MEDICINMAN| Pharma Success Story: Medical Rep to Country Manager My message to all newcomers to the industry is to work hard, be smart, be innovative, learn and try new things and

MEDICINMANField Force excellence

March 2017| www.medicinman.net

Indian Pharma’s First Digital Magazine Since 2011

TM

Social Media is a great platform for listening

and hence for learning. My recent post on

Facebook had only 10 words – “One of the

reasons for field force dissatisfaction is overwork.”

But I was flooded with responses (over 100 com-

ments and nearly 500 likes) mostly from medical

reps and front-line managers, but from quite a few

senior managers as well. I realized that I had hit a

nerve; in other words, I had written something inter-

esting, engaging and relevant.

While Social Media has become a cacophony in re-

cent times, it is still possible to use this medium ef-

fectively if the content is interesting, engaging and relevant. And this what is needed in today’s commu-nication whether on Social Media or in face-to-face communications, especially with the field force and customers.

The clear objective for pharma marketers is to reach the target audience with interesting, engaging and relevant content and not with repetitive reminder messages.

How can Indian Pharma reinvent the broken model that is neither satisfying to the field force nor inter-esting, engaging and relevant to customers?

INTERESTING, ENGAGING & RELEVANTEDITORIAL

Editorial | Interesting, Engaging & Relevant

2 | MedicinMan March 2017

In an era where medicine is becoming personal-ized, pharma communications has to transform from a one-size-fits-all approach to a strategic ap-proach that is interesting, engaging and relevant. The shift to personalized healthcare is driven by an impetus to lower costs and increase the quality of care. Pharma too, has to shed bloated number of divisions, products and promotions to remain interesting, engaging and relevant and to deliv-er personalized value in the eagerly-awaited post UCPMP era.

I followed up my previous post with another post on Facebook, a few hours later: “Overwork or ...? How Can Managers Create a Sense of Ownership among Field Force?” The response was equally overwhelming. Pharma leaders would do well to look up this conversation on Facebook to learn what their field force people think. M

Connect with Anup on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Anup Soans is an L&D Facilitator, Author, Pharma Consultant.

Visit: anupsoans.com

Meet the editor

http://www.anupsoans.com

CONTENTS Our mission is the collective improvement of the

pharma sales and marketing ecosystem - leading

to better relationships with doctors and better out-

comes for patients.

MedicinMan Volume 7 Issue 3 | March 2017

Editor and Publisher

Anup Soans

Chief Mentor

K. Hariram

Editorial Board

Salil Kallianpur; Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Shashin Bodawala; Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay

Letters to the Editor: [email protected]

An imprint of MedicinMan Pvt. Ltd.

1. Pharma Success Story: Medical Rep to Country Manager ..............................................5

Deepak Sharma shares his story of finding success in Pharma and what it took him to get there.

Deepak Sharma

2. Year-end Performance Reviews: Retrospective or Prospective? ..........................7

As the financial year comes to a close and performance reviews are around the bend, how should this important exercise be conducted?

K. Hariram

3. The Five Drivers of Brand Equity ...................10

A clear formula to audit and increase the perception and recall of your brand in the Doctor’s mind.

Vivek Hattangadi

4. Case Study: Moving to a Competency-based HR System in Pharma ......................................15

In the wake of an acquisition and FDA warning, a large pharma company decided to completely overhaul its existing HR systems - here is the process and outcome

Diksha Fouzdar


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My journey in the Indian pharma industry began in 2004, when I joined Cipla as a marketing executive based in Haridwar.

Back then, I had no idea how the pharma industry worked, let alone how my career would shape up. I was sent to Mumbai for training where I met many senior people in various functions including prod-uct management. I was fascinated and attracted to them because they were well-dressed and com-municated with confidence. One thing that struck me was that all of them had begun their careers as medical representatives.

After completing training, I understood very clear-ly that the pharma industry was full of opportuni-ties and that I had a rewarding career ahead of me.

Deepak Sharma shares his story of finding success in Pharma and what it took him to get there.

