Part 3 of 4: Organizational Success Requirements for Medical Affairs Excellence
CapSys Group’s latest global research, Re-thinking Medical Affairs, uncovered that Medical Affairs functions in many pharmaceutical (pharma) and life sciences companies are clearly punching below their weight. Many of them are struggling to play the leading role in shaping their organization’s strategy and guiding vital operations that they could – and in fact should – play. Industry specialists participating in the research study and CapSys experts defined the main shortcomings that lead to this situation and identified six requirements for success to overcome them. Four of these crucial success factors can be considered technical and have been described in part 2 of this series of insights. The remaining two success requirements are of an organizational nature. This insight paper focusses on these two organizational problems and describes what Medical Affairs organizations can do to master them.
Figure 1: The six success requirements for achieving Medical Affairs Excellence. Success Factors 5 and 6 are the focus of this paper
Requirement for Success #5:
Ensuring the relevant organizational skills & capabilities promotes Medical Affairs Excellence
The Re-thinking Medical Affairs study confirmed that fulfilling Medical Affairs’ strategic role within a company requires having access to a wealth of key skills and capabilities. The best-performing organizations in the industry go beyond the traditional textbook role of the Medical Affairs professional when recruiting and developing their Medical Affairs teams. Due to the rapidly evolving nature of the Medical Affairs role and the external demands that shape it, there is an increasing shortage of competencies and talent for the Medical Affairs function. This skills shortage is a universal challenge faced by pharma and Life Sciences organizations.
Organizations looking to broaden their skill set and expand their internal capabilities now seek other approaches for resourcing their talent pools beyond re-skilling existing staff and hiring skilled professionals. Besides external hires from other companies or industries, alternative ways to reshape the workforce, such as through partnerships or expert coaches, enable organizations to stay agile in the face of external market pressures. However, the Re-thinking Medical Affairs study identified that a significant proportion of organizations are generally struggling to secure sufficient access to the required resources.
Shortcomings in key skills and capabilities in Medical Affairs
- There is often insufficient investment to select, develop and retain top Medical Affairs talent
- Key skills and capabilities required to enable the evolution of the Medical Affairs role are currently insufficient
- Failure to consistently choose the right partners and manage them effectively hinders outcome and development
- Decisions on priorities and resource allocation take too long and delay progress
Based on these shortcomings and on observations of best practice in the industry, CapSys identified four key levers of success that put industry leaders in a favorable position vis-à-vis their competition. These levers include, among other aspects, a focused recruiting strategy, the existence of resolute Medical Affairs Excellence programs and acknowledging the importance of non-technical skills such as strategic thinking, relationship management and effective communication.
Figure 2: Imperatives for ensuring the relevant organizational skills & capabilities
Requirement for Success #6:
A clear and effective organizational setup shapes Medical Affairs Excellence
This brings us to the sixth and final success requirement that could be deducted from our global research on Medical Affairs. Participating industry specialists and CapSys experts agreed that the starting points of an effective Medical Affairs function are a clearly defined mission statement and a concrete set of objectives that are well understood throughout the organization, both inside and outside the function. Like all other parts of an organization, Medical Affairs needs to be able to measure its contribution to the company’s success. As this proves more difficult for Medical Affairs than for other functions, many organizations resort to measuring input or effort-related KPIs rather than assessing the effect of their efforts. However, leading companies construct a set of KPIs that measure outcomes (or be it indirectly) for assessing – and being able to prove – how effectively they are working.
The study also exposed that too much complexity in terms of organizational setup and processes makes the lives of Medical Affairs and their partner functions within the organization much more difficult than necessary. This often leads to frustrations and to a lack of understanding that hinders effective collaboration. In such an environment, alignment, coordination and communication between Medical Affairs and other functions as well as between global, regional, and local Medical Affairs teams is particularly important. However, the research indicated that there are frequently shortcomings.
Shortcomings in organizational setup and processes
- The identity, mission and role of Medical Affairs is often not well defined and/or understood within the organization
- Many – if not most – Medical Affairs teams struggle measuring their contribution to reaching the companies’ objectives and hence find it difficult to defend their resources and headcounts
- Medical Affairs’ tasks and responsibilities are overstretched across many functional units, which increases complexity and limits their potential and effectiveness
- Cross-functional alignment and communication across the organization as well as between global, regional and local teams continues to be difficult and time consuming
Based on these shortcomings and observed best practice in the industry, life sciences specialists and CapSys experts identified four key levers of success within the Medical Affairs Excellence Framework that Medical Affairs leaders should employ for a clearer and more effective organizational setup.
Figure 3: Imperatives for a clear and effective organizational setup
The Re-thinking Medical Affairs series of insights
This is the third part of a series of four insight articles based on CapSys’ global Re-thinking Medical Affairs study and focused on Medical Affairs Excellence in pharma and life sciences. The first article of the series (part 1) gave an overview of the external trends influencing Medical Affairs and the main challenges arising from them. Parts 2 and 3 provide key content and insights on the six success requirements for Medical Affairs Excellence. Part 4 provides a framework for a continuous improvement and self-assessment, the Medical Affairs Excellence Canvas.
For these Re-thinking Medical Affairs series of articles and other upcoming industry insights please visit the Capsys group website under https://capsysgroup.com/insights/.
