Essential Elements of a Digital Strategy for the Launch of a New Product

MEDICINMAN
Field Force Excellence
TM
October 2014 | www.medicinman.net
LIFETIME
ACHIEVEMENT
AWARD
PRESENTED TO
DR. TARUN GUPTA
Since 2011
Connect with Anup Soans on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter
Anup Soans is an Author, Facilitator and the
Editor of MedicinMan.
Write in to him: anupsoans@medicinman.net
Meet the Editor
Ganesh Nayak, COO and Executive
Director of Zydus Cadila, a legend in
his own right, presented the lifetime
achievement award to Dr. Tarun Gupta for his
colossal contribution to the Indian Pharma
industry at the Pharma Marketing Excellence
Awards function organized by AIOCD
Pharmasofttech AWACS on Sep 25 at the
Nehru Centre in a glittering ceremony.
A galaxy of pharma leaders from MNC and
domestic companies paid glowing tributes to
TG as he is fondly called. Sami Khatib
Chairman & Managing Director of Medley
Pharmaceuticals and Bhasker Iyer, Divisional
Vice President of India Commercial
Operations at Abbott India were the
prominent dignitaries who did the honors.
Ganesh Nayak, COO and Executive Director of Zydus Cadila, presents the
Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Tarun Gupta
For more pics from the Pharma
Marketing Excellence Awards
visit medicinman.net

Rewards and recognition are an integral part of of work-life and AIOCD Pharmasoftech AWACS did a splendid job of organizing and executing the first-ever Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards for Indian Pharma marketing professionals.
Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards 2014 was presented to marketing teams under various categories on September 25th 2014 at the Nehru Centre Mumbai.
The Awards were an overwhelming success with over 300 marketing people gathered to witness the glittering event. Coffee networking in the afternoon followed by cocktails in the evening enabled Indian Pharma marketing professionals to meet and exchange notes - some, after a really long time.
The dignitaries present included Dilip Shah, the Secretary General of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and Jagannath S. Shinde, President of All India Organization of Chemists & Druggists (AIOCD) in addition to pharma CEOs, presidents and other senior managers from across the country.
Team AIOCD Pharmasoftech AWACS deserves a resounding applause for initiating Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards.
Team AIOCD PharmaSofttech AWACS led by Ameesh Masurekar and Hari Natarajan
See also Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar on page 30
Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards 2014

Good health is a fundamental human right. But despite recent rapid improvements, unprecedented healthcare challenges in India, which demand immediate attention and thoughtful action, remain. Ensuring the safety, efficacy, quality, affordability and accessibility of medicines and treatments to patients when and where they are needed is of critical importance. DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference: The Future of India Healthcare: Patients, Access and Innovation, presented October 16-18 at the Palladium Hotel in Mumbai, will bring together leading regional and global healthcare experts, including representatives from industry, academia, regulatory, payers and patients, to deliberate how best to catalyze the needed transformation in Indian healthcare so that putting patients first, fostering innovation and enhancing access are clear directives.
Providing excellent patient care is the driver for all healthcare professionals; in this care paradigm, hearing and responding to the patient voice is critical to success. Among its offerings founded on this “Patient First” approach, DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference will present a unique session focused on important ethical considerations affecting patient participation in clinical trials in India: “Participant Understanding and Informed Consent” will address challenges and barriers to patient understanding of clinical trials and to the application of current pertinent regulations (e.g., videotaped informed consents); it will also explore international standards for data surrounding their clinical trial participation and potential regulations requiring the return of clinical trial results to these patients.
This conference will also feature a daily opening keynote by key thought leaders from India plus a subsequent plenary presentation: M.K. Bhan (former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India) will deliver the October 16 keynote, followed by the Patients plenary session; G.N. Singh, Drug Controller General of India, will deliver the October 17 keynote, followed by the Access plenary session; and the plenary session on Innovations will follow the keynote delivered by Kiran Shaw Mazumdar (Chairperson and Managing Director, Biocon) on October 18.
DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference will be co-chaired by Padmashree Prof. Ranjit Roy Chaudhury (Chairman, Task Force for Research, Apollo Hospitals Group) and Alexandra Pearce (Senior Vice President; Head, Global Regulatory Affairs; Glenmark Pharmaceuticals).
To learn more about this DIA 2014 9th Annual India Conference or to register online, visit www.diahome.org/India-9thAM.
About DIA: DIA is the global connector in the life sciences product development life cycle. An association of more than 30,000 key stakeholders, DIA builds productive relationships by bringing together regulators, life sciences professionals and academics, patient advocates and other influencers to exchange knowledge and collaborate in a neutral setting. DIA is a global community representing thousands of stakeholders working together to bring innovative, safe and effective products to patients.
DIA is an independent, nonprofit organization with its global center located in Washington, DC (US). Additional regional offices cover India (in Mumbai); North and South America (Horsham, PA, US); China (Beijing); Europe, North Africa and the Middle East (Basel, Switzerland); and Japan (Tokyo). For more information, visit www. diahome.org or call DIA India +91.22.67653226

MedicinMan Volume 4 Issue 10 | October 2014
Editor and Publisher
Anup Soans
CEO
Chhaya Sankath
COO
Arvind Nair
Chief Mentor
K. Hariram
Advisory Board
Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Jolly Mathews
Editorial Board
Salil Kallianpur; Dr. Shalini Ratan; Shashin
Bodawala; Prabhakar Shetty; Vardarajan S;
Dr. Mandar Kubal; Dr. Surinder Kumar
International Editorial Board
Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay
Executive Editor
Joshua Soans
MedicinMan Academy:
Prof. Vivek Hattangadi, Dean, Professional Skills
Development
Letters to the Editor: anupsoans@medicinman.net
revive
pride in the
profession Less talk and more action is needed
to attract, nurture and retain talent in
pharma sales. K. Hariram QASK AN EXPERT
What are the essential
elements of a digital
strategy for the launch of
a new product?
Doctor’s are not Pharma’s only customers and
Pharma needs to reach out to the broader
community of stakeholders and win their trust.
INDIAN PHARMA’S
IMAGE PROBLEM
Noumaan Quereshi
PERFORMANCE – THE
UNKNOWN CREATURE
Hanno Wolfram
Performance KPIs need to be well-defined
and unambiguous or else they lose their
power to drive outcomes and affect change
9
10
14
16
Salil Kallianpur
CONTENTS