Deepak Sharma

PHARMA SUCCESS STORY: MEDICAL REP TO COUNTRY MANAGER


However, as I began my field work in Haridwar, I was surprised when a professional colleague asked me why I had joined this profession. He said that I was young and could easily find another career opportunity. When I told him that I believed that Indian pharma industry provided good opportuni-ties to progress professionally, he replied that there were very few opportunities for growth. He was surprised at my confidence and when I told him that I would certainly progress in my career, he sar-castically replied, “OK, we will see how much you will progress.” Almost 14 years later, when I look back at this episode, I am clear that what you think is what you become.

Later, I was shifted to Delhi and this opened sev-eral opportunities for me to work with companies like Pfizer, Macleods and Ranbaxy in different roles. Presently I am working as Country Head for Ukraine for Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and I am very grate-ful for the support I have received from my family, my seniors and well-wishers.

My message to all newcomers to the industry is to work hard, be smart, be innovative, learn and try new things and be fearless. This Industry has turned so many ordinary people into great leaders. It can surely transform you the way you want to. M

Deepak Sharma | Pharma Success Story: Medical Rep to Country Manager

“My message to all newcomers to the industry is to work hard, be smart, be innovative, learn and try new things and be fearless. This Industry has turned so many ordinary people into great leaders. It can surely transform you the way you want to.

Deepak Sharma is Country Manager - Ukrainefor Glenmark Pharmaceuticals

The 2015-2016 financial year end is around the corner. When it comes to Indian Phar-ma companies and their sales teams,

there are two critical and often dreadful tasks to be performed. The first one is reaching targets and the second one is the yearly performance review.

Performance management, and particularly the ‘performance review’, is one of the most debated topics in the recent past. Why are so many sales people unhappy after their reviews? Why do managers often dread conducting them?

During one of my recent interactions on per-formance management with a set of mid-level managers of a pharma company, I asked them why they conducted performance reviews and what they hoped the performance manage-ment system would deliver.


K. Hariram

As the financial year comes to a close and performance reviews are around the bend, how should this important exercise be conducted?

YEAR-END PERFORMANCE REVIEWS: RETROSPECTIVE OR PROSPECTIVE?

The answers that came out were:

ü Quantifying performance — identifying high, medium, and low performers

ü Identifying developmental needs to in-crease capabilities and performance for the future

ü Ensuring that people are being rewarded and increments are fixed on the right com-parative basis

ü Assessing turnover risks and encouraging the “right” people to stay

At almost all levels, clarity about “why perfor-mance management?”, is lacking.

I strongly believe that the primary purpose of performance management is to align individu-al contributors with organizational strategy. If every individual in the organisation is provided with the correct understanding of the prima-ry purpose of performance management, it is far easier to debug, clarify and implement the planned performance management process.

When it comes to the pharma sales function, the best performance management approach to improve performance – actually improve perfor-mance – is helping people think and do things differently, to achieve results that matter.

The need of the hour for performance manage-ment is:

1. Evaluating what happened in the past to clarify what to do next and

2. Doing so on a monthly basis rather than once a quarter or year

3. Training, developing and supporting line managers and direct reports to achieve the purpose of the process with simple, easily doable processes and without cumber-some and tedious forms and administrative systems.

The simplest and most effective approach is to integrate ‘coaching’ in performance manage-ment systems. This includes both, on- and off -the-job coaching.

According to Achieve Forum, coaching team members on how to follow through on commitments they make to each oth-er is the highest-rated coaching skill priority.


K. Hariram | Year-end Performance Reviews: Retrospective or Prospective?

Their research also showed that 52% of their re-spondents felt that closing accountability gaps between team members was a top coaching skill development need for sales line managers.

There are four areas of focus when it comes to effective coaching skill development:

1. Managers to identify the learning styles of team members

2. Effective use of questioning and active lis-tening to understand the ground reality ver-sus goals, the challenges in store to achieve them and working out a way forward

3. Effective feedback is the ‘breakfast of cham-pions’. Hence, providing reinforcing feed-back adds to the positive behavioural mo-mentum.

