Papers

One of the things that has emerged from Pragmedic's recent research is that the current pharmaceutical industry landscape is the result of powerful political, economic, technical and social forces. In this article, Dr Brian D. Smith discusses how the pharma industry has been, and will be, shaped by the flows of history.

Without effective implementation, strategic planning is a futile exercise. In knowledge-intensive markets, such as those for pharmaceuticals and medical technology, the most important, value-creating parts of strategy implementation rely on the discretionary activity of motivated, committed individuals. This article reviews previous research into individual motivation and commitment and draws from it five recommendations for improving strategy implementation, all of which contradict typical management practice.

Pharmaceutical marketers often have to make decisions without reams of supporting data and it’s hard to imagine a situation in which marketers’ decisions will ever be as evidence-based as, for example, their clinical or scientific colleagues. But it would be unprofessional to hide behind a “we can’t be perfect so let’s not try” attitude.

Invisible constraints on the company environment can hinder effective strategic change. In this feature article in Pharmaceutical Marketing Europe, Dr Brian Smith looks at institutional theory and applies it to the changing environment of to the global pharmaceutical industry.