Prof. Vivek Hattangadi’s
incredible journey from a cycle-cart
salesman to an author,
professor and industry mentor.
PROF. HATTAGADI’S
FANTASTIC JOURNEY
IN PHARMA BRAND
MANAGEMENT!
DEAR MEDICINMAN
SEEN ON FACEBOOK
Get Answers to Your Career and work-relat-ed
issues from MedicinMan Expert Panel
Interesting discussions seen on the social
media
9 Talent-Management
Challenges
Brief from the 2014 OPPI
HR Summit on “Attracting,
Developing and Retaining Talent”
Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar
at the Marketing Excellence Awards
Ceremony 2014
21
26
28
29
31
K. Hariram
CONTENTS

*Optional: A psychometric assessment for a more specific intervention. Psychometrics assessments give in-depth
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9 | MedicinMan October 2014
Time and again, I have heard the senior members of Pharma companies talking about the quality (or the lack if it) of MRs including the status of their not getting enough ‘in-clinic’ time.
What baffles me is that everyone keeps talking about it and no one is willing to do anything about it. I can understand if industry outsiders talk about it. However, insiders talking about it is bordering on helplessness and accepting the ‘status quo’.
Is it so difficult to have quality MRs?
Is it impossible to make the ‘ordinary’ to ‘extraordinary’?
Is it the fault of MRs, if they lack the quality?
Has the current selling and marketing approaches contributed to this deterioration?
Who is responsible?
I have successfully trained a couple of BCOMs and BAs as effective MRs and I am very proud of their accomplishments in their career growth. Quite a few of them are into responsible positions in the industry today and they can talk better science though they are from commerce or arts background. The ‘fire in the belly’ is important and so also the grooming. I am not undermining the importance of science in selling in anyway. All I am saying is “challenge and change the limiting beliefs”.
My outlook and strong beliefs based on experience got further reinforced after I read an interesting blog by Mr. Tapan Ray , dated, September 15, 2014 titled, Ringside View Of A Key Pharma Job Missing ‘The X Factor.
Yet another hard hitting story based on the recent real life experience with clear suggestions as to how one could improve the status of MRs who continue to be the lifeline of the industry.
There are a handful ex-industry people and experts who are very keen to help the industry formulate such an accreditation programs. Is the industry ready and willing to support such programs?
Will leaders of pharma industry take a cue and become proactive to arrest the deterioration of the quality of MRs?
Industry leaders - please take note and ACT. Building quality MRs is in your (and our) hands. Build quality and instill pride…the joy of Pharma selling.
“For an organization that seeks to lead in the 21st century, pride is a form of investment currency that is growing in importance. The challenge is to capture its value, deploy its power, and multiply its benefits throughout the organization.” - Jon Katzenbach - KH
K. Hariram
E
Less talk and more action is needed to attract, nurture and retain talent in pharma sales.
K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at Galderma India.
He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a regular contributor. khariram25@yahoo.com
revive pride in the profession
The ‘fire in the belly’ is important and so also the grooming. I am not undermining the importance of science in selling in anyway. All I am saying is “challenge and change the limiting beliefs
”

Q
First of all, do not despair. A digital strategy is not as intimidating as it sounds. It is just a document outlining how your company or client should handle the different aspects of digital from the website and mobile to email, social media and digital marketing. It doesn’t need to cover everything in huge depth (it would be unreadable if it did), but instead should establish some general approaches to these different areas.
The Scope Of Your Digital Strategy
I will not deal with target audience and key messages as that will not be any different from the brand strategy. It is important to remember that digital platforms are just another channel of communication. While the functionalities of your communication will change (add better features that accompany technology), the essence of your targeting and communication does not.
That said, the exact scope of your digital strategy will vary depending on the organization and what they do. That said, your digital strategy should encompass a lot more than a website. Digital is further reaching than that.
In most cases a digital strategy should encompass:
ww
Mobile – Are you going to build a responsive site? Do you need native apps? If so, what platforms will you support?
ww
Social Media – What platforms are you going to support? How are you intending to use social media?
ASK AN EXPERT
SALIL KALLIANPUR ANSWERS
What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the launch of a new product?
E

”
Who is responsible for it? What policies exist around
acceptable behavior? How are negative events (cus-tomer
complaints, bad comments, adverse reporting
etc.) handled?
wwEmail – This should cover everything from newsletters
to trigger based emails. You should address who is
responsible for email correspondence and how your
email lists are maintained and privacy is protected.
wwDigital Marketing – This would encompass every-thing
from SEO and PPC (pay-per-click) to banner
advertising and affiliate schemes.
wwWebsite – What features should you support on the
website? How do you decide on content? Who is
responsible for site maintenance from design, content
and technical perspectives?
In each area the digital strategy should look at the bene-fits
these technologies have for your business, assess its
current performance and make recommendations over
the short and long term.
This scope can prove challenging for an individual to ad-dress,
as it requires broad knowledge. If that’s the case, it
may be that your digital strategy will have to recommend
getting in experts to provide more detail in certain areas.
It is better to be upfront with your limitations than leave
the strategy vague.
With so many competing areas fighting for attention and
only limited resources available, it is hard to write a digital
strategy without looking at budget.
You can’t avoid talking about money. Although it is im-possible
to define your digital strategy accurately enough
to create detailed budgets, that does not mean you can
avoid the subject of money. Senior management will
need some indication of budget in order to plan expendi-ture
going forward.
A good place to start is by shifting managements think-ing
away from a series of fixed cost projects to a program
of ongoing development. This concept needs to be sold
to management as this works like an open source pro-gram
which is not heavy in artifacts or processes. Yet they
contain quality and rich functional capability to users.
Look at this site for better understanding the concept. A
program of ongoing development is much better suited
to the evolving nature of the website and its features. A
common approach to this kind of ongoing development
is to adopt an agile model. This uses a continually evolv-ing
stack of prioritized features and content that needs
developing. As elements from the stack are developed,
new elements are added in a continual cycle.
In each area the digital
strategy should look
at the benefits these
technologies have for your
business, assess its current
performance and make
recommendations over the
short and long term.
Salil Kallianpur | Ask an Expert: What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the launch of a new product?