4. The actionable coaching skill is ‘develop-ment feedback’ which involves identifying and resolving performance gaps while win-ning the commitment of team members to closing these key gaps.

When you get right down to it, coaching is the bulk of a manager’s job. Performance manage-ment means providing constant, thoughtful feedback and factual data on individual perfor-mance and going beyond to help improve per-formance.

As aptly put by John Whitmore:

“Coaching is unlocking a person’s potential to maximise their own performance. It is helping them to learn rather than teaching them.” M


K. Hariram | Year-end Performance Reviews: Retrospective or Prospective?

K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at Galderma India. He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a regular contributor. [email protected]


Brand equity is a set of perceptual assets and liabilities linked to a brand name and symbol, which either add to or subtract from the value

provided by a product. It is the value premium that a brand generates. It makes the brand memorable, eas-ily recognizable, and superior in quality and reliability. Brand equity is built by the doctor’s perception of it.

Let us discuss the five drivers of brand equity in phar-ma.

1. Brand Awareness Building brand awareness is the first step towards get-ting prescriptions. No doctor can prescribe a brand that he doesn’t know exists. You need to spend money, time and effort to create this awareness.

Brand Awareness, the probability of doctors knowing about your products, is important, but brand aware-ness alone will not get you prescriptions. It is now the skill of the brand manager to make the brand a domi-nant brand or a top-of-the-mind brand for a consistent flow of prescriptions.

THE FIVE DRIVERS OF BRAND EQUITY

Vivek Hattangadi

A clear formula to audit and increase the perception and recall of your brand in the Doctor’s mind.


Vivek Hattangadi | The Five Drivers of Brand Equity

“Performing the ‘Johari Window for Brand Audit’ exercise may help you to know how many doctors are aware of your brand but do not prescribe it. You have to carry out this audit through your first-line managers, over whom you do not have any authority, yet are a vital link in brand building. This is a challenging task.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Performing the ‘Johari Window for Brand Audit’ exercise may help you to know how many doc-tors are aware of your brand but do not prescribe it (see figures 1 and 2). You have to carry out this audit through your first-line managers, over whom you do not have any authority, yet are a vital link in brand building. This is a challenging task.

The aim of every brand manager is to make the brand the top-of-the-mind brand with key doc-

tors and to get a consistent flow of prescriptions. 2. Relevant differentiation

In the over-crowded pharma market in India, rel-evant and crystal-clear differentiation is extremely important; how else will a doctor make a distinc-tion between your brand and that of a competitor?

Creating meaningful differentiation to sustain the doctor’s prescription preference for your brand is becoming one of the biggest challenges for phar-ma brand managers.

Brand managers have a tendency to communicate the USPs of the molecule. This is okay for a patent-ed product for which no generic is likely to be avail-able for the next 7-10 years.

In Indian Pharma, when a new molecule is intro-duced, another 10-15 companies will simultane-ously introduce it. Teneligliptin is a case in point. How can 15 brands differentiate themselves when the pharmacology is the same for all and only the USPs of the molecule is communicated and not the USPs of the brand?

Price should never be the only differentiator. Zy-dus introduced teneligliptin at Rs. 7.00 per tablet, making a very big noise. In no time, several other companies introduced it at a lower price – even at Rs. 2.00 per tablet! Price is not a sustainable differ-entiator any more.

In this milieu, uniqueness will come through emo-tional communication of a USP or a solid value proposition for the brand – not just the molecule!

3. Value

An incremental innovation to add functional value makes a brand swing from being an ordinary one to the most preferred. An example is Dynapar AQ injections from Troikaa Pharma.



“Price should never be the only differentiator. Zydus introduced teneligliptin at Rs. 7.00 per tablet, making a very big noise. In no time, several other companies introduced it at a lower price – even at Rs. 2.00 per tablet! Price is not a sustainable differentiator any more.

