The maturity of Strategic Account Management in most healthcare markets and in Pharma organisations is behind that of many other sectors, particularly in areas like the portfolio management of products and solutions, matrix working across multiple functions and external partnerships to enable wider and more compelling propositions in designated therapy areas. As a result, when it comes to setting the ambition for strategic account management in a Pharma organisation, there needs to be cognisance of, not only the organisation’s appetite for change but also that of its market, and in particular, its strategic account stakeholders.
What works begins by getting clarity on the external environment factors affecting your brand(s) and their competitive positioning, then look at what you want your most important stakeholders to think, feel and say about you, this starts to shape the level of ambition and provides the external narrative, from this we can look at what that will mean internally and begin to build a picture of the organisational capabilities required.
The next step is to look at where you are now, we do this at 3 levels, at an organisational level we translate the ambition into organisational capabilities and ‘what good looks like’, from this we can determine indicators of success, then for each of these, set measurable quality requirements to gain a hard evidential base, tailored to your ambition, of where you are now – which enables a clear gap analysis.
When the ambition is agreed, or tempered to suit, the methodology, tools and a framework for governance can follow – based upon best practice within the organisation and the insights Imonic can bring.
Taking this approach provides the assets to communicate the ambition, the reasons why, and how the organisation intends to reach the ambition and by when.