The role of medical consultants is evolving, and many organizations focus on and develop digital methods of reaching doctors and patients. How will the role of field workers change in the coming years? Is F2F contact still important and necessary?
I joined Stada at the most difficult moment – during the pandemic. The organization was not growing and my goal was to achieve growth. We needed to appreciate that the market was changing in terms of therapeutic areas that are growing and those that aren't. Also, we needed to increase the role of pharmacies and the evolving competences of representatives and managers to determine our approach to promotion which was strongly focused on solution.
We also redefined the approach to market segmentation and who expected what. Importantly, the organization and our people had to change. When I joined the firm, I initiated a mental shift among employees towards, “I would like to develop myself and grow with our organization and proactively change to generate double digit growth.”
Stada specialises in pain management, prescription medications as well as OTCs and supplements. Due to the pandemic and changing demographic, there are more and more young doctors, and this forced us to revise our strategy. We also started to revisit our specialists. We were so determined and motivated that the business started to grow. Even now, after the pandemic, the team wants to be in the field where possible. Also, the beginning of this year marked a launch of the program aimed at re-establishing relations with our clients – we started to organise F2F meetings with them.
Following the acquisition of Wallmark, Stada now reaches the consumer through Amazon, online pharmacies, e-commerce, conferences, webinars and in the mass market through advertising and direct communication with the patient.
Coming back to the topic, we shouldn’t generalize and say that the world is only digital now and you do not have to visit doctors F2F - in my opinion the middle ground is the best solution. The key to this is the product that is sold and the segmentation of doctors into those who want visits and those who do not. A lot depends on the therapeutic area and the age of the patients. In the specialist field, without f2f meetings, we will not be as recognisable as we would like.
Both pharmacy and chain markets grow and the role of the chain sector increases. Certainly, professionals connect digitally, but representatives still visit their partners. It's a myth that there are no direct visits.
Do the communication expectations shift along with the generational change in the medical community? What trends do you currently notice and which are you happy about?
The generational change is very beneficial for the community. It encourages young doctors to learn, to develop. They are focused on cooperation, through applications and webinars. They are patient- and new technology-oriented much more than the older doctors, who mostly see value in direct visits. Young people are “in the same team” as pharmaceutical company. They are a generation that wants to learn medicine - they are not only guided by routine.
To meet this need, we have built the Stada med portal. Through webinars we share knowledge about new aspects of pain treatment. Stada.med creates a space where doctors discuss patients and their needs. Young doctors are eager to learn how to help the patient and go off the beaten track.
My observation is that this is also happening in the pharmacists' community where they are closer to the patient. Mass market, on the other hand, is guided by acting on the emotions of the consumer through advertising, based on certain atavisms of people and their reflexes.
How will the patient benefit from digital communication?
The patient has already gained and will gain even more. We have two groups of patients:
How can advisory partners such as Friisberg help and what, in your opinion, should be their role in supporting the digital transformation?
I can see two areas here. The first one is the marketing, market research, patient / consumer research. How do patients feel about the digital age? Is it a good direction, is it helping or bothering them? What is good, what is irritating? Those partners can substantively contribute to this discussion.
The second is, of course, recruitment. During the process to focus on the analysis of the "digital" generation of candidates - the world is changing. We have a variety of people in the organization and we try to choose those who are open to new technologies and are eager to learn. If we want to keep up with trends and work in a pharmaceutical company, we have to learn all the time. The second thing is reliable feedback and making the candidates aware of their shortcomings in order to help them develop. Even though it is often difficult information, it is worth building candidate experience in this way.
Lukasz Dominiak
Poland
How will the working environment be in the future – and how will it influence the culture in companies? Over the past decades we have seen office hubs popping up everywhere. Physically working together in modern offices with a large attention on amenities, was a strong focus for both employers and employees, but Covid-19 has changed that.
So what now? How will the changes influence organizations and their culture in the future?
With Covid-19 we have fast forwarded into a new reality where organizations see employees working from home and not having the daily dose of intersocial activity and rapport by the water cooler or the coffee machine. Work is still being done and to some extend in an admiring, yet sometimes alarming way. We have adopted new technologies into our daily routines, and suddenly it is not required that we are in the office every day or attend meetings with a physical presence.
In my work as a trusted advisor, I have seen that our new normal can work, but it takes an effort. It takes an effort to build trust to new business partners and colleagues, and you must pay attention to how you communicate.
I have spoken to my network, to get you some answers!
Vertic – a digital marketing agency helping F500 companies with their digital journey – have successfully recruited new employees global working remote from the head quarter. They have had a head start in working on the distance and using all digital tools available. It is working in a way that they are planning to use remote hubs even more when bringing in new competences, not being limited by geographical distance. Still founder Mads Petersen is aware of the importance to bring in new colleagues in order to get to know each other, form trust and feel the culture.
