22-23 - LEADERSHIP: Room with a view

Times of crisis and profound change need strong, courageous and purposeful leadership for a business and its people to navigate successfully. Catherine Skobe, Senior Director Global Publications & Innovative Solutions at Pfizer, reflects on the power of “witnessing leadership finding the courage to stand up during the COVID pandemic, declaring we’re going to do whatever it takes to deal with this situation and find a solution”.

Similarly for Sharon McHale, Head of Global Policy and Government Affairs at Seqirus, “The pandemic really reinforced that strongly held values and company purpose can help you get through any crisis”.

The greatest challenges are conquered by people and organisations pulling together and working with dedication and passion. Catherine adds, “we can achieve really great things when we focus on a common goal”. All Briefing Room advisors were agreed, expecting the unexpected needs to be part of our fabric moving forward. Agility is key.

The pandemic has changed the public perspective of pharma – building trust. Paul Reynolds – a pharma industry executive – urges us not to forget that “the industry has been both villain and saviour historically, but we’ve shown now that we have the ability to save the planet. It’s magnificent what we’ve achieved. Reputation is based not just on what you say, but on what you do – your behaviour”.

Clive Whitcher – Head of Inceptua Pharma – agrees, stressing the importance of being “credible and factual in everything we do”. While our Briefing Room advisors acknowledge there are pockets where trust is importantly still being worked on, they are unanimous in their belief that we’ve come a phenomenally long way in the last two years in proving the value of what our industry does.

Sharon cautions that “we now have a responsibility to maintain this increased trust – it can be blown with one crisis. Even higher levels of expectation need to play into how we conduct ourselves”. We need to be guardians of integrity.

The importance of the role we play in democratising scientific information can’t be stressed highly enough. Science should be for everyone, and it needs to be communicated in a way that’s understandable so it can be acted on in an informed way.

People have a right to understand the diseases they suffer from and the medications they take This is a topic close to Catherine Skobe’s heart, with her passionate belief that “we need to make a really strong stand in representing everyone, no matter where they come from. We need to ensure we have Diversity, Equity and Inclusion characteristics built into all of the work that we do”.

It’s vital we open our minds, listen and explore in order to get ahead of the influential trends impacting our sector and prepare to positively respond. Catherine recommends we “stop doing things the same old way.

“Think about pain points – how can we fix them? Listen to patients – what are their needs, how is the space changing? Listen to young professionals – what do they need? How do they want to receive information? Learn from other industries – what novel practices are we seeing?”. Curiosity is critical if we want to keep up.

Embracing digital growth and transformation will also help us unlock new possibilities, get to great conclusions faster and deliver more powerful communications. There are watch-outs though, as Paul points out, “We’ve dialled up every digital initiative that could possibly be invested in during the last couple of years. We now need to be more precise and follow deep insight for people to notice us and let us in.”

In leading through the global reset, being inquisitive will also offer us new opportunities to build a more sustainable future – redefining our working models as we imagine the new hybrid world. We’re at a critical moment in time, and we should actively explore and embrace these opportunities and lead the way in inspiring others.

To build powerful, valued partnerships we must go where the need is, not only where our need is – where there’s mutual need, that’s the sweet spot for partnership.

Clive reflects on how the launch excellence rulebook – once a one-size-fits-all approach – has evolved completely. “Every launch is now unique, and every launch sequence is specifically designed for that asset. But what remains universal is the need to have earlier dialogue with budget holders and the community to really prepare the market for what’s coming”.

He concludes, “We have to do the right thing. We have to engage in the right way. It has to be a win-win-win for everyone”.

Paul builds further on the community angle, focusing on the potential for us to “support patient groups to communicate the strength of their work, helping them get further. In many cases they may have already created what we’re thinking of designing – we should do our research”.

Catherine adds that “we really need to appreciate the value of patient engagement, and how we operationalise it to hear the patient’s voice”. A further plea for inclusivity.
We need to take a broad view, with a ‘needs driven’ mindset. When we think about partnerships, we want to build to supercharge our communications and improve healthcare. This should bring us inspiring new opportunities.

Healthcare communication professionals have a critical role in upholding and promoting the highest standards in inclusivity, accessibility, respect and trust. But it’s incumbent on all those working in pharma to feel the weight of responsibility too.

As the healthcare ecosystem and wider society continues to evolve, there is opportunity to reimagine the role that companies and individuals can play. We must be prepared to seize it in order to drive our industry forward.