"Having good market intelligence is no longer optional in this day and age"
Rakesh Pabbi - Senior Partner
A device that allows GPs to take clinical images and safely share them with specialist colleagues has been compared to Snapchat.
PhotoSAF Sharing, which has been launched by healthcare solutions provider Consultant Connect, has been designed to give doctors the ability to take high quality images and share them quickly with specialists.
The digital revolution in aerospace and defense (A&D) has reached an inflection point, according to a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). As A&D companies accelerate their investments in digital technologies, their leaders are questioning whether their investments are paying off. In many cases, they are not getting satisfactory answers.
Big Four firm PwC has handed its UK employees an extra day of holiday this year, in praise of their hard work over the previous financial year. June 29th will see the firm’s Britain-based staff of roughly 16,000 offered time off – while those who are already on holiday will have the same chance on an alternative day.
As retail banks grapple with rapidly advancing technology, higher customer expectations, and tighter regulation, they must redouble efforts to personalize their product and service offerings if they hope to position themselves optimally for the future, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Accenture has agreed to acquire Shanghai-based HO Communication, a full-service digital marketing agency in China with a strong portfolio of local and multinational clients. The acquisition will expand the ability of Accenture Interactive to bring its unique blend of digital design, marketing, content and commerce services to clients in Greater China seamlessly and at scale.
A Dutch consultancy with decades of experience providing strategic and sustainable solutions is expanding its international client base. Twynstra seeks to make a difference by helping public and private clients solve some of the world’s most pressing climate and energy-related challenges.
London-based supply chain consultancy Tokema is venturing into the digital world with the launch of Tokema Digital, a digital marketing agency for the logistics industry.
Tokema was co-founded five years ago by Pierre Liguori and Dominique Bartoli. The firm operates with a small core team of highly experienced supply chain consultants and a network of freelance consultants to bring the right expertise depending on the project requirements.
Melbourne-based life science research and development company Medical Ethics has announced a direct investment of over £3 million in Wales over the next three years, making Cardiff its new base in the northern hemisphere.
Alibaba says there is big demand in China for Thai goods and services, so it’s doing its best to make sure its cloud and platforms are going to be used to sell them there.
Every year from late April to June, Thailand's fruit of the season, durian, can be delivered to China in just 120 hours through a direct route between the two countries for the delivery of fresh products. Yet thanks to Chinese enterprises' intelligent logistics networks, the delivery time will be possibly shortened to 72 hours in the future.
McKinsey is now seen as the best professional services firm to work for. No surprise, right? It’s the biggest name in consulting (and, arguably, the only household name). It’s like Google or Goldman. But actually, McKinsey’s placing in our annual survey of consulting firms comes as something of surprise. And what is more, this shows how professional services is changing.
MPs have said the stranglehold of the big four accountancy firms on the audit market needs to be broken.
Business and Work and Pensions Committees. say the competition regulator should look at breaking them up to prevent another situation like Carillion which collapsed months after accountants KPMG signed off its books.
One of the country’s biggest hospitals has unveiled sweeping plans to use artificial intelligence to carry out tasks traditionally performed by doctors and nurses, from diagnosing cancer on CT scans to deciding which A&E patients are seen first.
Flexible dress code policies introduced across Asia are facing an increasing backlash as employers and their staff wrestle with matching cultural and corporate identities to decide the appropriate level of work attire.
“Without question, I’m far more likely to hire MBA graduates who have had management consulting experience in emerging markets over graduates who have not,” said Amit Sinha, Head of Database and Technology Marketing at SAP.
Pfizer has partnered with a ‘computation-driven’ pharmaceutical technology company to develop a drug discovery platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Its collaboration with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based XtalPi will see the firms work on molecular modelling software that can be applied to drug-like small molecules.
As the Russian economy continues to stabilize after several years of financial crisis, many of the nation’s consumers are ready to spend more on goods and services that matter most to them, such as fresh foods, education, and travel, according to a new report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
Mend and make do. Spirit of the Blitz. Stiff upper lip. Rationing. As true of the NHS in 2018 as it was when it treated its first patient in 1948. Only back then it had 480,00 in-patient beds across the UK, compared to only 140,000 today. If that sounds like a steep decline, it’s certainly not reflected in how we feel about our national health system. Ask most British at home or abroad what makes them proud to be from this rather pugilistic, at times introspective, yet always optimistic island nation and more times than not it’s the NHS.
Pharma has much to gain from leveraging components of a virtual business model, especially as an innovative way to work with experts and partners at the right moments throughout the product lifecycle.
Many people are under the impression that face-to-face interactions are required at all times to get work done. However, I’ve seen physical offices experiencing poor communication, low employee engagement, and low productivity. The mark of an excellent manager is not defined by how well they ensure complete employee attendance but by how present, engaged and willing each employee is to contribute to the team.