This approach recognizes that your website and other
digital assets are never finished and that it therefore
makes no sense to apply a fix price budget to them. In-stead,
expenditure on digital should be thought of as an
annual, ongoing budget like you would spend on market-ing.
By shifting to an annual ongoing budget rather than
a series of one off projects, budgeting becomes much
easier.
If the company wants to manage digital in-house, then
it is a matter of establishing approximate costs for an
internal Web team. Looking at the proposed work levels
will give you an approximate idea of how big the team
will need to be and who to include. This in turn will allow
you to establish costs once you include salary, equipment
and training.
If the company needs to outsource some or all of their
digital work then things become a bit trickier. Ideally
some form of retainer at an agreed level will probably
work best. However, most organizations don’t like work-ing
with external contractors in this way. In that case it
is a matter of quoting on some of the work scheduled in
the roadmap and extrapolating this over the year.
This may all be sounding a little vague and that is
because it is. As I implied at the beginning, budgeting
digital work is notoriously difficult. However, it cannot be
entirely ignored. A best guess, with a suitable amount of
contingency added, is better than nothing. At the very
least it will start a discussion with senior management
about the level of investment they can maintain. - SK
Salil Kallianpur | Ask an Expert: What are the essential elements of a digital strategy for the launch of a new product?
”
A program of ongoing
development is much
better suited to the
evolving nature of the
website and its features.
A common approach
to this kind of ongoing
development is to adopt an
agile model.

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Guess, what was the topic that got the highest media coverage for pharma sector in the financial year April 2013 – March 2014 in India? The two highly covered topics in the last one-year were ‘quality of drugs’, followed by ‘patents’.
In Public Relations parlance both are ‘issues’ – subjects that pose reputation risks. On a comparative basis, pharma industry had negligible visibility in Human Resources stories, CSR initiatives, etc., which are reputation building blocks, effectively utilized by most industries or at least by leading companies of a sector. Is exclusive focus on one customer segment i.e. Doctors, becoming the nemesis of the pharma sector?
Pharma spends millions on disease awareness campaigns, but the focus is gaining visibility for KOL’s: a little thinking can get companies more bang for the buck. A telecom company runs a social awareness campaign and leverages ‘reputation capital’ out of the exercise by engaging multiple stakeholders and going to town profiling it. But the pharma industry seems to be finding solace in the notion that ‘pharma industry is different’ and is getting isolated in general public opinion, focusing exclusively on Doctors commuNoumaan
Quereshi
Noumaan Qureshi works with the healthcare practice of one of India’s leading Public Relations firm. Views expressed are personal.
Doctors are not Pharma’s only customers and Pharma needs to reach out to the broader community of stakeholders and win their trust.
INDIAN PHARMA’S
IMAGE PROBLEM
E

nication. Is it really focus on business or a comfort
zone that pharma managers are getting into, without
realizing the overarching impact it is creating on the
sectors reputation and no gain for their corporate’s
reputation!
Pharma sector is an important player in the Indian
economy, contributing through exports, employment,
capital flow, etc. But is the industry getting its due
respect in public perception and media coverage?
One may debate that pharma industry is under the
spotlight around the world, but aren’t the issues of
pharma in developed markets different from issues
in India, which is a pre-dominantly generics market?
India today is touted as the pharmacy to the world
for supplying cost-effective medicines, can this be the
first step in pharma’s reputation building in India!
This brings us to the point as to why reputation is
important. For corporates, a strong reputation helps
attract resources (human, financial, etc.), provides
support to marketing initiatives and provides lever-age
in a crisis situation. An industry’s reputation is
important to be engaged in policy discussions, for
attracting and retaining talent, to get positive tone
in media coverage and above all, how favourably the
public perceives it.
In business organisations, the CEO is the driver of
corporate reputation supported by the corporate
communications team. For an industry, the industry
association has to play a pivotal role. Keeping aside
their differences, can the multiple pharma industry
associations in India come to some common ground
that helps boost the industry’s image! For a change,
can the medical representatives take the first step and
work towards positioning themselves as ‘information
facilitating healthcare professionals’, not just to the
Doctor but to the larger populace as well. It will be a
small step, but a leap for the pharma industry’s and
medical representatives’ public perception. -NQ
Noumaan Qureshi | Indian Pharma’s Image Problem
”
This brings us to the point
as to why reputation is
important. For corporates,
a strong reputation helps
attract resources (human,
financial, etc.), provides
support to marketing
initiatives and provides
leverage in a crisis situation.

PERFORMANCE – THE
UNKNOWN CREATURE
The number of buzzwords in our industry are
many and so are the consequences of using
them without much thought.
Our industry is flooded with consultants who keep
talking about benchmarks and best practices trying to
establish high performing companies with high per-formance
people. The problem with many consultants
is that they seem to use buzzwords. Sometimes these
words miss a clear meaning at all and often these buzz-words
are used with very volatile meanings, differently
understood by everyone.
For example “Benchmark” or “benchmarking” is often
used in the sense of “good example”. However “bench-marking”
is a methodology or an exercise comparing
one’s business processes to other companies, drawing
conclusions and making managerial decisions based
on these findings. The drawback of using benchmark
in the sense of “best practice” or “good example” lies in
the fact that consultants often tell pharma managers
that “doing what the others do” will deliver additional
value or a competitive advantage. But the principles
of marketing tell a very different story: a company can
only gain a competitive advantage by doing some-thing
different - making the difference. Marketing is
the art of differentiation.
Worldwide market-leading companies show, that there
is only one IKEA®, one apple®, one Carrefour®, one Aldi.
Nobody in these companies would think of copying
Hanno Wolfram
”
The problem with many
consultants is that they
seem to use buzzwords.
Sometimes these words
miss a clear meaning at all
and often these buzzwords
are used with very volatile
meanings, differently
understood by everyone.
The author Hanno Wolfram is the
founder (1996) and owner of www.
Innov8.de , a Germany based
company offering change and
consulting projects and KPI-seminars
for pharmaceutical companies.
SPECIAL FEATURE
Performance KPIs need to be well-defined
and unambiguous or else they lose their
power to drive outcomes and affect change
E