Diclofenac injections in an oily base make the in-jections painful and unsuitable for children.

Troika, through their R&D, developed and intro-duced diclofenac injections in an aqueous base un-der the name Dynapar AQ. Dynapar AQ injections are painless. They can be injected anywhere - not just the gluteus region – and even to small chil-dren. In one stroke, it made the innovator brand, Voveron Injections from Novartis, look ordinary.

This is value addition. Dynapar AQ has delivered a good value for price.

4. Accessibility

According to WHO, access to essential medicines is part of the right to the highest attainable standard of health - the ability to get essential medicines (and medical care) as and when needed.

Your brand shouldn’t be a luxury brand. This is in sharp contrast to FMCG or white goods products. Half of India may not be able to access medicines at ‘luxury’ prices. Brand equity for pharma, at least in India, cannot be developed using this strategy.

Too often, doctors cannot treat patients because the medicine is too expensive. To have strong brand equity a pharma brand should be accessible.

Take the example of Sofosbuvir (Sovaldi) for viral hepatitis discovered by Gilead. The cost is US$35.71 per pill! Needless to say, there aren’t too many pa-tients, even in the developed western countries, who can afford to pay for Sofosbuvir out of their own pockets – even when the only alternative to taking this medication is much less effective. Just imagine the cost of a 12 to 24 week therapy! Such a drug will certainly not be accessible and will have poor brand equity.

Incepta Pharma of Bangladesh, created a sensation when it introduced biosimilar Hopetavir at US$ 6 reducing the cost by more than six times and mak-ing it more accessible to patients.



“Your brand shouldn’t be a ‘luxury’ brand. This is in sharp contrast to FMCG or white goods products. Half of India may not be able to access medicines at ‘luxury’ prices. Brand equity for pharma, at least in India, cannot be developed using this strategy.

Not only has Hopetavir created substantial brand equity for itself in Bangladesh but it has enhanced the brand equity of Incepta Pharma.

5. Emotional ConnectNeuroscience and behavioral economics has prov-en beyond doubt that all humans are irrational, emotional creatures! This includes doctors. Brand managers must understand this and harness the power of emotions which are today’s true brand builders and uncover new opportunities for growth.

Emotions are an important driver of brand equi-ty. (See MedicinMan issues from October 2016 to January 2017 for more on the role emotions in pharma marketing by this author) There are many innovative ways to achieve this emotional connec-tion - from the quality of promotional material to the quality of medical representatives and first-line managers, the point of first contact with Doctors. When employees are perceived as trustworthy, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, and cheerful it adds to the equity of the brand.

To have a quality field-force you need to train peo-ple and, importantly, recruit the right people. The brand manager should always consider the med-ical representatives and the first-line managers as an integral part of the brand building process. M



“The brand manager should always consider the medical representatives and the first-line managers as an integral part of the brand building process.

Vivek Hattangadi is a Consultant in Pharma Brand Management and Sales Training at The En-ablers. He is also visiting faculty at CIPM Calcutta (Vidyasagar University) for their MBA course in

Pharmaceutical [email protected]


Business Context:

A leading Indian Pharmaceutical giant which had been recently acquired, was undergoing

an organization-wide Sarbanes Oxley Audit for sys-tems and processes. At the same time, one of its larg-est manufacturing units received warning letters and import alerts, citing serious manufacturing deficien-cies, from an international audit agency. This not only hampered the business but also questioned the credi-bility of the existing processes, leadership and people capability.

When the reasons for audit observations were inves-tigated and analyzed internally, it was found that be-sides technical discrepancies there were gaps and er-rors introduced due to human error, thus discrediting the existing HR systems. Specifically the recruitment procedure, training and development and attendance systems had gaps in them.

The corporate audit of HR systems and processes found that the systems and processes were crude, person-driven, stand alone and did not align to overall business requirements.

