G8 - Our Children are Watching

I expect I'm not alone in feeling quite humbled by the global swell of humanitarian concern that is being expressed around the world this week. I was not fortunate enough to attend the Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, but caught most of the show on TV. As a consequence, my kids currently have a quite astonishing grip on the problems of Africa, and the plight of impoverished nations that Live 8 was conceived to highlight for the attention of the G8 delegates cocooned in Gleneagles.

In 2000 I was involved (as a creative service provider) in some work for the World Aids Congress, and became deeply immersed in the battle to get the right kind of help to the peoples of Sub Saharan Africa. It was interesting then seeing the response of African governments to the offer of medical aid - in some cases they flatly denied that HIV/Aids was even a problem in their country. I was proud of my contribution, which was rewarded with a 'Global' advertising award.

I truly hope the G8 summit begins a real and meaningful change to the global management of poverty. I hope that these powerful leaders have not arrived with a predetermined offer (as we are led to believe), but that they can actually use their collective intelligence to discover where their attention should lie to frame decisions that will deliver on the principle optimal objective; Making Poverty History.

It is interesting that a campaign led by musicians and movie stars can take such a global grip. Simple, direct messaging with real meaning in its messages. We shall see, as this week unfolds, if the world's leaders are listening to the clear wishes of the people who put them in office. Our children are definitely listening.

As an industry, perhaps it is time to start demanding that every major Pharmaceuticals Company acts without profit to reduce the burden of disease in poverty stricken communities of South America, Asia and of course Africa. It would do no harm at all to disregard profit, and to volunteer drugs, and educational; support, and healthcare systems support to these countries.

Would it not make great news for the industry to collectively commit to the eradication of Hepatitis B, malaria and HIV in the parts of the world where those diseases have such a crushing impact on their economy by decimating the workforce?

That is the kind of action that the industry needs to commit to repair its image, burdened as it is with ongoing and emerging news of financial and informational deceit and fraud.

The developed countries that can afford to give a shit about their lipid levels or erectile dysfunction problems are the profit seams for the industry. If I discover my blood pressure is above normal, give me the best A2 antagonist every time. Our emerging ability to grow older is a Pandora's Box of business opportunity full of future diseases and conditions that will feed Big Pharma for the next several decades and beyond by those who can afford it.

Every three seconds a child in poverty dies.

I want this generation to be the one that thinks about this stuff differently. And takes decisions and actions to move the ball down the field. Failure to do this NOW will be an historic blunder. Success will make the legacy of this week's G8 summit something we can all feel driven by, and immensely proud of. It cannot happen overnight. But it has to begin. A decision that cannot be relitigated or renaiged on must be made.

Our children are watching.

Don't stick to your knitting

They call Missouri the 'show me' state.

Folks in Missouri like things just the way they are. If you want change to happen there, you really are trying to nail jelly (or jello as they call it in the US) to the ceiling.

Sticking to your knitting is not a great way of moving your game forwards, particularly when the game is being driven by the great progress made among the discovery and research engines that define the Pharma Industry. But innovation must be seen as a nettle to be grasped right theough the corporation.

Instead of modelling new process on last years best models (a great way of going backwards!) look and listen to the people who present valid opportunities for moving the ball down the field.

Let me refer to a fascinating little manuscript-book I received, BEYOND CODE, by Rajesh Setty. Mr Setty, founder of the IT services firm CIGNEX Technologies (and a published novelist at age 13), makes an impassioned plea for each & every IT professional to pursue dramatic difference in his or her approach to projects and career.

Hence my “demand” to NOT STICK WITH YOUR KNITTING:
mercilessly (alone or with one or two close pals and/or, say, a Client) examine-challenge-evaluate your Value-added Proposition.

Is it … Compelling?

Does it represent … Dramatic Difference?

Does it meaningfully resonate with purpose and context?

And remember:
“If you can’t state your position in eight words or less, you don’t have a position”—Seth Godin. (Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore is eventougher: “I make all the launch teams tell me what the [new] magazine’s about in five [!!] words or less. You cannot run alongside
millions of consumers and explain what you mean. It forces some discipline on you.”)

It all starts with Attitude and Preparation:

This is all about commitment and completion - many companies contain people who come up with potent ideas, but very few companies complete. So to put down your knitting once and for all, you must start with the most important stage of any development process - getting the attitude right.

Break with your immediate past

Everything is reconsidered - every assumption put in play - including currently valued brand and communication equities - and the rules of the category. Not an exercise in rejection, but in re-evaluation. Some values and assets will sink without trace, and others will rise back to the surface. Others might be replaced. But at the beginning, everything is put aside. Nothing is sacrosanct.

How do you anchor your brand?

