Leverage enterprise thinking for commercialization progress

Introducing enterprise thinking

Enterprise thinking offers a solution—it’s a holistic approach that views an organization as an interconnected whole rather than isolated departments or functions. It involves aligning your organization’s vision, values, capabilities, and resources with the needs and preferences of the customers, stakeholders, and markets. Biopharma companies can create value for themselves and their customers, while also addressing the challenges and opportunities of the evolving healthcare landscape.

Adopting an enterprise mindset brings about positive outcomes including increased efficiency in processes by reducing bottlenecks that delay market entry. It fosters innovation by coordinating global efforts with local insights for smoother regulatory approvals. Moreover, it bolsters brand success by helping you to deliver needed therapies that improve individual outcomes while boosting your company’s reputation. As Kathy Pearson, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics, University of Pennsylvania; and President, Enterprise Learning Solutions explained in Wharton@Work, “It’s not about optimizing your area or product but rather improving the performance of the whole system.”

Benefits of enterprise thinking in biopharma commercialization include:

• Encourage innovation. This outlook fosters a culture of innovation and collaboration, where cross-functional teams work together to generate insights, solutions, and outcomes that meet patients’ needs and expectations.
• Fuel business growth. By taking a holistic view of the organization and aligning across strategic priorities, companies can better identify and capitalize on opportunities for growth.
• Mitigate risks. This approach enhances agility and responsiveness, guiding your organization in adapting quickly to changing market conditions, customer preferences, and regulatory requirements.
• Enhance collaboration. This mindset improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the commercialization process, by streamlining workflows, reducing redundancies, and leveraging data and analytics to inform decision making.
• Deliver the right products. This framework increases your organization’s competitiveness in the evolving marketplace, by helping to craft a unique value proposition that meets patients’ needs.
• Build a strategy. Enterprise thinking encourages long-term planning by considering the sustainability and future growth of the entire organization rather than short-term departmental gains.
• Strengthen the bottom line. Enterprise thinking can help biopharma companies adapt to market changes, invest in data and technology, and embrace digital transformation, all of which can positively impact their profits and revenue.

Difficulties in adopting this approach on a corporate level

Enterprise thinking sounds great on paper, yet it can be difficult for organizations to implement this way of thinking. There may be individuals or even departments who champion this framework, but adoption on deep, lasting, institutional level remains difficult. In fact, a study conducted by CEB showed 67 percent of leaders excel at key competencies, however only 12 percent are considered “enterprise leaders” who focus on the organization’s outcomes instead of those of their specific department.

Change like this requires a culture where employees are encouraged to collaborate across departments and take risks without fear of being penalized. In many instances, that is not the atmosphere of corporate America, and especially biopharma, for several reasons:

• Biopharma organizations deal with complex decision-making processes involving multiple stakeholders such as research and development teams, clinical experts, regulatory bodies, and commercial teams. Often, they operate in internal silos, with limited cross-communication. Breaking down such silos and aligning various stakeholders’ perspectives and priorities can be difficult and time-consuming.
• Risk aversion. The biopharma industry involves significant financial investment in research and development (R&D), clinical trials, and manufacturing. This creates a risk-averse culture where failure is costly. Change is often met with resistance in any organization, but this can be particularly true in biopharma where established processes are deeply ingrained. As a result, organizations may be reluctant to embrace new ideas or take risks that could disrupt existing processes.
• Data integration challenges. Biopharma organizations generate vast amounts of data from different sources such as clinical trials, patient records, etc. Integrating this data into a cohesive system for analysis and decision-making is a significant challenge. Without effective data integration, it’s difficult for these organizations to make informed, strategic decisions that reflect an enterprise mindset.

Supporting you in building an enterprise mindset

Are you and your team feeling pressured to continually innovate to outpace competitors, while keeping margins in check? Have you considered how much time and money are you losing with fragmented processes?

Consider everything your biopharma company must do to bring a product to market. One integrated commercialization partner with reach into all the touchpoints can create efficiencies, innovations, and ultimately success for your biopharma company—bringing your patients closer to life-altering therapies.

This partner must have the tools and expertise to collect, analyze, and act upon vast amounts of information—empowering your team to make informed decisions that optimize clinical trial design, monitor patient outcomes, refine market strategies—all while significantly accelerating time-to-market. To do so requires a foundation in enterprise thinking aligned with a deep understanding of the customer journey. You need more than a distributor or solution provider. You need a strategic partner who can help you connect complexities. A strategic enterprise thinking approach helps overcome hurdles by seamlessly orchestrating data-driven solutions backed by expert insight.

Biopharma companies can use the enterprise thinking framework to:

• Understand their customers and markets by conducting market research, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and value proposition development.
• Engage customers more effectively by designing and executing multichannel marketing campaigns, digital platforms, educational programs, and patient support service.
• Measure and optimize performance by collecting and analyzing data on customer behavior, feedback, satisfaction, loyalty, and outcomes.

You need the tools to thrive in an ever-evolving industry and connect the dots for meaningful growth. “Cencora was able to connect all the dots for all of the services we need to be successful for our first launch,” remarked a small pharma launching its first product.

One member of our manufacturing planning council remarked, “Cencora has the unique ability to be a one stop shop. Cencora has all the end-to-end solutions a pharma company needs to be successful.”

To unlock your brand’s full potential across the value chain and overcome organizational silos hindering your commercial success—we invite you to connect with us at Cencora.

Let’s engage in a strategic conversation about how we can collaborate on your journey towards successful commercialization. Some of your peers have already taken this critical step. Recently, a biopharma executive remarked, “Hosting an Executive Exchange meeting with senior Cencora leaders and ours was a game-changer. We have a better understanding of your strategic vision and ours, and look forward to moving from a more tactical to a strategic relationship.”

References

1. The Enterprise Mindset: Developing an Integrated Approach to Your Business. Wharton@Work. Feb 2015. Accessed 8 Dec 2023. Available: https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/thought-leadership/wharton-at-work/2015/02/the-enterprise-mindset/

2. The Enterprise Mindset: An Integrated Business Approach. Wharton@Work. July 2021. Accessed 8 Dec 2023. Available: https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/thought-leadership/wharton-at-work/2021/07/the-enterprise-mindset-integrated-approach/