CASE STUDY: MOVING TO A COMPETENCY BASED HR SYSTEM IN PHARMAIn the wake of an acquisition and FDA warning, a large pharma company decided to completely overhaul its existing HR systems - here is the process and outcome

Diksha Fouzdar

Problem Statement: The HR leadership of the concerned BU was now faced with a dual challenge of ensuring compli-ance to Sarbanes Oxley audit and at the same time to work on remediation to ensure the external audit observations were addressed appropriately. This called for an immediate study of the existing HR process gaps, employee data and building an action plan to move from an adhoc approach to a strategic way of managing, developing and retain-ing talent.

It was clear that the action plan had to ensure com-pliant and aligned HR processes, justifying the em-ployee related decisions right from hiring, to devel-opment, growth and exit.

Challenges:The acquisition, followed by the import alerts had dented employee morale, not only in the particular BU, but across the organization. Job security had fallen and any change was bound to create people issues. The BU was in a state of flux with leadership transitions, employee exits and low productivity.

Adding to the complexity, the location had em-ployees ranging from workers to managers and ad-dressing the issue at one level could be risky. Also, till then the organization had enjoyed tremendous growth and the employees were used to certain privileges and work patterns and change in any form could meet with resistance.

The Solution:The HR leadership decided to launch a competen-cy mapping and development intervention for the BU with an ambitious goal of making it the foun-dation for all HR systems and processes like re-cruitment and staffing, training and development, performance evaluation, talent management and succession planning and employee engagement.


Diksha Fouzdar | Case Study: Moving to a Competency-based HR System in Pharma

“The acquisition, followed by the import alerts had dented employee morale, not only in the particular BU, but across the organization. Job security had fallen and any change was bound to create people issues.

Step 1A competency-based approach was taken because this would highlight the missing pieces of the puz-zle. It would highlight desired behaviors, knowl-edge and skill requirements, and would remove subjectivity from the HR processes. Importantly, it would serve as the link between individual perfor-mance and business results.

Step 2Awareness creation and communication of goals: once the vision and goals were defined there were open-house, focus group discussions and stake-holder engagement meetings to educate them about the concept of competency, share the broad action plan, take feedback on the implementation and create ownership. Utmost care was taken to ensure that the communication was clear, consis-tent and honest around the deliverables of the in-tervention.

Step 3Design & Development of the Competency Mod-el: To develop the competency model, an in-depth job analysis was done through work-study meth-od, to identify the universal set of technical and behavioral competencies for unique jobs. The unique jobs were culled out from the existing or-ganization charts and validated against jobs which were identified during job analysis. Post which, the competency dictionary was prepared and critical competencies were assigned to the job families along with differentiating set of competencies to graduate from one level to the other within the job family. This provided the first draft of the compe-tency framework.



Step 4Validation of the Model: the model was deliberated on with department heads, the Quality Head, plant leadership and middle level managers (who were initially involved in the job analysis process), to seek validation on the identified jobs, assign com-petencies to the job families and in differentiating competencies from each other.

Step 5Application of the Model: once the model was vali-dated, it was linked to various HR systems and em-ployed as follows:

ü The inputs of the job analysis were used to write complete and effective job descriptions

ü The technical and behavioral competencies were further used in training needs analysis for worker, supervisory and managerial em-ployees using other detailed interventions like 360 degree feedback or BEI, and customized training programs were organized

ü The competencies were shared with hiring managers along with standardized interview assessment questionnaire for a particular job to make hiring more objective

ü The assessment was further used in building skill inventory and Individual Development Plans and also support promotion recommen-dations beyond productivity data

Advantages:

The entire exercise was implemented in a time frame of one year and there was a visible impact after the initial hiccups and reluctance (even by the HR process owners). The first advantage was that HR’s credibility had increased and it was seen as a leader with thorough understanding of the business and people. This was possible because the intervention threw a lot of observational data around employee behavior, their perception about organization practices, work processes and leader-ship styles.



“The first advantage was that HR’s credibility had increased and it was seen as a leader with thorough understanding of the business and people.