Hanno Wolfram | Performance - the Unknown Creature
Sales managers at every level talk
about your, their, the company’s
and others’ “performance”. Often
you can hear them talk about
“high-performing teams” or
“low-performing reps”. The core
question is what they mean with
this word, which often is used
to start or justify managerial
consequences.
”
something from their competitors. And no company has
ever gained a competitive advantage by copying the
“best practice” from someone else.
Sometimes one of these crucial buzzwords
for Pharmaceutical Reps is “Performance”.
What consultants and their clients often
tend to forget is to ask the question:
“What is performance?”
You may have heard the reporter com-menting
on a football-match like this:
“The cricket team showed a great perfor-mance,
but sadly lost!” The week later the
same reporter could have said: “The cricket
team showed a great performance and won.”
Sales managers at every level talk about your,
their, the company’s and others’ “performance”. Often
you can hear them talk about “high-performing teams”
or “low-performing reps”. The core question is what they
mean with this word, which often is used to start or justify
managerial consequences.
It is a great exercise to define the word “performance”.
There must be a clear and unambigous definition, since
talking about high-or low-performers is something of
paramount importance.
If a manager simply means good results then he should
use the word “result”. If someone talks about working
long hours every day you call this “input” or “effort”. Don’t
call it performance, call it input”. The word “performance”
is used very often, by almost every manager and in many
situations, usually indicating either input or output. On
the other hand, creating a ranked list of performers in the
field force needs something to calculate. What is used
then? Sales, number of calls, call frequency, etc.
These metrics and measures are usually called Key Perfor-mance
Indicators – KPIs.
A metric is what you need to create a combined value you
want to measure. The best example to illustrate is “speed”
measured as Km/h. The two metrics you need are time
and distance. Once you divide distance by time you will
get the value needed.
The rationale of measuring something in a business lies
in the fact that there are managers who must make sure
their company is moving into the intended or planned
direction and therefore they must measure.
William Hewlett, one of the founders of HP is often
quoted to have said: “You only can manage what you
measure”. The message is clear but the problem pops-up
when the word performance or Performance Indicator
come into the play. “Performance” makes metrics and
measures unclear, it puts them behind a buzzword-fog.
High and low suddenly look easy and the ranking of reps

is the same as their territories. Territory is a geography, a medical rep is an individual. Often a low result territory is seen as equal to a low performing rep. In most cases the high performing rep is seen as the one with high results. In the case of high results this does not create any problem. If you look to the opposite end of the raking ladder, far too often, in a territory with low results the rep is blamed being a low-performer. This can end with job loss and other hardships. Yet again: it must be very clear what “performance” means. Clear in detail with the same meaning to everyone involved.
Case study:
The average / expected number of calls per day for a rep in a specific company is 8.8.
Rep A delivered 11.2 calls per day in the last period. Rep B delivered 7.5 calls per day in the same period. Rep A’s market share growth was +1.2%, Rep B’s market share growth was +8.5%.
Question: Who of the two reps is a high-performer and why?
The sentence from William Hewlett has a second part which is just as relevant: “You only can manage what you measure, and what you measure gets done!”
What you measure in a company makes the real difference, because measures give direction. There is a very good and illustrative example in the daily life of the field force: your company car measures and displays a number of values besides the current speed in km/h. Very commonly you can set your car’s display to show a value like “fuel consumption” in l/100 km. Often you could as well change the display to show “average speed” or travel time etc.
Exercise: see for yourself what happens to your driving habits when you change your car’s display.
Try one day with the car’s display showing fuel consumption and write the value down in the evening.
Next day set the display to average speed, and in the evening check the value for fuel consumption and compare with the previous day.
This is why the second half of the sentence from William Hewlett is so important for managing a company: “…. What you measure gets done!” Metrics carry a huge and often underestimated impact for behaviour and actions planned and taken.
A very recent article in Harvard Business Review (Steve Kerr, August 12, 2014) carried the headline: “Do Your Company’s Incentives Reward Bad Behavior?” Increasingly managers realizing the huge impact of KPIs on legal comHanno
Wolfram | Performance - the Unknown Creature
What you measure in a company makes the real difference, because measures give direction.
”

pliance in pharma field forces. There are global pharma
companies which have fully given up on measuring “rev-enue”
or “sales”. Why? Because the metric US$ or “PLN” or
“Units” drives habits to achieve what is measured. In some
cases the actions taken by medical reps to achieve and
meet the metric today are illegal or at least contradicting
the Pharma Industry Codex. Any publicly listed pharma-ceutical
company with their HQ or shares traded in the US
is subject to be prosecuted if the representatives mis-be-have,
bribe or press physicians to prescribe inappropriate-ly.
The fines which have been paid by pharma companies
in the last 2 or 3 years in the US exceed 3 billion US$!
The world of healthcare around us is turning up-side-
down, everyone is talking about the omnipresent
political and market changes, physicians do no longer
want to spend time with reps, and patients are getting
more and more demanding. In such a situation many still
use the same Key Performance Indicators. This does not
fit and must show weird outcomes.
Sometimes you can find consulting companies “selling”
KPI-projects. They take what they have learned from other
companies, and suggest this as an assumed best practice.
The immediate problem is that KPIs vary by company
and must be different by company in the very moment
objective and strategy are different.
Case study:
A pharmaceutical or medtech company has just received
approval and launches a new product. Launch date is four
weeks after approval. The launch objective is that 50% of
the target group knows the product and its main benefit
after 12 months.
A pharmaceutical or medtech company has just received
approval and launches a generic version of a product
know to everyone. Launch date is at the date of approval.
The launch objective is that 15% of the prescribing doctor
target group prefers the launch product over the original
after 12 months.
Which would be your suggestion for the Key Indicator
“objective achieved = performance” in both cases?
In principle KPIs will and must vary not only per company,
but often even per portfolio or product. In essence it is
not very professional to look over the fence, check what
other companies do and do the same.
Not only academically there should be a very clear pro-cess
to develop such KPIs across the company. It is called
the KPI detection process. This process starts with the
identification and writing down the objective. Once the
answer is clear “who, what or where” the company wants
to be next year or next quarter, it must be available in
writing and communicated across all involved. The next
question sounds like: “How will we achieve the objective?”
In principle KPIs will and must
vary not only per company,
but often even per portfolio
or product. In essence it is not
very professional to look over
the fence, check what other
companies do and do the same.
”

