DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION SERIES - The importance of people

I have been inviting Pharma leaders to learn from them and provide them with a platform to share their views as part of my Digital Transformation Series.

For me, the most important element of digitalisation is the human element of transformation. Leaders need to enable people to use technology confidently to engage HCPs.

I was delighted to chat with Patrick Markt, a strategic professional with a passion for customer experience, digital innovation, and agile transformation.

Please note: Patrick is expressing his own views and not of his employer.

About Patrick

Currently serving as the Vice President of Digital Excellence at Daiichi Sankyo Europe GmbH, Patrick is dedicated to driving seamless and convenient end-to-end customer experiences for medical doctors and patients.

Throughout his career, Patrick has led various strategic initiatives to enhance customer engagement and improve business performance. He's successfully established partnerships and digital innovation hubs, selling and advancing digital transformation within the organisation.

He's a total expert when it comes to advanced analytics, data governance, and omnichannel marketing, and this has led him to drive customer segmentation delivering bespoke on-demand content.

Background

I first met Patrick at a Reuters event in Nice. He was speaking and I was really impressed by his expertise. Then we bumped into each other in Dubrovnik at the NEXT Pharma Summit, where I got to know him more at the after-party. Then at Pharmageddon in Barcelona, we were sitting at the same table and did a couple of workshops together. The more I hang out with Patrick, the more I appreciate his application of common sense when it comes to business and how he really values his people and wants to empower them so they can achieve digital excellence.

How did you get into Pharma?

I'm a natural scientist. I was a consultant working in licensing products. When I read the job description for a Manager Market Research & Forecasting, I thought this is exactly what I am doing as a consultant but there was one important difference. I wanted to work for a company and see what the impact of my actions would be on the company, as this is what I missed as a consultant. It was frustrating helping the train get going and then seeing the train leaving the station!

It was the best decision to stay in Pharma because it's an area where you can have a real purpose to help patients. This makes me wake up every morning and want to go to work as we have so many opportunities to make a difference.

What does your current role involve?

I'm the chief people supporter and a firm believer in digitalisation. There are very different understandings of what digitisation means and what you can achieve with it. It's important to have a leader who acts like a gatekeeper, bringing different ideas together and focusing on the things we can do to make a difference. This is what motivates me daily.

Of the three teams I have, one is an advanced analytics team; they are specialists in using algorithms and data, and they try to support our colleagues by predicting what they could do next. So, how often to visit a customer, what content to use etc. It's all about customer understanding and collaboration with existing functions like business analysts and commercial excellence.

The second team focusses on customer engagement solutions. This team covers the technical perspective. So, the end-to-end tools you need for engagement.

The third team is DSpace (Digital Space). This team works through partnerships and wants to help our global colleagues establish a division that will deliver healthcare as a service. We want to move away from selling drugs to holistically provide support to those who need it and give patients what they need in one place.

Do your three teams sit together or how do they communicate?

We do talk! They have distinct areas where they are active. For example, we are working on a project where we created an avatar that uses Generative AI to provide patients with answers regarding one of our products. The analytics team are experts with Generative AI and the DSpace are experts at developing digital solutions, this is where you start to see more connections. Together they can even achieve more with established functions like medical commercial or even market access.

Tell me about the culture you have created.

My team come up with their own OKRs. I don't tell them what to do because they know best. They define their targets, we talk about them and my job is to make sure the targets aligned within the different teams but also aligned with the rest of the organisation. This is where they have a lot of responsibility and accountability. This is what they like.

Don't hire smart people and tell them what to do. I cannot be in all the details and, these guys are incredibly smart. When the teams need support, they come to me. We have frequent 1:1s and when they feel they have hit a wall they approach me.

For example, when they reach a challenge with an employee or with a project, I ask them how I can help. Should I share an experience or do you need advice? Do you need information or do you need an intro to a different leader? Can you tell me what would help you to grow and proceed.

I am not trying to give them solutions. I'm not perfect. I take a human-centred approach and try to give them what they feel they need. Because I believe you should know best for what you need to proceed in the best way.

What are OKRs and how do you use them?

They are Objectives and Key Results. You break objectives down into smaller chunks. You should be really precise about the objective you want to meet as it needs to be very measurable in terms of key results, it's not fluffy. It helps us to bridge the yearly targets we have. A lot of companies have annual targets for different reasons. But the question for people is how I do translate these targets into my daily work.

We do need to be cautious as companies or leaders can put too much pressure on strict timelines. It makes more sense to leverage OKRs to increase the benefit for patients and doctors, and also our own performance. We're trying to get there as fast as possible., but if we don't reach it in time, it's ok but let's still get there.

What do you think makes forward planning crucial in advancing a digital omnichannel strategy?

