Collaboration is difficult and involves conflict and debate, but the potential rewards for the pharmaceutical sector are worth the effort says Mike Straw, Achieve Breakthrough
Partnerships, drug development, open platforms, clinical trials: collaborating is key to success in the pharmaceutical industry.
But while pharma companies appreciate the need to work together, in my experience many of them are misdirecting their efforts into co-operation and co-ordination. These concepts, although often interchangeable, are quite different things when applied to an organisation. Collaboration can lead to real innovation and change; co-ordination and co-operation just lead to more of the same thing, only done more efficiently.
It’s well known that collaboration is key to new drug development and successful clinical trials. Eli Lilly, Proctor and Gamble and others, for instance, have made a great success of using the Innocentive website over the last decade to ‘crowdsource’ solutions – putting ego aside to collaborate with others – while AstraZeneca is successfully collaborating with Cancer Research UK and finding real breakthroughs, to name just a few.
Also, in a sector that has seen a proliferation of M&A activity, large players acquiring smaller ones are having to learn how to collaborate with their new offshoots in order to make the deal deliver on its promises. And, with cost pressures greater than ever before on public services around the world, pharma companies are having to collaborate with health services and research associations to find new ways of delivering within the market constraints.
What’s the difference?
Collaboration is about working towards an agreed objective in a way that produces more than could have been produced individually. Whereas co-operation is about co-ordinating processes, collaboration is about reaching a goal through dialogue, open-mindedness and interaction. It’s about having a common vision not just a common process.
Co-ordination and co-operation are still useful – but they are not revolutionary. Hierarchies often still exist and egos prevent people from fully embracing the partnership. At the same time, opinions are watered down in order to avoid conflict. It’s a negotiation and a suppression of tensions.
Alternatively, collaboration is not about always about just agreeing with each other. There is a place for conflict and contention. However, things must not be taken personally. It’s about having strong opinions, lightly held. Being prepared to argue a point and then accept whatever the outcome of the debate is, without resenting or brooding on it.
So collaboration is definitely not a ‘soft’ option for those that can’t hack it by themselves. It’s actually the harder thing to do – to set ego aside and bring many minds together, working for a mutually beneficial outcome. That’s why it’s hard for companies to do. The old hierarchies and pecking orders are deeply ingrained. To let go of that and open up to others and their ideas doesn’t come naturally.
A changing world
It needs to, though. The world has changed. Technology and social media have revolutionised how we act and behave. Ideas are crowdsourced, projects are crowdfunded – it’s all about people connecting and sharing in an ‘open source’ environment.
The traditional culture in pharma is that you keep your research and challenges to yourself, hoping to make the next big breakthrough. Although this is opening up in some areas, the desire to stay in control still remains. Organisations are fiercely protective of their own science. When they do co-operate, it is often still at arm’s length.
Your organisation may be co-operating and co-ordinating with others – but are you going to be able to create something new? In an industry facing multiple challenges, everyone is desperate for that leap that will deliver the next big thing. But in our rapidly-evolving modern world with its new technologies and economic uncertainties, no organisation can do everything on its own anymore. Looking at the tech sector, for example, even the mighty – and hugely profitable – Apple is entering into collaborations with others such as IBM.
When two giants of the tech sector (and deep historical rivals) start to collaborate, you know that it’s worth adopting more widely in other industries too.
Collaboration may not be easy or always come naturally, but I believe that it’s the pharma’s with the courage to collaborate who will be the most successful in the future. Others may struggle to survive.