It is amazing to read so many articles, press releases with regards to how businesses and organisations are only now starting to consider and accept online collaboration as an every day activity. The ability for a business and organisation to be able to do everything internally is long gone.
Clearly there are sectors and industries which are quicker to adopt and use online collaboration. As you may know, one of the key sectors that I work in is the Life Sciences, who typically were very conservative to accept new ways of working. However, the days of having a very rich pipeline of new products and existing products being sold very profitably have all but disappeared or in some cases has already gone.
There is the “patent cliff” where for some pharmaceutical companies this cliff is quickly approaching. When they go over the edge, they can loose as much as 50% of their sales revenues to the generics in the first 12 months. The increase in regulatory compliance, the move to personalised medicine and the enormous pressure on Pharmaceutical companies to reduce the cost of their products is creating a major problem with regards to growth, profits and share price. It is clear that the analysts will not stand another decade of huge investments per annum and no new products to show for it.
Coupled with the impact of an ageing population and the increase of chronic diseases is putting severe strain on the health-care Best Remodeling Contractors Near Me payers budget to pay for these medicines. And all of these challenges are all converging at the same time!
The Pharmaceutical sector is not alone. For example there are other distressed sectors such as the construction industry, who also have to rethink and change the way they deliver projects and services – very quickly.
So what are these sectors and companies doing, to try and rectify this?
Well unfortunately this has resulted in the inevitable “knee jerk reaction” to initiate internal reorganisations because of cost pressures, which in some cases have been hidden by the previous profits and rich pipeline in the case of the Pharmaceutical industry. Now that existing products are coming off patent with no pipeline of new products to replace them, to sustain and grow their profit revenues, partnering and collaborating externally has to be an option.
Reorganisations, although painful help businesses to realign their resources to core activities which they are good at and are consistently required. However, to address the fundamental problem of replacing old products and creating new products will rely on an accelerated innovation capability. This means partnering and working more efficiently and productively both internally and externally.
To be able to collaborate externally with external partners, which means remotely will require online collaboration as one of the solutions. This in the first instance will be a major culture transformation process for many businesses and organisations. As a result it will be painful and difficult for some. However, to facilitate this using the correct collaboration tools will be of paramount importance. Key to this will be:
Easy accessibility – no major set up/roll-out projects and additional software and hardware (costs)
Visual – easy to understand, pictures tell a story and transcends cultures and to a degree, the language barrier
Intuitive – easy to use so that there is limited/no training required.
Business Social – provides a “friendly” way to collaborate but within a secure business environment
There are many technology solutions on the market. Here is an example of one that I am using, which covers the main points as above. In addition, it has the necessary functionality to help companies innovate in a business and social collaborative way. Attach below is a link to a video showing what this looks like and how Eli Lilly & Co is responding to the issues raised above. Here is an article that outlines their strategy and progress to date.
Clearly one of the leaders in this sector!
Collaboration Video Link:
Eli Lilly & Co Innovation & Collaboration:
The above are key examples of what can be done. But how to make this happen requires a changes and in some cases a different approach to deliver services and products that immunise businesses from the competition, recessions and continue to deliver Sherman Homes Utah value to their customers and clients. A key step is to develop a Collaboration Strategy. This will be new to most organisations but will be an imperative and a necessity if businesses are to increase their rate and success of innovation to survive.
Keep on collaborating!
Warmly,
Jason