•   Keeping things simple

Data governance is like a pizza. First, you need to decide if you're going to bake the pizza yourself or if you are going to go to a restaurant. Who’s in charge of data governance?

Then there's the recipe for the pizza? What are the ingredients? Where do you want to become active? Is it commercial? Is it medical data?

You may choose cheese and salami. Then the question is, what type of salami/data, because there are many different types of salami/data.

Data governance also means we need high-quality data, so that needs to be checked. So, who checks that there's no rotten salami/data? Because we want a good pizza!

The person who came up with this analogy has healthcare experience, but she was also an entrepreneur and has worked in different industries. It is one of the most simple ways to explain data governance. Data analytics can be so fun!

•    Setting an ambitious mid-term goal

We set a two-year roadmap and then asked by which quarter we would like to achieve certain steps. Don't forget the human side and don't put too much time pressure on the organisation. It's important you continue to reach or come closer to the goal rather than reach it in a strict time frame.

•   Changing the organisation by letting people get experience.

Don't be afraid of changing the organisation by hiring new people.

How do you translate the data and bring it into omnichannel content creation?

It's important to really define what you would like to achieve. Because omnichannel is a way to engage with customers, but it does not actually tell what you're trying to do. It's about the relevance of the information and knowing what your customers want.

Analytics can help and tell you what their preferred channel is, and you might even have data about what their preferred type of content is which would help the doctors. It's about the quality, not the quantity, because some people tend to say 'Fantastic now we have different technological possibilities to accelerate content creation'. But that doesn't mean the content is better, and if you are not relevant there is a high risk that you will bore your customers.

One way to do this is to clearly define interaction points between the back office and the customer-facing roles.

•   Get your knowledge into the CRM. Analyse the recommendations as the customer-facing individuals may know better. The CRM may recommend to visit a doctor three times in a quarter but that doctor has said they'd like visited twice. It's not simply execution by a machine, it's a combination of human and artificial intelligence.

•   The last step is feeding back to the CRM the reasons why they adhered or did not adhere to the number of engagements recommended per channel because there could be good reasons. The CRM needs to know when a recommendation is not met and why.

The same is true with content. It's about finding the intersections where human and artificial intelligence can be blended to build trust and try to get the best of both worlds. This will help you grow as a team.

When it comes to creating digital content what are the common mistakes pharma companies are making?

They focus too much on speed when they need to focus on the details. For example, we had 78 characteristics per HCP in one country. Are they all important or can we simplify this?

They are also focussing too much on the technology.

For example, a year and a half ago we didn't have any tools in place, so the commercial and medical team used Excel to list all the different claims, all the different sources and went through the MLR process and in the end they had a clickable version which they presented at a conference and it worked pretty well.

Don't let a lack of tools or processes be an excuse not to proceed. The customers won't wait until we are ready!

There's a lot of hype about AI. How do we harness AI to excel in our omnichannel communications with HCPs?

Consider what are the possible approaches or technologies we can use. 80/90 percent of the things you want to do, you don't need AI for. Don't aim for the stars, focus on the 10/20 percent that will make a difference.

My two pieces of advice are:

1. Spend time on thinking about where AI is needed as it's not needed everywhere.

2. Implement it in small steps. Once you're ready with your first proof of concept, you can move on and people are less frustrated and will embrace the technology and welcome the possibility of new concepts.

If you could make a lasting impact on the pharma industry, what do you think that would be?

I believe we need more courage in pharma. A lasting impact would be that we finally start to do things that are really different. We do all the same things, we just tweak it a bit. We do have courageous people and teams but if I could make a lasting impact it would be to encourage people to enjoy decision making. Small increments will not do the job anymore.

Why do you think pharma is so risk-averse as an industry?

This is my personal view, it's the time frame we operate in. Developing and marketing the drugs is like a 20-year timeframe. Scientific excellence is very important to pharma companies, but we need to help people overcome the need for perfection, be agile and do things differently. We also need to realise that digitalisation is all of our responsibilities.

You have read my new book 'The Omni Advantage'. How did you find it? Please can you share your thoughts?

When I read it the first thing that came into my mind was a Swiss pocket knife. Why? Depending on what you need you will have different benefits. The book gives a good overview of the different stages of digitalisation. There's a lot of practical, step-by-step, human-centred advice. It could also provide a common ground because it's neutral. I would highly recommend the book to others. It has the potential to be the glue between different functions and opinions.

Conclusion

Patrick is such a good egg and I absolutely loved our conversation. As a leader, he has created an environment and culture that has allowed his people to flourish. He doesn't see himself as having all the answers. He sees his role as a leader to create an environment so that people in his team can come up with the solutions. It's about collaboration and doing what's right for the patients. He's creating magic with digital transformation!

Order your copy of The Omni Advantage.