All answers to this question are called strategy. When
strategy is clear there are some prerequisites which
usually are called Critical Success Factors. A descriptive
example of a CSF, critical to meet the objective, can
be “having the right people at the right place with the
right skills and attitude”. After you know a number of
these CSFs you try to find out which metrics you need
to derive from the CSFs to best serve the purpose
giving direction. It is a wise decision to clearly check
each metric and measure about the repercussions they
might have in the organization. Will the measures de-liver
and ensure consistency across all people involved?
Which messages are sent? Does very measure show
coherence with the objective and will we be in the situ-ation
to know or evaluate the respective metrics?
Questions might be many more and every question
needs to be asked and answered.
There are companies which measure KPIs that turn out
to be contradictive to the top-level company objec-tive.
Imagine you measure call frequency with target
doctors. The immediate consequence is that the target
doctors are selected by their degree of accessibility.
Targeting and segmentation exercises and requests
for selection answered by the field force will be biased.
Selection criteria most probably will not allow expected
results. This is the moment when metrics and measures
give a direction contradicting company’s objectives.
Imagine the top objective of the company is “client-cen-tricity”.
What will measuring call-frequency contribute
to client centricity? Assumedly the opposite of custom-er
satisfaction.
Summary:
There always have been buzzwords around in this
world. This is not the problem. Buzzwords will cause
problems when inappropriately used and applied with-out
having been fully defined.
Performance is one of those undefined words with a
high prevalence in our daily language carrying risks of
mis-understanding and perceived mis-use.
Believing that “one size fits all” or “doing what everyone
does”, cannot be successful or deliver a competitive
edge.
There should be SOPs (standard operating procedure)
to identify appropriate “indicators of achievement”. It
must be clear that “what you measure gets done.” Co-herence
and consistency of the metrics selected across
the organisation is a must. -HW
“You only can manage what you
measure, and what you measure
gets done!”
”

Q.1. Prof. Hattangadi, can you tell us something
about yourself, how you came to join the pharma
industry and your journey so far?
Those who know me very closely and have read the
book “PHARMA FIRST-LINE LEADER TO CEO: THE ROAD-MAP
TO SUCCESS” are aware that this book is virtually
my autobiography. The names and the periods have
been changed. After my mother stopped me from
joining the armed forces, I became a sort of rebel and
as a ‘protest’ did not pay proper attention to studies. I
passed B.Sc. with barely 37% marks (36.5% to be pre-cise!)
and soon was dubbed a ‘useless fellow’. Naturally,
no employer would touch me even with a barge-pole!
I now started repenting for my ‘rebellious’ attitude.
With great difficulty I landed up as salesman with ‘India
Distributors’ as a cycle-cart salesman. ‘India Distributors’
was one of the stockists for the OTC Division of Warner
Hindustan (now merged with Pfizer). Warner Hindu-stan
had just launched Halls Cough Lozenges and was
campaigning heavily for the product. My job entailed
traversing about 8-10 km with a cycle-cart puller car-rying
ready stocks. I covered around 50 dealers a day,
supplied goods on-the-spot and collected cash. My
dealers included ‘paan-bidi wallahs’, green-grocers and
even chemists – whoever stocked Vicks Cough Drops.
My salary - a princely sum of Rs. 8.00/day! Yes, I was a
daily wages worker! It was at one such chemist shop, a
district manager of a small company (Chowgule & Co.
Hind Pvt. Ltd.) met me and taking pity, offered to refer
me to his boss for the position of medical representa-tive.
I couldn’t believe this! I was selected and sent to
Bhopal. One afternoon while making a doctor’s call in
”
My job entailed traversing
about 8-10 km with a cycle-cart
puller carrying ready
stocks. I covered around 50
dealers a day, supplied goods
on-the-spot and collected
cash. My dealers included
‘paan-bidi wallahs’, green-grocers
and even chemists
– whoever stocked Vicks
Cough Drops.
Prof. Vivek Hattangadi’s fantastic journey
from a cycle-cart salesman to an author,
professor and industry mentor.
Prof. Hattagadi’s
fantastic journey
in Pharma Brand
Management!
E

Prof. Hattangadi Talks PMT
Gwalior, an outstation then, the Regional
Manager of Carter-Wallace Late
W.R. Joshi noticed my detailing
skills and offered me to refer
to the sales manager of
Carter-Wallace for a posi-tion
in Ahmedabad. On
1st March 1974 began
my true journey into
the pharmaceutical in-dustry.
With my ‘brilliant’
academic record, I knew
it would be difficult to get
another job and decided to
excel in this job. I found the job
very interesting. The brand wars I waged
- Diovol vs. Digene; Walamycin vs. Kaltin; Sensival
vs. Tryptanol; Colimex Drops vs. Piptal Drops were
heady – akin to the wars I perhaps would fought if
I had joined the armed forces. The training I got in
Carter-Wallace sharpened my skills and made me
look forward to a bright career in this company and
in the industry.
It was my keen desire now to be a brand manager
but no good company would accept my candida-ture.
One day I saw an ad in the Times of India for
the position of Product Manager in Sun Pharma and
applied. I had a day-long deliberation with Dilip
Shanghavi. He enamoured me. I took a calculated
risk and joined Sun Pharma. Much later I realised
that my gamble paid off. From there to Intas where I
applied all my learnings in Sun Pharma! Later I joined
Torrent where I headed two divisions. To be very
honest, I must acknowledge that my career success
has been because of my 14-year association with
Carter-Wallace (for sales management functions) and
Sun Pharma (for brand management functions). My
success as a consultant was because of the frequent
development programs conducted by Torrent for top
level management.
After I started my consultancy in 2004, I prepared the
curriculum for the Vidyasagar University who were
to commence a specialized MBA course in pharma-ceutical
management. I later wrote the entire MBA
course material in brand and sales management
for the students. I am now a visiting faculty in many
business schools and even an external examiner in
pharma brand management. From a medical repre-
”
One day I saw an ad in
the Times of India
for the position of
Product Manager
in Sun Pharma
and applied. I
had a day-long
deliberation with
Dilip Shanghavi. He
enamoured me. I took
a calculated risk and joined