Focus on mergers and acquisitions often is on numbers, optimizing business processes to reach the strategy, while employees and culture are often neglected. Studies show that Covid-19 has made it even more difficult or close to impossible to engage in the forming for a new culture and on-boarding new employees. However new tools and ways of working have been introduced and have become routine. You don’t have to be at the same location to work together saving a lot of time and money travelling. And the transition from one location to another has been easier than expected. Despite that the necessity of meeting in person, bonding and building trust is essential to grow a culture, and some employees have a hard time adjusting, lacking the trust amongst one another.
For McKinsey & Company, Covid-19 has brought different kind of assignments and projects along as well as they see a vast demand for their services. But the company has become more aware to have a focus on how their human capital is coping. New colleagues have been seen having a hard time adapting to the organization, when only working remotely and consider leaving the company within a year, due to it is hard to getting to know your colleagues and clients furthermore don’t expect you to be on site in different cities across the globe when you are working on an assignment. Hence HR and management are taking the temperature on the employees’ mental health weekly to look after their most valued asset. Employees have a hotline to the HR Manager and is offered professional guidance and help without having to document that they are not feeling well to the authorities or a doctor. Small groups of employees that don’t know each other are formally being put together for dining to small talk, exchange ideas and getting to know each other. Employees are encouraged to take a walk with a colleague or in a group whom they don’t socialize with on a regular basis.
Organizations have been quick to adapt to the new circumstances. New ways of working and technologies have been adapted quickly - and it is working – results are achieved – but it is important not to forget the human factor and to meet in person, if we want build trust, exchange ideas, and build and nurture the culture of the organization that bind us together.
Jacob Gylling Mahler
Partner, Copenhagen
Globalization and other major world events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall (consolidation of East and West Europe), wars in countries such as Iraq, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan etc, the aging populations and low birth-rates in major economies of the world have facilitated massive movements of talent from one place to another - mainly to the West.
From a microscopic perspective, in South Africa, where I live, we have seen massive transformation of workplaces since the fall of apartheid in 1994.
This transformation is facilitated by the introduction of employment equity laws, resulting in women and people of colour slowly moving into senior positions that were previously occupied by white males.
All these megatrends point to a dire need for proactive diversity management programs to help organizations manage and leverage on these changes.
It values what every employee brings to the table as unique so that the organization can grow and succeed accordingly. The overarching theory is that when employees come together from different backgrounds, creative problem-solving processes grow in turn. This is thanks in part to an increased number of varying perspectives.
Mainly, it can serve as a reflection of a diversifying world - thanks to demographic changes, globalization and a digitalizing workplace, diversity can help teams to be better attuned to the many needs of their customers.
A study by Glassdoor shows the following advantages of a diversified workforce:
Originally diversity management was primarily about discrimination in recruitment and promoting tolerance within the company. But over time, things have evolved to where companies recognise the importance of diversity in the workplace as a key competitive advantage.
Here are some tips on how companies can craft their diversity programmes:
Themba Mthombeni
Partner, South Africa
Top management positions, mainly in multinational companies, represent a goal for 83% of the employees within the age group of 23 – 40, according to a study made by Friisberg & Partners Romania, of 150 Bucharest-based subjects.
The career path towards a top management position invariably goes through middle management ones, yet the abilities and knowledge necessary for a top management role can be different.
Which are the differences between a middle management position and a top management one?
Following a study on a focus group of 52 middle and top managers, as well as from our own experience in the market, we came to the following conclusions:
In the end it is a personal decision, one makes in his/her career path.
Aiming to become a top manager means more than education, experience and data accumulation. It means even more than long work hours and sacrifices made. Becoming a top manager also means a higher degree of decision making in regards to putting to work one’s business vision.
Our study reveals not only the aspirations and goals of professionals in the market, but also a deeper understanding of what it takes to be a top manager.
Although native abilities are important, in order to successfully walk in the shoes of a top manager, one needs years of experience, a profound market understanding and, most of all, a business vision.
Floriana Enescu
Partner, Romania
Guglielmo Sallustio, from our office in Milan, is hosting our 115th Partner Conference this week. Accepting that for many travel is still not entirely safe, nor easy, we are running a Hybrid Conference with in-person and virtual delegates taking part.
We are all genuinely looking forward to seeing each other once again, to welcoming our new Partners and Consultants – we have had numerous arrivals to Friisberg in the recent months - and to discussing our 2025 growth strategy.
Ours is a Management Consulting firm that specialises in Executive Search, particularly for businesses operating in multinational markets.
Our six-monthly Conferences ensure that our Partners are always learning from each other to constantly improve the service, and the results, we deliver to our clients.
