A major pharmaceutical company wished to establish a new process for creating, implementing and following action plans at first-line manager level. Within the organisation’s existing environment there was no formal action plan in place, which was leading to lost productivity. The client came to IMS for help with the introduction of a new methodology to all first-line managers and educational guidance on the best way to implement it across the field. This change management initiative followed a four step approach.
The first step taken by IMS took the form of a design meeting, the purpose of which was to understand the current process followed by the first line managers. This uncovered a lack of clear definition around performance, effectiveness and territory potential – opening up a clear opportunity to introduce some uniformity. The analytical and planning process was then developed, presented and validated by senior management.
The second step involved the development of an MS Excel implementation tool to support the defined process. Having previously worked independently without a central action plan, the initiative introduced by IMS represented the first time the managers for primary and hospital care had worked together as a solid team.
The third step took managers through a training program using a business simulation that reproduced the process and the interface of the implementation tool to increase the educational impact and buy-in. Mixing the groups across primary and hospital care increased coordination, each team working on a simulator.
Participants were firstly asked to build an action plan, initially with no methodology, and secondly by applying the analytical and planning process. All teams gained market share after this second attempt, showing the potential for first line managers to generate significant gains with the same amount of investment by applying the right process. At the end of the training, they worked together on a real plan for their main product and were asked to present it to their peers.
The fourth step was a follow-up workshop where participants presented the results of their efforts. Overall, first-line managers successfully implemented their plans, even requesting a more sophisticated tool, as well as a follow-up workshop going into more detail about the implementation process. Key here was communicating any changes throughout the company.
Over a six-month period, from the design meeting to the follow-up workshop, the client succeeded in introducing a common language and consistent definitions across the organisation. Improved coordination between primary and hospital care was also a positive outcome and the analytical and planning process overall improved the productivity of the sales force.