Because the process of branding is about the discovery and management of meaning (to the benefit of all stakeholders), and ownership of the individual intellectual properties of the brand that contribute to that sense of meaning, all brand components must satisfy the following checklist of objective criteria to be acceptable.

They must be original – why imitate when you can individualise?

They must be legitimate – good medical branding makes good medical sense, and does not borrow desperate interest from the zoo or the sportsfield – as is so often resorted to by so called ‘communicators’.

They must be adhered to & campaignable – so that the brand can be instantly recognised whatever the medium

They must be coherent – so that the combined result of all BrandAnchors achieves both visual and intellectual synergy.

They must be accessible – graphic communication is a fleeting exercise. The job of good graphic design is to seduce the viewer into holding their attention for longer.

One can easily satisfy all of the above, and still be quite dull. In order to transcend the ordinariness that abounds iin the healthcare marketplace there is one additional criterium which is probably the most important of all. The one that is a result of ingenious creative thinking and great design. Think for just a moment about the things you love. The objects that really please you. They are all well designed. They somehow connect with your pleasure centres in a way that the stuff you really don't like will never achieve. This manifextation of emotional intelligence is the central core of a highly valued, powerful brand.

They must be satisfying – brand attributes that are bafflingly complex or ‘too clever’ will alienate customers, rather than entice them. If solutions need to be explained, reject them.

As Ogden Nash said in his no-nonsense way:
Here’s a good rule of thumb,
Too clever is dumb

For healthcare brands, whose scientific rationales may often be highly complex, it is important that the approach to branding both recognises and understands this complexity, but delivers it in an elegant, accessible and meaningful way.

Correctly developed and implemented, a brand’s identity will transcend geography and discipline. It will drive and engineer strategic direction and communications strategy and planning. It will help to form the corporate behaviours and beliefs that mould customer experience and expectation.

It will exemplify the Customer Value Proposition at every touch point.

Decide how you decide, then make decisions stick

Here’s another huge component of building brand success, totally aligned with quality leadership. And one which large corporations struggle to demonstrate at many levels (although not deciding is a common component of big Pharma behaviour).

Imagine creating a culture of responsibility, driven by collective belief that actions and choices (decisions seen through to a quality outcome) are ‘the right thing to do’. And where quality outcomes can be made because of the learning environment that has been created by encouraging risk-mania.

Like branding, decision making – or more specifically quality decision making – is the foundation for pro-activity, and a mechanism for better business and better living.

What is a decision?

At one level, a decision is simply a choice between two or more alternative actions. If you only have one alternative, there is no decision.

At a deeper level, a decision is an irrevocable allocation of resource. This is where the attention kicks in. It means putting time, money, and effort into action. The concept of irrevocability implies commitment.

Such decisions are not relitigated a day or a week or a month later. Getting to that point of action with confidence is what separates good decisions from bad decisions.

Disciplined dynamic organisations make good decisions. Usually the outcomes are good as well, but if they’re not, two things are true:

1. there is no second guessing the decision because it was well made;
2. it’s possible to now make better decisions because the process promotes learning.

Creating a culture of responsibility develops and engenders your team with a sense of purpose, development and collective leadership. That feels great on the inside, and even better (to external stakeholders & customers) on the outside.

• The entire organisation frames questions thoughtfully and consistently (people trust each others actions)
• The dominant frames used throughout the organisation are appropriate (clear powerful distinctions that help everyone understand the key issues)
• Complex decisions are evaluated through a variety of these dominant frames (The organisation grows and aligns itself around the decision quality of its people)

For many, the decision to decide is one of the toughest things we as humans do – and it’s a uniquely human behaviour. Harnessing the power of a quality decision framework amongst competent and motivated people creates a sense of responsibility, cohesiveness and energy that is hard to compete against.

What kind of decision makers are your brand teams? Or are they just doing what’s expected of them?

Time for a reality check?

Who could have failed to notice that things are changing fast for the healthcare industry.

“Drug firms lag behind other industries in the way they use information technology to discriminate between profitable and unprofitable customers... The bosses of big drugs firms have been horribly slow to grasp the enormity of their problems.”
The Economist - Big Trouble for Big Pharma

Context in a nutshell: the blockbuster mentality is flawed, the assumed NCE promise of the genome is now a fraction of what we thought, pipelines are becoming slower and more costly to maintain, and patients and doctors are being changed by the technology around them in a way that threatens the integrity of one of the world’s most powerful industries.

Among the obstacles to real progress in the healthcare arena is the homogeneity of its marketing culture. Similar people making similar choices deriving similar comfort from similar behaviours. An almost tribal conventionality of thought and action that manages to propagate and proliferate itself (by attracting and rewarding similar people), reducing differences to a point where it really doesn’t matter (to a customer) where your product comes from.