As Search consultants, we know all too well the frustration and disappointment that comes in the form a great candidate, with whom our Client has fallen in love, accepting a counter-offer...
In recent months we’ve seen several instances of counter-offers influencing the outcome of a recruitment process.
How best to handle a counteroffer?
Well, from a Headhunter’s perspective, our aim is to prevent the serious consideration of a counter-offer - and the answer may lie in a very thorough interview process.
We strive to make sure that candidates we’ve approached, and who are interested in a career move, have given it some thought, have weighed the pros and cons and have come to a decision based on their consideration, not a spur-of-the-moment impulse.
But with all the preparation and thoroughness, we can still never rule out the possibility of a candidate getting and accepting a counter-offer. It is human nature and we are in the business of humans!
And from a candidate viewpoint:
If you are unhappy with your current position/employer for whatever reason and are exploring your options, you should be prepared for the possibility of getting a counter-offer at the end of the process (although some employers do have a policy of making no counter-offers at all!).
Most typical reasons for a company to make a counter-offer is to retain valuable knowledge and to avoid the cost and efforts of replacing you. So let that sink in. Yes, there are some cases when accepting your employer’s counter-offer is the right move, but generally speaking, an increase in salary isn’t a magic wand - in fact with such an offer should come the realization that your employer has all but admitted that you are worth more to them than they have been paying you.
Interestingly, research published in Harvard Business Review suggests 50% of people who take a counter-offer end up leaving the firm within the next year anyway.
And what about Clients?
Having an ideal candidate reject your offer only to accept a counter-offer with their existing employer can be a bitter pill to swallow. After all, you put in the effort, met with the candidate, answered their questions, etc. but apparently, it was not to be.
Well, that may be the best outcome, given that the candidate was not motivated enough to join your company. It’s possible that a pay increase was the objective all along for the candidate, or when the candidate hands in her notice, she is genuinely surprised at the steps current employer is willing to take to keep her on board.
Sit down with your Search Consultants to examine the outcome, make adjustments if necessary (is it this one candidate? Have we been turned down before due to a counter-offer? Is our salary competitive? Should we avoid the competitor where we are targeting? And move on.
Veronika Mohasci
Senior Consultant, Budapest
Gerd Gigerenzer
First of all, we should identify what kind of environment we are in. If we know all the possible alternatives, their probabilities and possible consequences, we are in the world of risk and can determine the optimal strategy.
If individual components are unknown, we are in the world of uncertainty (i.e., 90% of the time). Calculating the best strategy is impossible. We must find individual solutions to the problem.
In doing so, let us be guided by this trinity of steps to take in uncertain situations:
Marvin Siebert
Partner, Germany
With so many diversity and inclusion activities underway it is easy to assume that progress is being made. Then why are there so few women in executive positions?
The new McKinsey report “Win-win: How empowering women can benefit Central and Eastern Europe” examines the potential benefits of greater gender equality for businesses and society, identifies barriers to progress, and suggests actions that could unlock as much as €146 billion in annual GDP by 2030—an 8 % increase over a business-as-usual scenario.
In the seven CEE countries analysed (Croatia, Czechia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine):
To find out why there are so few women in executive positions in CEE, the survey of approximately 3,000 employees in the region uncovered the following insights:
Ambition is not a challenge: Women are as ambitious as men, but they perceive more barriers to promotion. Men and women showed almost the same level of interest in getting promoted (57 % of women versus 56 % of men). However, 28 % of women said that their gender made it harder for them to secure a raise or a promotion.
Women blame themselves; men blame others: Women who thought they were unlikely to make it to the top said that it was because they lacked the necessary skills (43 %) or the right leadership style (38 %), or that promotions to top executive positions were not based on merit (33 %). A far smaller proportion of men said that they lacked the necessary skills for the job (8 % less than for women), and a much larger share said that it was because promotions were not based on merit (10 % more than for women). In other words, women are more likely to blame their own shortcomings for their failure to become executives, while men are more likely to blame the shortcomings of their company.
Unpaid work is a major barrier: Nearly 40% women provide daily unpaid care work (looking after children, the elderly, or people with disabilities). This is twice as many as men. Essentially, female employees are still working a “double shift”.
The COVID-19 crisis has created additional burdens on women: The increased burden has fallen disproportionately on women. 54% of women with children under the age of ten said the pandemic has made them more likely to consider scaling back on their paid work, compared to only 25 % of men.
Correcting this imbalance would tremendously benefit not only women in their careers and personal lives, it could have a potentially transformative effect on the economies of CEE.
Despite abundant evidence that gender equality in leadership is good for business, for an overwhelming majority of organizations advancing women into leadership roles is not a formal business priority.
One of the major and most complex challenges is to shift the underlying cultural factors. The McKinsey research highlights the need of the leaders of companies and public institutions to be visibly engaged in efforts to reduce the gender imbalance, rather than delegating this work to Diversity Officers.
