Background and Challenge

External marketplace forces and plans to grow the company through product acquisitions encouraged a growing biotech company to evaluate their field organizational structure. The primary goal was to become a more dominant player in a therapeutic area. Through WLH thought partnership, senior leaders decided to create a regional structure that would be more responsive to healthcare ecosystem dynamics. At the same time, the organization was seeking to enhance business planning and execution efforts to ensure tighter field coordination and resource optimization.

Approach and Deliverables

In order to approach the redesign effectively, WLH conducted a diagnostic to identify opportunities for improving business and account planning, field collaboration, and coordination. The input gathered, combined with WLH’s change management expertise, led to the development of a strategic implementation plan. Business risks were identified, and mitigation strategies were developed to breakdown silos and encourage more effective planning. Various work streams related to senior team alignment, business and account planning processes, stakeholder engagement, human capital strategy implications, communications planning, and business acumen skill development.

To ensure the client achieved the desired results, WLH leveraged its framework, The 5C’s of Transition Leadership® which provided a structured approach to help leaders improve their change agility capabilities and more effectively lead others through transition. WLH designed the roll-out for the commercial organization which included senior leadership and employees from regions and districts where they were given the opportunity to operationalize the approach with their newly configured teams. Throughout the project, enabling functions were also involved to further understand implications and to make any changes (if necessary) to support the overall strategic vision.

Results

WLH worked closely with senior leadership and the field leaders to ensure they were ready to translate the strategic vision and execute the change.

The WLH team:

  • Provided counsel and led the organizational redesign, as well as identification of coordinating mechanisms
  • Developed a business and account planning process to ensure regional business plans were developed in a compliant manner
  • Defined contracting processes to ensure consistent execution across the organization
  • Created Leader-led jump-start workshops for new directors to conduct with their teams (focused on adapting to change, building high performing teams, transitioning accounts, and developing business and account plans)
  • Provided facilitation and support at a National POA meeting through change implementation workshops
  • Amended role descriptions to reflect how responsibilities needed to evolve given marketplace changes
  • Partnered with Learning and Development to identify solutions that would enhance core competencies
Author
Wendy L. Heckelman, Ph.D.

Dr. Wendy Heckelman, president and founder of WLH Consulting, Inc. has over 30 years of experience working with Fortune 100 industry clients. These include pharmaceutical, biotech, health care, animal health medicines, and consumer products, as well as international non-profit organizations and growing entrepreneurial companies.

Tags
Change Management5C'sCase StudiesOrganizational RedesignBusiness Planning