1. Re-energising late-stage drug development
Synopsis
Transforming the performance of a large multi-national project team developing a ground-breaking treatment for HIV/AIDS using mission alignment by creating clear accountabilities for execution and a winning attitude.
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Context
Late-stage drug development is complex, expensive and uncertain. In 2004/05 a high profile programme in a leading global pharmaceutical company, sought to develop a class-leading anti-retroviral treatment for patients with HIV/AIDS. This development broke new ground in approaches to the treatment of HIV in people for whom other treatments no longer work, but was struggling to gain momentum in a combined Phase 2b and Phase 3 development programme.
Key issues
- A 2003 consultancy project in the global R&D organisation identified cultural weaknesses in setting direction, accepting responsibility and getting things done.
- In general, the sophistication of corporate planning and objective setting processes was not matched by effective execution.
- People found it difficult to focus on what mattered and were paralysed by organisational complexity. Many were reluctant to be held accountable. Morale and engagement were low, and cynicism widespread.
The solution
We delivered a series of workshops to clarify what was required to achieve corporate intent and align people around their roles in the plan. These highly interactive events created:
- Clarity about what people were trying to achieve
- Re-organisation of functions into mission-based sub-teams
- Alignment between sub-teams and individuals
- Defined team and individual accountability for delivering results
- Clear boundaries for decision-making
- Engagement and high performance behaviours.
Six months later we facilitated a ‘stop and think’ review with the development team and their Contract Research Organisation (CRO) partner where we addressed a number of operational challenges that helped the team prepare for filing later that year.
- Throughout the project we held regular ‘check-in’ meetings with team leaders where we reviewed performance, discussed alternative approaches, challenged assumptions and provided coaching and support.
- Team leaders used us as a confidential sounding board throughout the project.
The results
- Development operations, working more closely with their Contract Research Organisation partners on a common mission, developed innovative approaches to recruit patients to pivotal studies.
- The end-game team reduced its timeline to give the studies the best possible chance of success.
- A confident leadership team loosened budgetary constraints to allow for novel approaches to recruit patients.
- Independent academic-led audit concluded that the programme had created real value for the client with immediate, tangible benefits. Success was attributed to the change in attitudes and behaviours bought about by the mission command programme.
2. Accelerated project delivery breathes new life into patients
Synopsis
Working with a late-stage drug development team to improve their ability to get things done and reduce project delivery time in a Phase 3 programme. This allowed the client to launch an important treatment three months ahead of schedule.
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Context
Over several years, the pharmaceutical industry has experienced increasing expenditure on R&D, but declining output of commercially viable drugs. In the face of this industry-wide trend, a major global pharmaceutical company set itself the goal of doubling R&D productivity twice by 2012.
- One of the key factors they had to get right was to establish a ‘winning culture’ where decision-making was carried out at the right level and operations were simplified.
- The client selected a high profile team developing a proven drug compound into a new product for sufferers of pulmonary arterial hypertension as a pilot for this programme.
Key issues
- The existing culture in R&D was a barrier to success; development team leaders felt they had responsibility but little power. They were over-reliant on lobbying and influence. Team members focused on activity rather than outputs and felt hemmed in by rules and standard operating procedures.
- Trust in the organisation was low and people were reluctant to accept accountability. Project structure was complex with sluggish execution, morale was low and cynicism widespread.
The solution
- We facilitated a process for the team to redefine their goals, which revealed some misaligned assumptions and non-productive activity. The team could then make decisions and prioritise activity to create overall purpose and intent.
- The team re-organised into mission-based sub-teams. Each developed a simple analysis of what they needed to deliver and why then briefed their manager on how they were going to achieve their objectives while providing mutual support.
- We used experiential development techniques to reinforce the ‘empowered’ and ‘empowering’ behaviours needed to help them identify and deal with perceived constraints to their freedom to operate.
- Over the next six months we held follow-ups with the leadership group to review progress and refine a simpler way of working.
The results
- We measured programme outcomes by surveying six agreed metrics at two intervals following the initial workshop. We gathered anecdotal feedback and after six months the programme was subject to an independent return on investment audit by a PhD research associate.
- Participants and team stakeholders heralded the mission alignment programme as a great success, which led to tangible business results.
- The team leader publicly credited the programme as being the catalyst for a distinct improvement in team performance that enabled them to file their submission to regulatory authorities earlier than intended.