sentative to an academician!
Q. 2. What in your opinion are some key changes
in PMT over the years?
In those days the concept of ‘brand
management’ was hardly prevalent
in the Indian pharma industry.
Only sales promotional activi-ties
existed, which were man-aged
by the Sales Manager or
Sales Promotion Manager. Our
SPM then was Mr. P.M. Sapre
(who later was President Lupin,
till he retired in the late nineties)
and he truly fascinated me. The
first product manager in Carter-Wal-lace
was inducted in 1979! Glaxo was
one company which was the strongest in brand
management under the leadership of Prof. Tarun
Gupta. The product managers of Glaxo later prolifer-ated
into several Indian companies at senior levels
and brand management came of age. Two personal-ities,
Prof. Chitta Mitra and Prof. Tarun Gupta can be
considered as the pioneers of brand management in
the Indian pharma industry. I was indeed very, very
fortunate to have Prof. Tarun Gupta as my teacher
and mentor. Prof. Tarun Gupta had joined as brand
management consultant in Sun Pharma. It was as if
Dilip Shanghavi had hired a personal tutor for me!
Q.3.What are the non-negotiable competencies
required to be a product manager in a pharma
company.
In the first place, I prefer calling them as brand man-agers
for obvious reasons. The competencies which
I feel are extremely necessary for a brand manager
include:
ØØ Analytical skills - It is the basic skill required for a
brand to increase effectiveness at work.
ØØ Communication and presentations skills – with-out
these, he cannot exist.
ØØ A very high level of technical knowledge of his
brand – he should know more about the brand
than anyone else in the organization.
ØØ Penchant for field-work - Any brand manager,
(irrespective of gender) who works for less than
2 weeks in the field, is an armchair brand man-ager.
Or from where will he get first hand feed-back
on the success/failure of strategy, customer
”
The competencies which
I feel are extremely
necessary for a brand
manager include
analytical skills
communication
and presentations
skills, a very high
level of technical
knowledge of his
brandand a penchant
for field-work

insight and competition?
Q.4. You have worked both in MNC and Domestic pharma companies. In your experience, what are some key differentiators?
There are two types of domestic companies - the transnational’s and small to medium players.
First I shall refer only to the transnational’s. The earlier differences in professionalism between transnational’s and the MNCs have narrowed down or are almost non-existent now. The successful Indian entrepreneurs like Dilip Shanghavi, Sudhir Mehta, Nimish Chudgar, Habil Khorakiwala. Y.K. Hamied and Desh Bandhu Gupta, to name a few, have delegated the tasks and decision making roles to professionals.
The problem is with the smaller and midsized companies where the owner continues to be the production manager, distribution manager, sales manager, the brand manager, the production planning materials manager, and the finance manager all rolled into one. They have not learnt to delegate, neither will they ever. These companies therefore continue to remain small. The unprofessionalism truly is a hindrance to the healthy growth of the industry. These are the companies who mainly indulge in corrupt and unhealthy marketing practices. Well, of course, there are exceptions.
Q.5. What does the future of pharma product management look like, given the current market challenges?
It is time we, the brand managers, remember the basics – true brand management is building brands by increasing prescription demand through ethical means. The oft repeated quote of Prof. Chitta Mitra – “The health of a pharma company in India is directly proportionate to the number of prescriptions generated for the company.” If this prescription generation route is followed, brand management will continue to blossom. Brand managers, especially of smaller and midsized companies, need to influence their proprietors on the need of building truly strong brands the ethical way – brands which can withstand the oddities of our industry.
Nevertheless, considering the very high attrition rates of the brand managers, I have always been of
The problem is with the smaller and midsized companies where the owner continues to be the production manager, distribution manager, sales manager, the brand manager, the production planning materials manager, and the finance manager all rolled into one.
”

the view that the Chief Custodian of the brand must be the CEO / entrepreneur himself. This does not mean he should micromanage the brand managers. May be a position equivalent to a CEO or at least COO should be created – a CBO (Chief Brand Officer). He should be made responsible for a brand’s image, and promise. At the helm, the CBO should be passionate and even fanatical about the process of branding.
Q. 6. Tell us something about the books you have written on Brand Management.
Well, till 2010, I never thought I would be writing books – but I was inspired by my student from Nepal, the late Arpana Dangol. After a brand manager’s session in Kathmandu, she kept on asking me questions on brand management. I kept replying to her via e-mail. At times, to answer her queries, I had to keep myself busy in the British Library. She called me one Sunday afternoon and told me that I should write a book on the basics of brand management. I said ‘yes’ to her. Thus my first book was born – ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’. I consider her as one of my gurus as I went on to enrich myself through her queries. (It was one of the saddest days in my life when I learnt she had passed away at the young age of 26; the pharma world lost a promising brand manager) The second edition was inspired by the report published by Mckinsey & Company: ‘India Pharma 2020: Propelling access and acceptance, realizing true potential’. The second edition has three additional chapters relevant to the Mckinsey Report. One is ‘The Building Blocks of a Pharma Brand’. This will certainly become useful to the young and the veterans alike. The second is ‘Blue Ocean Strategy for Pharma India’ – which will tell the brand managers how to create an uncontested market space and monopolize it. The third is on ‘Patient-Centric Marketing’; the novel way to build a pharma brand.
Q.7. Your advice to practicing and aspiring product managers.
All the pharma brand managers should swear by and adhere to the ‘Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath’ and subscribe to Good Marketing Practices (GMaP). Build brands using ethical means.
And they should also remember that their personal branding is as important as the branding of the products they handle. -MM
...till 2010, I never thought I would be writing books – but I was inspired by my student from Nepal, the late Arpana Dangol. After a brand manager’s session in Kathmandu, she kept on asking me questions on brand management. I kept replying to her via e-mail... She called me one Sunday afternoon and told me that I should write a book on the basics of brand management. I said ‘yes’ to her. Thus my first book was born – ‘WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER’.
”