Adopting components of a virtual operation and leveraging outsourcing opportunities will aid pharma in that respect. In a virtual business model, individuals begin to think differently. There is a shift from a mind-set that looks at the company as a place where you arrive at 9am and leave at 5pm to one that views the company as a place where there is tremendous opportunity to collaborate, innovate, and drive the business forward. In a virtual model, people can be organised and motivated irrespective of physical boundaries.
Many professionals may assume a virtual arrangement aggravates communication, engagement and productivity. However, a company that adheres to a virtual business model makes a lot of effort to build touch-points for staff to ensure they experience adequate personal interactions.
In fact, a virtual or outsourced model can extend a company’s capabilities and leverage the necessary external expertise irrespective of geography and time zone.
Here are four key benefits of virtual collaboration and outsourcing that will enable pharma to meet the healthcare market demands of the future.
Room for flexibility
With an outsourced or virtual business model, companies have flexibility in terms of who to work with, when, and how. We always hear of the need to break down silos within pharma companies, and a virtual model is built to do just that.
More frequently, companies allow employees to work from home, enabling them to gain work-life balance and approach their jobs in new ways. And companies outsource functions in a virtual business model when workload fluctuates due to resource challenges or increased demand due to market conditions. It is essential to be able to expand resources with the right expertise at the right time to fulfil project requirements, without being bound to geography or full-time hiring. Partnerships with external providers who work virtually can be the key to increased success.
As a consequence of this flexibility, a virtual model easily attracts young and innovative workers. In our company, for example, we have a good feel for technology because of our young staff members. If we had a traditional model, we may find it challenging to draw out ideas from our younger workforce.
Cost containment and efficiency
Biopharma start-ups need to look for partnership and outsourcing opportunities to save on operational costs as they work toward commercialisation of a new product. It is common practice for venture-backed companies to outsource business components such as regulatory, medical, legal and accounting services. Additionally, many executive functions are fulfilled with part-time or consultancy roles, allowing for the necessary professional input only when required.
Partnerships with firms or individuals with the right expertise can help life science firms conserve costs. The benefit, however, is not limited to cost reduction but also creates a lean and efficient operation. Efficiency among small biopharma start-ups is key to bringing innovative therapies to market while optimising limited resources. These small companies are achieving success with fewer in-house resources than large companies. In Big Pharma, many functions are housed internally, which contributes to high overheads. Also, at times, this model may not include the right expertise or its bureaucratic layers may slow progress.
Harness continual advances in technology
The virtual or outsourced business model heavily depends on technology. You can use low-cost software for project management, operational technologies for time tracking, expense management and invoicing, banking, HR and hiring, and many others. It is essential for leaders to stay abreast of new technology developments and gain an understanding of how these can be leveraged to drive the business. We need to constantly ask ourselves: how can we use technology to streamline our operations or use the technology to free up human resources?; What technology can we develop to help our clients do the same in functional areas? Partnering with technology providers is essential to position your company to gain a competitive advantage via the ability to quickly detect and react to market changes.
Being a virtual firm has also made it natural for us to embrace the opportunity to innovate. We now have a steadfast belief in our ability to develop a technological solution on our own or to have a hand in that development – that is not a common belief to have when you are working within a traditional business model.
Streamlined communication and operations
A virtual model streamlines work efficiency and nurtures an open and positive work relationship between managers and employees. Leaders need to make sure they are more available to colleagues. Virtual communication lines are intended to enable staff to ask questions of any leader or manager at any time. And it gives people comfort knowing that leaders are available to provide answers. There is no need for them to wait for a meeting or until a manager is ‘back in the office’.
In our case, most of our employees’ questions come from the client. Since we are a virtual entity, we feel the need to react more quickly to deliver the answer the client needs. As a result of streamlined communications, we are faster at relaying questions, sharing knowledge, and then working together to come up with client solutions – and that is invaluable to the business.
It is easy to think that if people are sitting in their seats from 9am to 5pm, they must be doing their job and working well together. However, that is not reality. In a virtual or outsourced model, with a growth-minded leader who knows how to engage employees, communication and working together can be efficient and effective, rather than overwhelming. The leader of a virtual or outsourced business needs to know how to draw out the ideas and goals of staff and create ways to use the business as a platform to achieve those ideas and goals. This fuels people’s passion to work for the business and towards an optimal operation where each individual contributes.
In a virtual model, there is so much opportunity for companies to drive the business with pertinent expertise and capabilities, to serve clients through a distributed team with a wealth of experience across different therapeutic areas, and to provide employees with a good work-life balance. All these benefits will shape competitive advantage and bring sustained growth at an optimised pace to pharma businesses.
Sourced from Pharmaphorum written by Robert Merrill
Transport for London's (TfL) new consulting arm is picking up steam, with the appointment of a new boss for the business, as the transport organisation eyes millions in fresh revenue to help boost its finances.
