the OPPI Summit on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent”

Brief from the 2014 OPPI HR Summit on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent”

E

30 | MedicinMan December 2013

K Hariram | 9 Talent Management Challenges

individuals have the people skills, leadership capabil-ities, business breadth, and global diversity sensibil-ities required for the nature of leadership today. So the organizations have increasingly, the challenge of developing these broader skill sets.

5. Transfer of key knowledge and relationships. More so, when the organization is dependent on the strength of clear knowledge, as ingrained into custom-er relationships, a key to many organizations. This is further aggravated due to retirement of key people.

6. Exodus of mid-career talent—people in whom the organization has invested heavily and in whom it has pinned its hopes for future leadership. How to arrest this?

7. The dire need and criticality of tailoring the talent management practices and programs to attract and engage the new and young entrants. Almost every member who spoke agreed that making the pharma business practices and infrastructure more attractive to Gen Y as the need of the hour.

While it is impossible to stop the attrition, given the dynamic environment, there was a strong consensus that working towards improving retention would help in future earnings and growth of the industry. The Gap believes retaining employees in roles for 3+ years will be a key to their future earnings growth.

Did I miss anything? What could you add to this list of talent attraction, development and retention challeng-es?

“The right people, at the right time, are so much more than just a process!” -KH

It was felt that on one hand

it is relatively easy to identify

and assess specialists and

experts in specific functional

or technical spheres. On

the other, it was difficult to

determine whether those

individuals have the people

skills, leadership capabilities,

business breadth, and global

diversity sensibilities required

for the nature of leadership

today.

”


MedicinMan: At the outset, congratulations for taking the initiative to conduct this long overdue event. Tell us something

about AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS.

Ameesh Masurekar: AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS is a Pharma Market Research & Supply Chain Solu-tion company. AIOCD Ltd helps with getting field access to data, whereas the complete operational management is run by a professional team from Trikaal Mediinfotech. It’s 7 year old company that has given diverse products to Pharma Industry for all Stakeholders – Companies, Distributors & Retail-ers. Its moto is simple – “Actionable Data, Profitable Decisions”

MM: What were your thoughts behind taking this initiative to hold the Marketing Excellence Awards?

AM: Despite employing a large army of people in pharma marketing, there were no awards/ recogni-tion. As a Market Research Agency with syndicated audit PharmaTrac, we felt it necessary to recognize and reward the top performers of the Domestic Phar-maceutical Industry. We are also looking at a much expanded mandate next year beyond Marketing to reward excellence in Sales Management, HR, IT & Supply Chain.

MM: Tell us how the event was organized, the re-sponse and outcome?

AM: The event was planned more than 6 months back. We spent a lot of time debating categories. Some of the key conclusions we came up with was – one cannot compare a top 20 company with a 80th Ranked company. So we divided into 3 broad categories – Top 20, 21-50 Rank and Above 50. We also did further categorization like Acute, Chronic, New Introduction, Existing Product. The last finan-cial year was one of the most challenging in recent times – with the DPCO 2013. However certain brands

Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar at the Marketing Excellence Awards Ceremony 2014Ameesh Masurekar is the Founder-Director of AIOCD PharmaSofttech AWACS, the organizer of the Marketing Excellence Awards 2014. Ameesh spoke to MedicinMan on the sidelines of the Awards and shared his thoughts on the awards and the future of the industry

E

Ameesh Masurekar speaking at the Marketing Awards Excellence Ceremony 2014

Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar at the Marketing Excellence Awards Ceremony 2014

32 | MedicinMan December 2013

– have shown remarkable volume growth post getting a huge topline hit due to DPCO. For such products we created a special category this year on Best DPCO revival. Again classifying it by company size and Acute / Chronic therapy.

For each category we have created a 3 judge panel who will give rating points. Beyond numbers the parameters considered are – what was the brand positioning, how was the internal stakeholder (field force) excited and what were the campaigns undertaken. All these aspects had an impact on the final outcome.

The Response has been terrific. Not only is there an enthusiasm in participation from all companies but also an axiousness to win. For each sub-category – there are 3 awardees – Winner, 1st Runner Up & 2nd Runner Up.

MM: Will this be an annual event?

AM: Yes – we are planning this as an annual event.

MM: What is Practice Insight?

AM: Practice Insight is part of family of products collec-tively called GeoTrac. We launched PharmaTrac 5 years back – which was state level data for Head Office strategy & decision-making. The field force was given access to this data broadly – but it was not too relevant for their day-to-day functioning. GeoTrac however, is completely relevant to Field Force, although there are interesting interpreta-tions for HO functions as well. GeoTrac has 3 products:

Territory Insight (which gives Depooling between multi-ple people working in same division in Pool territory),

Locality Insight (which gives understanding of a Locality within a Territory) and

Practice Insight (which tracks the Retailer purchase pat-tern adjoining to a Doctor) – thereby obviating the need to do RCPA – which is increasingly difficult & inaccurate these days.

MM: Any concluding thoughts?

AM: The next big delta of Pharma growth will be driven by Rural Reach. Many companies are trying, but failure is clearly due to lack of data. With GeoTrac we will be able to bifurcate Urban vs. Rural, specify the current size of each Rural Cluster (town, village) – compare with Economic indicators and create a blue ocean strategy to tap into Rural Market. Not only will this help drive healthcare for our country’s vast rural population, but it will also lead to a huge growth in employment in Pharmaceuticals. - MM

The Response has been

terrific. Not only is there an

enthusiasm in participation

from all companies but also an

axiousness to win.

”

Essential Elements of a Digital Strategy for the Launch of a New Product

Healthcare

Transcript of Essential Elements of a Digital Strategy for the Launch of a New Product