Dear MedicinMan,
I wanted your suggestion on a difficulty at my current job. I am a Management Trainee joined a leading MNC few months back. I am assigned tender business of Gujarat. My team is filled with experienced people of around 5-7 years of experience. As a tender team member, I require support from admin staff quite frequently. But the admin staff is non cooperative. What measures should I take for their timely response?”
Dear Management Trainee of MNC,
I can well understand the situation you are into, having entered into an organisation. Couple of things that would help you to handle the situation are:
Maybe you being a new entrant and that too a Management trainee, the admin department feels typically ‘ BANDHA NAYA HAI. ABHI ABHI AAYA HAI. KARNE DO ‘. The best way is to be polite, humble but assertive. This also means that your side of the work has to be proper.
Start seeking help and support - Tell them in as many words “ I need your help/support to handle this tender properly”
See if there is a possibility of meeting them ‘in person’. this would help each other understand the mutual needs.
4. Apart from emails, talk to them over phone frequently.
5. Acknowledge heartily whatever spport they are giving currently. Finding fault and making sweeping statements are easy. Find some good things in the midst of non-cooperation. People love to hear encomiums.
6. If it is still not progressing positively, do seek the help of your Seniors to bridge this gap ( my preference is still your personal efforts because it will foster involvement)
7. I’d also suggest reflecting on your own difficult personality quirks and considering how they affect them(unintentionally). Avoid the trap of “ I am OK. Others are not OK.” work towards “ I am OK. Others are OK.”
- K. Hariram
Dear MedicinMan,
Answers to your career and work related questions from MedicinMan expert panel
Dear MedicinMan,
My name is Raju M working as marketing executive in cardio diabetic of leading Indian pharma since June 2012. I joined as a fresher only at Jallandhar. I am doing well. Now I am getting an opportunity to be a part of a leading MNC Diabetes Division as Scientific Sales Executive at Chandigarh.
What would you suggest should i go for a change or not?
Dear Raju,
It is a pleasure to read your query and respond. First of all, great news that you are getting opportunities, so soon. Obviously, other companies taking note of your good work, currently.
It is you who has to find an answer. i will certainly help you to think on these lines :
Reasons for making a change -
1. Better option in terms of MNC,
2. Greater exposure,
3. Organisational culture,
4. Exposure to newer markets,
5. Learning and developing opportunities,
6. Chances of growth,
7. Better package,
8. Place of work
If you find answers for the above, then your choice would be clear. Good luck and wish you all success.
- K. Hariram
E

Q. Sir, I’m Pritam. At present I am pursuing M Pharm in Pharmaceutics. I want to build up a strong career after this. So, can you plz guide me in this regard? Can you tell me what should i do after my masters to make a prosperous career?
Hello Pritam!
You have some great opportunities in India!
NCE’s are drying out whereas F&D is becoming a bigger opportunity area. You can focus on New Drug Delivery Systems, a field which is growing, as NCE discoveries have slowed down. Nano-particulate drug delivery systems show a promising approach to obtain desirable drug-like properties by altering the biopharmaceutics and pharmacokinetics properties of the molecule. Nano therapy will alleviate unwanted toxicity caused by non-specific distribution. You can think of this as your career path.
Pharmacovigilance, although not directly related to pharmaceutics, is another significant branch which is becoming attractive. Those who have specialized in pharmaceutics will find this very interesting.
And of course you could pursue PhD and switch on to academics!
Another option - pursue a PGDM in pharma management and think of pharma marketing as your career.
All the best!
Editor’s Note: You could also explore studying law – both patent law as well as general law as pharma needs lawyers with pharma domain knowledge.
Dear MedicinMan,
Answers to your career and work related questions from MedicinMan expert panel

Seen on Facebook
A post on FB about a pharma company giving iPads to a non performing division. The device was GPS enabled and ONN 24x7. I reposted it and the response has been overwhelming – over 200 comments and still going.
This shows that how even a beneficial tool like iPad can be looked at suspiciously as a tracking device to police the field force.
However, what’s heartening is that there are equally good number of people who look at the move to equip field force with iPad positively.
Below are some responses posted verbatim from Facebook. Names of the commentors have not been disclosed to protect their privacy.
It's wonderful - the manager can see - how medical representative worked in field, how much time they are spending in field. It is necessary for every pharmaceuticals company. From this activity at least they can observe & supervisor to our people for the right direction.
That's wastage of Managerial time & energy. They shud instead spend time with their reps & guide, motivate them to perform. What a misuse of technology.. Sad
Disagree!! This is spying! Only supervision doesn’t help in improving the things, its involvement and the inclinic effectiveness, market knowledge that count, not mere tracking by this device
I can say with authenticity... Ipad has been given to all no distinction based on performance will be implemented across the organisation in a phased manner
Any system developed or institutionalized across an organization, however stringent be of a nature, doesn’t necessarily tantamount to be a decision based on breach of trust. The same may necessarily be an outcome of some unpleasant instances and developed to prevent a similar episode in future. That being said, to convert it into a system is
Sales is a function of passion and not number of calls that one makes.It can be very well explained by the job of an insurance advisor. Do you give policy to somebody who visit you frequently or to one you have warm relations with.You got the answer.These gadgets are just meant to show door to the employees who are not passionate about the job.It will not waver the fortitude of the committed worker.
This tool generates enough data for interpretation and drawing conclusion. How the higher ups handle it makes the difference.
Policing is not the way. It takes only few calls to see the regularity of the person. I pad should be a tool to get the medical help at instant. Only dialogue can be productive with a little help of visual impact. I am upset with this kind of mindset.
SEEN ON FACEBOOK
Join in the conversation. facebook.com/anupsoans
E

K Hariram | 9 Talent Management Challenges
Currently, the Indian pharma industry faces its
set of dilemmas and challenges that managers
and organizations must cope up with.
Recently, at the OPPI HR summit, I had the pleasure of
chairing a panel of senior talent development leaders
representing three very different stake holders with
diverse perspectives: From the Industry, academia and
consulting fraternity.
Interestingly, even with this diversity of perspectives,
we found our views on today’s top talent challenges
to be surprisingly aligned. I thought you might like to
see our list—and would love to hear your thoughts on
things you’re wrestling with that we missed.
Here is our list of today’s top talent challenges :
1. Attracting and retaining enough employees (tal-ent)
at all levels to meet the needs of Indian phar-ma’s
organic and inorganic growth. Talent crunch
exists despite the favorable demographics that our
country has.
2. The need to creat a talent value proposition that
appeals to multiple generations. There are four
generations working together in today’s workplace. So
there is a constant struggle in most companies to cater
to the diverse individual needs and also to create an
employee experience that appeals to individuals with
variety of preferences and assumptions.
3. The need for developing a strong leadership
pipeline. The threat that is lurking in many organiza-tions
is a lack of a strong talent pool from which to nur-ture
and develop future leaders. It was also expressed
by the speakers that many individuals were reluctant
to move into senior leadership roles thus posing a
challenge.
4. The disconnect between good technical skills
and good people skills. It was felt that on one hand
it’s relatively easy to identify and assess specialists and
experts in specific functional or technical spheres. On
the other, it was difficult to determine whether those
9 Talent-Management Challenges
K. Hariram
K. Hariram speaking at the OPPI Summit on
“Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent”
Brief from the 2014 OPPI HR Summit on “Attracting, Developing and Retaining Talent”
E