But including men (holding 98% of CEO positions in CEE) in diversity efforts is not as simple as inviting them to a gender-equity event. Worldwide data from BCG shows that 96 % of companies with men actively involved in gender diversity initiatives report progress at all levels, compared to only 30 % of companies without men engaged. It seems intuitive that involving men would lead to greater results. Yet part of the challenge of getting men to join the efforts, according to BCG data, is that they tend to overestimate how well their company is doing in terms of gender issues.
To remove the barriers that hold women back at work, we have to acknowledge that the barriers exist. We need to realise that gender equality is not a “women issue”, it is a “leadership issue”.
The last thing that women need is men “rescuing” them or assuming the role of the workplace knight in shining armor.
Because men are in so many leadership roles, they have an enormous opportunity to accelerate progress. Men's voices are critical because of, not in spite of, their gender. When men speak up against gender disparities, they not only become visible as allies, they also raise awareness and acceptance about gender inequity as a shared problem, not a special interest.
Sources:
After two years of absence in light of the pandemic, September 2021 represents a new beginning for the city:
Milan is going through a slow and gradual reopening - it is seeking a new way of restarting.
Milan Design Week was one of the most anticipated design events to take place in Italy, and it has finally opened its doors to visitors. From the 5th- 10th of September, more than 350,000 architects, designers, artists, and craftspeople from all around the world had the chance to explore new design innovations and exchange ideas about interior design, furniture, and lighting. During the week-long event, Salone del Mobile, the renowned furniture and interior design event of the year, hosted local and international exhibitors at the Fiera Milano, Rho, along with interventions by world-renowned architects across the city.
New this year was the Supersalone, the special event of the Salone del Mobile, curated by the architect Stefano Boeri, that marks the restart in our
post-pandemic city. There were 425 brands in the four pavilions and 1,900 projects on display with spaces dedicated to companies and small consumers. The emphasis was on the smart component and the rediscovery of the home as an environment in which to live. There were 30,000 tickets only on the first day (the expectations were 50,000 for all six days), of which half were foreign visitors. And as we walk through the pavilions, the amount of visitors is undeniable.
"Milan is moving and, with Milan, Italy is moving again," said the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala. "It is an event that brings to the world the positive image of our city and the country. I welcome and endorse the invitation of President Mattarela, who I thank for his presence, to assume our responsibilities. Milan takes responsibility and wants to lead the restart.".
Guglielmo Sallustio
Partner, Milan
Many companies are poorly served by their current hiring practices – especially when competition for top talent remains so keen.
A recent study from research and advisory firm Gartner surveyed 3,500 managers and found that only 29% of new hires have all the skills required for their current roles, let alone for future ones. The shelf life of skills is becoming shorter and shorter. The research found that in key functions such as finance, IT, and sales, positions filled today will require up to 10 new skills within 18 months.
Globally, we are seeing some very specific themes emerge in 2021:
The pandemic created all sorts of disruption, from technology to corporate culture and a greater focus on diversity.
Many boards are focusing on the need to accelerate their digital transformation. and there is an increasing demand for business transformation specialists.
Virtual interviews have certainly cut the time it takes to interview and hire, but the hybrid scenario is here to stay where the first-round interviews can be done online, but further stages require in-person interviewing. However, virtual interviews can mean far less investment is required on the part of candidates, so it is vital to explore their true motivations for wanting a new position.
Companies also are giving priority to different values in their leaders, such as communication skills.
Sometimes it is good to hire for potential and transferrable skills not just specific industry experience. All too often firms simply put together a profile mirroring that of the person who has left, perhaps tacking on a few new requirements. At best, this highlights candidates who are prepared for yesterday’s challenges, but probably not ready for tomorrow’s.
Candidates are being increasingly selective about who they work for and companies are having to sell themselves to the candidates as much as the other way around.
There is an increased demand for leaders who can bring an organisation together with shared values and a mission worth pursuing, with transparency and responsibility, to present the organisation in the right way.
The freedom (or the imperative) to work remotely and to manage one’s own time has increased the effect that an individual can exert over the design of their jobs. WFH also has broadened the applicant pool - many employers are no longer limited by borders and geographies.
Executives who can motivate and lead their teams from afar will therefore bring a huge benefit to the stakeholders.
Finally, CEOs and Boards are very conscious of the need for contingency planning and lessons learned in anticipation of future events. Succession planning has become even more vital and so retaining key people is essential.
We are all living in a different world, and that world demands a new approach to hiring that can't be ignored.
Lorri Lowe
Partner, UK
You need to load content from hCaptcha to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from reCAPTCHA to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More InformationYou need to load content from Turnstile to submit the form. Please note that doing so will share data with third-party providers.
More Information