- The independent audit assessed the value derived from increased time on the market and extended patent life resulting from the early filing to be as high as $20m based on monthly sales of $7m. Attributing a conservative 10% to the business impact of the consultancy intervention, the review concluded that the true ROI would be in the order of 50:1.
3. Refocusing a country leadership team
Synopsis
The in-country executive team of a major global pharmaceutical company has just completed a Europe-wide transformation programme and needed to align the new leadership team and develop more effective ways of working to implement their strategic plan. We helped them to build improve their performance in very challenging market conditions and following years of declining sales.
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The Context
A global pharmaceutical company had emerged from a major European-wide transformation programme to produce lean, customer-focused country teams, but the Country Manager in Belgium/Luxembourg anticipated further significant changes in their market. The market environment was highly challenging and, in order to deliver sustainable results over the next 2-3 years, the country manager identified the need to engage more people in developing more effective ways of working to implement the strategic plan.
Key issues
- Performance management was detailed and complex. It was not easy to see causal links between tactical activity and the overall country mission.
- The BeLux team showed distinct signs of ‘survivor syndrome’ after downsizing; people were becoming change-weary and disengaged.
- Mutual trust between members of the leadership team had been adversely affected by six months of fighting functional corners during restructuring.
- Having removed a complete layer of senior middle management many leadership team members felt that their people needed support to prioritise and delegate effectively. Performance was improving but there was little accountability for results.
The solution
- We interviewed leadership team members to find out what was going well, where they saw scope for improvement and to gauge organisational performance. We fed this insight back to the country leadership team.
- We planned a two-day offsite event for the leadership team that combined work on developing strong and trusting relationships in the new team with mission alignment.
- The team developed a clear framework of accountabilities (using our 5MAP tools) and established performance targets for functional and cross-functional teams aligned to their 2009 corporate goals.
- We developed a mission performance and results management dashboard with the in-country business support team and trained the leadership team to use it. The leadership team cascaded the process to functional groups.
The results
- A positive and aligned leadership team able to cascade growth objectives to the country organisation
- Overall value of the programme rated 7.8/10 by participants and 8.1/10 for helping to rebuild trust, confidence and applicability to subordinate teams.
- Strong commitment to the 5MAP process as a platform for collating and communicating business priorities.
- At the final project review, when the country manager handed over to his successor, the team was on target to achieve their corporate objectives.
4. Helping an executive team bring strategy to life
Synopsis
A major European digital and print publishing business had a corporate vision and had established five strategic priorities for growth. Some priorities had clear functional ownership, whilst others required the active collaboration of one or more executive members. We helped the executive team to align functional objectives, resources and budgets to the new priorities and work out how to collaborate to deliver their strategy.
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The Context
Trader Media Group (TMG) is on of Europe's largest specialist multi-media publishers providing market leading automotive classified websites and over 70 publications. The group had established five strategic priorities for growth. Some priorities had clear functional ownership others required the active collaboration of one or more executive members.
Key issues
- Connections between the strategic priorities, annual budgets and individual performance objectives were unclear.
- The company was traditionally excellent at execution and management was very operationally focused.
- There was limited alignment what people were actually doing and the strategic priorities, which meant that functional goals tended to be defended in meetings and management team activity tended not to be driven by needs of the strategic priorities.
The Solution
- We designed a process to create business-wide alignment around their strategic priorities
- We introduced the 5MAP concept to the company’s top 60 managers through the Lead through Engagement development programme.
- We delivered the programme to the executive team then facilitated a 5MAP workshop where the CEO used his strategic priorities to give direction and allocate accountability for clear outcomes to his reports.
- Executive members completed their own analysis of what was required to deliver the strategic priorities and shared it with the CEO. The process was then replicated within functional teams and led by HR business partners.
The results
- 5MAP is now an integral part of the TMG operating model and supports the translation of high-level business objectives into team and personal accountabilities; this supports aligned individual objectives.
- Business objectives are reflected in scorecards at both of the two business divisional executive teams.
- “This session really helped to move the exec team forward.”
- TMG intends to repeat the alignment process in the 2010 planning round.
- “We have used Leading Change Limited multiple times now at TMG and they always deliver great results. They have been influential in driving focus and structured vision/objective setting programmes."
