Organizational Restructuring of a Large Operations Group

Background and Challenge

After a major corporate reorganization, the medical operations group of a global pharmaceutical corporation sought new synergies through restructuring while continuing uninterrupted service to its internal and external stakeholders. WLH worked with senior leaders to develop the group’s strategy, design its structure, and identify operational efficiencies.

Approach and Deliverables

To approach the redesign in a rigorous manner, WLH conducted a diagnostic with senior leaders and stakeholders to understand the organization’s areas of effectiveness and opportunities for improvement. In addition, workforce capacity needs were assessed to identify opportunities to streamline processes and balance workloads. With a focus on change management and effective strategic implementation, WLH developed a comprehensive plan to determine how the organizational structure impacted workflow, team configuration, and customers.

WLH partnered with the client to:

• Redesign core processes, create new process maps and update SOPs
• Create role descriptions for all Medical Operations’ positions
• Facilitate high-level, cross-functional teams coordinated across the larger organization and to resolve open issues
• Design on-boarding toolkits for new members of the functional subdivisions
• Work with business unit and third-party system designers to develop and implement multiple new data and reporting systems
• Manage the project with daily updates on milestone achievements to ensure business continuity
• Shift and re-assign responsibilities to increase efficiency and colleague productivity

Results

With WLH’s support, the client successfully re-defined the roles and responsibilities of the Medical Operations team while maintaining business continuity. WLH also identified and helped address process inefficiencies that significantly reduced expenses for the function. WLH worked with internal leaders to train employees on all new processes and upgraded skills related to decision-making, cross-functional alignment, and influencing without authority. The structure and process improvements implemented during the restructuring remained in place for more than six years.