Secondly, the managers who were technically very sound but not seen as effective team leaders, were happy as they had validated assessment data and training plans, which could be shared with the sub-ordinates in the form of feedback and to the corpo-rate for PMS, HIPO and other processes.

Thirdly, hiring was now merit-based and transpar-ent as there were interview assessment forms used across a panel of interviewers.

Lastly, the employees saw the commitment of the organization leadership towards it development in the time of business exigency and it gave a boost to employee morale and productivity. M



Diksha Fouzdar is sea-soned HR professional with keen interest in Organization Design and Development. She has a rich experience of working in the phar-

maceutical sector and likes to write about her observations and experiences, studying the intricacies of organization and people behavior and how they get impacted with change in global practices, technology and new workplace trends.

THE FUTURE OF PHARMA SALES & MARKETING

PARTNER WITH [email protected]

JUNE

2017

A MedicinMan annual event

FFE + CEO ROUNDTABLE AND BRANDSTORM 2017

FFE + CEO ROUNDTABLE AND BRANDSTORM 2017

JUNE

Field Force Excellence conference + CEO Roundtable is targeted at senior industry professionals in all functions. The CEO Roundtable is the highlight of the event and fea-tures some of pharma’s most well-known leaders.

Past topics include:• Practical Issues in Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE) imple-

mentation• Role Clarity from Front-line Manager to National Sales

Manager• Role of Technology as a Field Force Multiplier• Social Learning for the Field Force• Data Analytics: Actionable Insights for Segmented Mar-

keting• Role of Marketing, Medical, HR and L&D in Building the

Rx Capabilities of the Field Force• Navigating UCPMP, MCI Guidelines and other regulato-

ry issues• Reinvention of Doctor-Field Force interaction through

Digital and Social

Past Speakers include:• Sanjiv Navangul – Managing Director, Janssen India• K. Shivkumar – Managing Director, Eisai• Sujay Shetty – Partner, PwC India• CT Renganathan – Managing Director, RPG LifeScienc-

es• YS Prabhakar – CEO, Sutures India• Ali Sleiman – General Manager India, Merck Serono• Darshan Patel – Partner, PwC• Vikas Dandekar – Editor Pharma, ET• Shakti Chakraborty – Group President, Lupin• Ganesh Nayak – (fmr) CEO and Executive Director,

Zydus Cadila• Bhaskar Iyer – Divn VP, India Commercial Operations,

Abbott• Narayan Gad – CEO, Panacea Biotec• Girdhar Balwani – Managing Director, Invida• K. Hariram - Managing Director (retd.) Galderma India

BrandStorm is targeted at Brand Managers. The event features thought leaders in pharma brand management addressing the hottest topics of the day.

Past topics include:• UCPMP & MCI Guidelines – Implication for Pharma

Marketing• Brand Building: Case Studies from the Indian Pharma

Market• Unleashing the Power of Digital Marketing – Case

Studies• From Brand Management to Therapy Shaping• Marketing to Hospitals• Case Study: Zifi-AZ• Field Force – Doctor Interaction through use of Digi-

tal and Social Media• How to Optimize Healthcare Communication Cre-

ative Agency Services

Past Speakers include:• PV Sankar Dass – CEO & Director, CURATIO• Darshan Patel – Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers• Daleep Manhas – General Manager & Associate Vice

President at McCann Health• Praful Akali – Founder-Director, Medulla Communi-

cations• Pankaj Dikholkar – General Manager, Abbott• Salil Kallianpur – Executive Vice President - Primary

Care, GSK• Deep Bhandari – Director-Marketing & Sales Excel-

lence, UCB• Shiva Natarajan – General Manager, GSK• Shashank Shanbag – Business Unit Director, MS• Nandish Kumar – DGM and Head – Marketing, FD

To partner at the event contact:[email protected] | +91-968-680-2244

FFE+CEO RT BRANDSTORM

Documents

MEDICINMAN| Pharma Success Story: Medical Rep to Country Manager My message to all newcomers to the industry is to work hard, be smart, be innovative, learn and try new things and