The shift toward a more customer-centric, omni-channel approach to marketing is a fundamental transformation affecting many industries.
In the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences industry, for example, it arises in response to multiple trends including customer adoption of digital technology, changing customer access dynamics, a shift to outcomes-based compensation, and rising patient empowerment.
Most companies have embraced this shift and are investing significant resources behind enabling it, including investments in technology platforms, process change and training.
Unfortunately, in our experience, the impact of these investments is severely limited by a lack of attention to the human side of change. Preparing employees for change is a “make or break” factor but it rarely gets the amount of planning time it requires. In fact, research from McKinsey and Company shows that 70% of all transformations fail due to many human-related factors such as poor communication, lack of participation and buy-in, enough training or resources.
Omnichannel marketing transformation is an example of an emergentchange, arising in response to steadily evolving trends. This sort of change is challenging for organizations because there isn’t an immediate threat that compels employees to alter their behavior. It can be much easier for employees, including senior leaders, to remain in their comfort zones. Individuals will readily admit the environment has changed, but since there is no immediate crisis that compels sustained, dramatic change, only incremental progress is achieved, often at the level of isolated individual projects.
12 tips for addressing the people element
In the table below we review the “people” elements of successful transformation plans which are frequently overlooked. We then offer 12 tips for successfully executing each of these elements.
| Transformation Stage | (Often overlooked) People Elements |
| Prepare | Executive sponsor Cross-stakeholder coordination Role definition Change management milestones |
| Implement | Prepare employees for change Sustain employee engagement Change champions Early wins |
| Embed | Change momentum Rewards Review and continuously improve Celebrate |
Prepare phase
1. Executive sponsor: Many initiatives fail due to lack of senior leader support. To combat this, appoint an executive sponsor, and take care to clearly define the expectations and requirements of the role including the ability to make difficult and bold decisions, providing funding and sustaining belief in the initiative.
2. Cross-stakeholder coordination: Creating truly customer-centric experiences requires aligning stakeholder activities across functions, but many organizations fail to achieve this level of coordintion.
Take time to coordinate the dependencies that exist between functions. For example, in Pharma, Medical and Marketing should ensure content plans are non-redundant, meet the needs of HCP audiences and are coordinated to provide a pleasing experience. Similarly, Marketing, Medical and Market Research should coordinate measurement approaches.
3. Role definition: The shift to customer-centric omnichannel marketing necessitates the evolution of existing roles and the creation of new ones, from marketing to sales to market research to agency partners. The absence of clearly defined roles can lead to duplicative activities, inefficiency and confusion.
Use a formal model like RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) or DAI (decide, advise, inform) to clarify internal and partner roles.
4. Change management milestones: When assessing goals and milestones, in addition to the organisational performance, consider individual and change management performance. Factors such as adoption metrics, employee feedback, training participation and effectiveness are all indicators and are critical in sustaining change.
Implement phase
5. Prepare employees for change:..
