Pharma has relied on Labs for years and years.
Thinking Pharma believes that it may be time to move on.
I bet you’re thinking LABS means LABORATORIES.
In fact the LABS I’m referring to stands for:
LUMBERING, ADMINISTRATIVE, BUREAUCRATIC SYSTEMS (LABS).
These are the Systems described by The Economist Intelligence Unit In their 2009 Report ‘Doctor Innovation, Shaking up the health System.’
The Report was based on a number of interviews with leading experts and senior executives as well as extensive desk research.
It also draws on a survey of 775 healthcare professionals from the US, UK, Germany, and India.
Their research suggests that policymakers and healthcare professionals should focus on five main areas of system innovation:
- Share information, especially on the outcome of treatments, to improve quality.
- Bring outside entrepreneurship to healthcare.
- Deliver integrated care based on medical conditions rather than provider expertise.
- Treat patients as a source of innovation.
- Use these ideas together.
The researchers list several compelling stories of successful innovations in medicine.
In summary they say :-
“These various examples point to innovations that get at the root of the obstacles to further improvement of healthcare.
Such ideas are not simple market prescriptions for what ails healthcare, however much they may borrow from other sectors.
They are about thinking differently in order to do things differently.
Such ideas are worthwhile not because they may or may not be based on a market- led approach, but because they provide better healthcare.”
Did you spot those two fundamentally troublesome words buried in that quote?
‘Thinking Differently’
Troublesome, because it really is very difficult to think differently.
Thinking Control
Thinking Differently is particularly difficult when you’ve spent years swathed in the cosy impenetrable cocoon of a Lumbering Administrative Bureaucratic System (LABS).
A System designed not to do things, but to control how things are done.
Fred Emery’s summary of a bureaucracy is that “no-one may do anything unless given permission by someone at least one position higher.”
(See: ‘THE NEXT CHOICE’ Controls or Connections by Tony Richardson and Jock Macneish Don’t Press Publishing 1995)
Perhaps those responsible for leadership in Pharma might help people they lead by encouraging a new Thoughtware.
A Thoughtware that allows sensible people - to do sensible things - without seeking or receiving ‘approval’.
Thinking Good Judgement
An example of this sort of empowered judgment based Thoughtware was fundamental to the success of Nordstrum.
Nordstrum grew from one downtown Seattle shoe store into a nationwide fashion specialty retailer.
As a retailer Nordstrum was renowned for its customer service, generous size ranges and a wide selection of the finest apparel, shoes and accessories for the entire family.
Wide aisles, use of back wall displays, tasteful fixtures, seating for shoppers and its trademark live piano players, Nordstrom epitomized specialty retail department store shopping.
For many years, new employees were given a copy of the famous Nordstrom's Employee Handbook which stated:
Rule #1: Use good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.
Can you see something like that happening in Pharma?
Empowered judgment, that is, not musical treatment packaging.
So can Pharma dispense with its reliance on LABS or is musical packaging a more realistic goal?
(Tomorrow’s Blog: Divisions, Sections and Departments – Relevance in the Social Media Era?)
Comments