30 | MedicinMan December 2013
K Hariram | 9 Talent Management Challenges
individuals have the people skills, leadership capabil-ities,
business breadth, and global diversity sensibil-ities
required for the nature of leadership today. So
the organizations have increasingly, the challenge of
developing these broader skill sets.
5. Transfer of key knowledge and relationships.
More so, when the organization is dependent on the
strength of clear knowledge, as ingrained into custom-er
relationships, a key to many organizations. This is
further aggravated due to retirement of key people.
6. Exodus of mid-career talent—people in whom the
organization has invested heavily and in whom it has
pinned its hopes for future leadership. How to arrest
this?
7. The dire need and criticality of tailoring the
talent management practices and programs to
attract and engage the new and young entrants.
Almost every member who spoke agreed that making
the pharma business practices and infrastructure more
attractive to Gen Y as the need of the hour.
While it is impossible to stop the attrition, given the
dynamic environment, there was a strong consensus
that working towards improving retention would help
in future earnings and growth of the industry. The Gap
believes retaining employees in roles for 3+ years will
be a key to their future earnings growth.
Did I miss anything? What could you add to this list of
talent attraction, development and retention challeng-es?
“The right people, at the right time, are so much more
than just a process!” -KH
It was felt that on one hand
it is relatively easy to identify
and assess specialists and
experts in specific functional
or technical spheres. On
the other, it was difficult to
determine whether those
individuals have the people
skills, leadership capabilities,
business breadth, and global
diversity sensibilities required
for the nature of leadership
today. ”

MedicinMan: At the outset, congratulations for taking the initiative to conduct this long overdue event. Tell us something about AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS.
Ameesh Masurekar: AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS is a Pharma Market Research & Supply Chain Solution company. AIOCD Ltd helps with getting field access to data, whereas the complete operational management is run by a professional team from Trikaal Mediinfotech. It’s 7 year old company that has given diverse products to Pharma Industry for all Stakeholders – Companies, Distributors & Retailers. Its moto is simple – “Actionable Data, Profitable Decisions”
MM: What were your thoughts behind taking this initiative to hold the Marketing Excellence Awards?
AM: Despite employing a large army of people in pharma marketing, there were no awards/ recognition. As a Market Research Agency with syndicated audit PharmaTrac, we felt it necessary to recognize and reward the top performers of the Domestic Pharmaceutical Industry. We are also looking at a much expanded mandate next year beyond Marketing to reward excellence in Sales Management, HR, IT & Supply Chain.
MM: Tell us how the event was organized, the response and outcome?
AM: The event was planned more than 6 months back. We spent a lot of time debating categories. Some of the key conclusions we came up with was – one cannot compare a top 20 company with a 80th Ranked company. So we divided into 3 broad categories – Top 20, 21-50 Rank and Above 50. We also did further categorization like Acute, Chronic, New Introduction, Existing Product. The last financial year was one of the most challenging in recent times – with the DPCO 2013. However certain brands
Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar at the Marketing Excellence Awards Ceremony 2014
Ameesh Masurekar is the Founder-Director of AIOCD PharmaSofttech AWACS, the organizer of the Marketing Excellence Awards 2014. Ameesh spoke to MedicinMan on the sidelines of the Awards and shared his thoughts on the awards and the future of the industry
E
Ameesh Masurekar speaking at the Marketing Awards Excellence Ceremony 2014

Tête-à-tête with Ameesh Masurekar at the Marketing Excellence Awards Ceremony 2014
32 | MedicinMan December 2013
– have shown remarkable volume growth post getting
a huge topline hit due to DPCO. For such products we
created a special category this year on Best DPCO revival.
Again classifying it by company size and Acute / Chronic
therapy.
For each category we have created a 3 judge panel who
will give rating points. Beyond numbers the parameters
considered are – what was the brand positioning, how
was the internal stakeholder (field force) excited and what
were the campaigns undertaken. All these aspects had an
impact on the final outcome.
The Response has been terrific. Not only is there an
enthusiasm in participation from all companies but also
an axiousness to win. For each sub-category – there are 3
awardees – Winner, 1st Runner Up & 2nd Runner Up.
MM: Will this be an annual event?
AM: Yes – we are planning this as an annual event.
MM: What is Practice Insight?
AM: Practice Insight is part of family of products collec-tively
called GeoTrac. We launched PharmaTrac 5 years
back – which was state level data for Head Office strategy
& decision-making. The field force was given access to this
data broadly – but it was not too relevant for their day-to-day
functioning. GeoTrac however, is completely relevant
to Field Force, although there are interesting interpreta-tions
for HO functions as well. GeoTrac has 3 products:
Territory Insight (which gives Depooling between multi-ple
people working in same division in Pool territory),
Locality Insight (which gives understanding of a Locality
within a Territory) and
Practice Insight (which tracks the Retailer purchase pat-tern
adjoining to a Doctor) – thereby obviating the need
to do RCPA – which is increasingly difficult & inaccurate
these days.
MM: Any concluding thoughts?
AM: The next big delta of Pharma growth will be driven
by Rural Reach. Many companies are trying, but failure is
clearly due to lack of data. With GeoTrac we will be able to
bifurcate Urban vs. Rural, specify the current size of each
Rural Cluster (town, village) – compare with Economic
indicators and create a blue ocean strategy to tap into
Rural Market. Not only will this help drive healthcare for
our country’s vast rural population, but it will also lead to
a huge growth in employment in Pharmaceuticals. - MM
The Response has been
terrific. Not only is there an
enthusiasm in participation
from all companies but also an
axiousness to win. ”

Essential Elements of a Digital Strategy for the Launch of a New Product

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