Global competition, changing regulation, and scientific breakthroughs underscore the need for knowledgeable, innovative leaders in the pharmaceutical industry. Wharton Executive Education designs custom leadership development programs allowing pharmaceutical executives to tackle the challenges of an ever-changing marketplace. Wharton faculty have worked with pharmaceutical firms to develop the strategic organizational capabilities needed for success.
The volatility that accompanies these challenges provides an opening to enormous opportunity. With Wharton as your thought partner, your pharmaceutical organization will benefit from more than 25 years of industry experience, and the latest research and applied learning to meet your particular organizational needs. Whether your organization must build leadership capabilities among your senior executives or accelerate the advancement of your high-potentials among middle managers, our programs draw from a wealth of resources to develop and deliver customized solutions. In collaboration with our preeminent faculty, our experienced program directors work alongside you to create an integrated, seamless strategy that meets your organization’s learning needs.
Learn more about our executive development programs designed expressly for the pharmaceutical industry:
- Leadership solutions for pharmaceutical organizations
- Change management solutions for pharmaceutical organizations
- Marketing solutions for pharmaceutical organizations
Developing Leadership for the Pharmaceuticals Industry
Wharton faculty, along with a broad network of outside experts, have worked with pharmaceutical firms to provide education on a wide range of challenges, including:
- Leadership Development — Tough times in pharmaceuticals demand strong leadership. Wharton faculty such as Professor Michael Useem, author of best-selling books including The Leadership Moment, are among the top leaders and thinkers on leadership development. Working with the Wharton Center for Leadership and Change Management, Wharton can draw upon insights of the top researchers and thinkers in leadership, as well as the experience of senior leaders. Through Wharton Leadership Ventures, Wharton Executive Education has immersed executives in diverse experiential programs, from teaming experiences in crew boats to military boot camp to mountain climbing.
- Managing Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances — Rapid industry restructuring has redefined the pharmaceutical space, and alliances among diverse sets of partners are crucial for everything from building the R&D pipeline to marketing products. Managing the M&A process as well as alliances has become a key capability for the success of pharmaceutical firms. Wharton has some of the business world’s leading experts on M&A and alliances, who have conducted original research on what makes such partnerships effective. Wharton faculty have also led the way in understanding the integration capabilities that are required to turn a great partnership on paper into a successful business.
- Managing Risk — Pharmaceutical firms, navigating between market uncertainty and long lead times for drug development, have to carefully manage risk and conserve resources. Wharton faculty such as Professor Ian MacMillan have developed frameworks such as “opportunity engineering” to manage a portfolio of long-term and short-term projects and accelerate speed to market. They have pioneered approaches such as “discovery-driven planning” to carefully test assumptions and make staged investments based on building knowledge. This allows companies to create “real options,” making small investments today that open opportunities for the future.
- Developing Talent — With an aging and insular workforce, pharmaceutical companies need to manage talent and increase employee engagement. Wharton faculty have conducted extensive research on the modern workforce as well as worked with managers in developing the skills to increase employee engagement.
- Ethics — Pharmaceutical firms operate under the most intense scrutiny of any industry. Ethics teaching has been an integral part of business education at Wharton for over 25 years, and the school is home to one of the leading business ethics centers in the world. The Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research, established in 1997, sponsors global research on issues such as global business ethics, corporate governance, social contracts, deception, disclosure, bribery, and corruption. Wharton faculty can help prepare pharmaceutical leaders and employees for complex ethical challenges across diverse global cultures.
Managing Change in Pharmaceuticals
Change is the only constant in the pharmaceutical industry. Working with pharmaceutical firms, and a full range of other industries, Wharton faculty offer broad experience in developing strategy and leading organizational change. These capabilities include:
- Leading Organizational Change — As mature organizations in a rapidly changing environment, pharmaceutical companies need to be able to lead change, but doing so effectively is difficult. Researchers estimate that only about 20 to 50 percent of major corporate reengineering projects at Fortune 1000 companies have been successful. Wharton faculty have deep experience working with Fortune 500 companies in pharmaceuticals and other industries to develop the skills and broader mindsets for effective change. Wharton faculty provide strategies and experiences to help executives manage change. They have also taken executives to the battlefield at Gettysburg and used other experiences to examine the skills needed at key “leadership moments” in complex environments.
- Managing Uncertainty and Scenario Planning — In an increasingly uncertain environment, pharmaceutical leaders need to prepare for multiple futures. Wharton faculty include leading experts on scenario planning, who have consulted with pharmaceutical firms and companies in diverse industries. They have helped to create an understanding of the future in emerging areas of biotechnology, as well as the specific strategies that companies should pursue in meeting these futures. Wharton faculty also have focused on building “peripheral vision” to spot emerging opportunities and threats more quickly.
Building Pharmaceutical Marketing Capabilities
Wharton faculty work with pharmaceutical executives to develop broad marketing strategies, examine competition, and address specific issues such as pricing and advertising. Wharton’s strengths in this area include:
- Branding and Competitive Positioning — In a pharmaceutical environment characterized by extreme rivalry and hypercompetition, no strategy can be considered in a vacuum. Based on the work of leading thinkers in competitive marketing strategy, including Professors David Reibstein and George Day (co-editors of Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategies), Wharton has deep expertise in designing high-level marketing strategies and exploring the implications of competitive reactions. Faculty have developed simulations and worked with companies in anticipating moves of rivals.
- Pricing Strategies — Pricing is complex for products such as new drugs, affected by regulation and competition. But pricing decisions have never been more important. While pricing low enough to build markets, companies need to be sure they don’t leave money on the table. Wharton experts on pricing strategy can offer guidelines for setting prices and thinking more creatively about pricing strategies to avoid head-to-head “price wars.”
- Marketing Metrics — In an environment of scarce resources, measuring the results of marketing investments is critical in making sound decisions. Wharton faculty have been pioneers in working with pharmaceutical firms and other companies to identify key marketing metrics and develop “dashboards” to monitor investments.
- Sales Force Management — For pharmaceutical firms, the sales force has been both a major expense and an engine of growth. Wharton faculty have developed proprietary software for more effectively managing the sales force — to stimulate sales while controlling costs. They examine strategies for analyzing sales calls, realigning territories, shifting product or market emphasis, reallocating salesperson time, and adjusting sales force size. They also understand how to motivate and compensate salespeople and third-party distribution channels through pay systems and organizational structures.
- Future of Advertising — The rise of direct-to-consumer marketing has transformed the pharmaceutical industry, but in an age of online advertising, buzz marketing, and social networks, the meaning of advertising is changing. Wharton’s SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management is working with top agencies and new technology players on a major Future of Advertising project to understand what works in this new environment. Wharton’s deep knowledge of traditional advertising, as well as insights from this new work, offer a window on effective advertising strategies today and in the future.