That should matter to you. If it doesn’t your products are destined to remain just that.

The creation of BrandPhial (and Doghouse) occurred because I – as a creative service provider to both the Healthcare and Consumer Industries for some 18 years –had begun myself to question what was the role of branding in healthcare.

The biggest question of all – Where is the real meaning in brand?

The inspiration and hard work was all about the search for meaning in the Pharmaceutical Industry and its products.

Meaning defined here as a feeling that is experienced by humans, at various points along such important axes as belonging, sharing, understanding, perceiving, associating, finding relevance, feeling inclusion and trust, seeking and seeing value, engagement, attitude, belief, acceptance, receptiveness, expectation and often attraction, desire... even love.

It’s time to draw a line under the legacy of ‘old value’ and move on.

With thought innovators in the pharmaceutical industry recognising that the industry is at a ‘strategic inflection point’, it’s time to begin planning the escape from legacy-based historically entrenched ‘best practice’.

We have developed the processes needed to discover, prioritise and realise new forms of meaning and value for your brands and for your business. With new context, with fresh insights, with new tools and processes to get there.

What are the benefits of doing things our way?

Take a few moments to think this through, you should begin to sense the impact you can make by stepping across the legacy line. (If you need some help, just read the "meaning' paragraph again).

It's not always comfortable, involves inevitable change and dare-we-say-it risk, but we believe that it will take you to to a better place.

I ask the question of the industry:
Where is the Spirit of Leadership (PASSION) in Big Pharma?

Because from here on the outside, it’s not apparent.

The challenge for leaders is to start thinking outside the box, to challenge the legacy culture and practice in which Big Pharma currently seeks comfort (to incremental effect), and to attract people who are driven to magnificence, rather than comfortable grey-suited conformity.

Be a speed demon

“If things seem under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”
Mario Andretti

Apologies for the petrol-head quote, but it makes a serious point. Race drivers go to places in a car that test the limits of the vehicle, and their ability to control it masterfully. And the best drivers win the most races. Not because their cars are faster, but because their entire physical being responds, reacts and decides at speeds that cannot be matched by competitors.

Responsiveness is the new mantra. Fastest and nimblest will win the marketplace battles for share of heart and mind, and be respected for that agility.

Being a speed freak does not mean being careless or shambolic. To the contrary, the qualities of reaction and responsiveness are what create the world’s great leaders. In commerce, in sport – wherever you care to look. Speed alone is insignificant. It is speed managed by clear decision and focus.

Large organisations (and big Pharma is about as big as it gets) are notoriously ponderous in their processes, approvals and strategic decision taking.

The speed of the world is leaving Big Pharma behind. It’s no longer an observation. It’s an imperative that goes beyond the close-down timelines of fast-follower competition. It’s the world. I.T. is changing everything – right down to the basic ways we communicate and react.

Slow to react (or refusal to react) leads to a massive gap in the connection between corporation and stakeholders. What is the oil that connects all of these marketplace cogs and wheels? The brand. A high quality oil allows the gears to spin at whatever speed they want – to move as quick as they want, to accelerate the brands acceptance and ownership of wider and deeper usage.

No brand = no oil

A new workshop process, has been developed by BrandPhial co-ordinator, Brian Towell, to interrogate your brand or business challenge and to keenly re-evaluate orthodox practice.

Modelled on the concept of a race-driver's racing line, it has been designed to rapidly uncover critical areas for change, improvement and success, and those where key decisions and actions require further framing and prioritisation, all with a view to delivering on clearly understood single, optimal objectives.

It also acts as a leadership support tool for gathering team attention, support, consensus, energy and direction.

For further information, please drop an e-mail to BrandPhial co-ordinator Brian Towell, at brian@doghouseonline.net, who will answer any questions relating to this or any other healthcare branding challenges.

And so it goes on....

US prosecutors investigating 150 cases involving alleged drug pricing fraud

A Wall Street Journal report said that state and federal prosecutors in the US are currently investigating 150 cases involving alleged pricing fraud by some drugmakers, and the cases could produce more than $1 billion in criminal and civil penalties this year, CNN Money and TheStreet report.

Once again the big news about big Pharma is the worst kind - leaving even more bitter tastes in the mouth than Merck's rather off kilter corporate attempt at misdirection. It really strikes me that the more this great industry strives to improve its relationship with the massive population it serves, the more it appears to fail.

As great economist JK Galbraith wrote wisely in the 1958 publication The Affluent Society
"...when a tree rots, it rots from the top"

Is it perhaps signalling yet again that now is a critical time for the industry to re-evaluate its entire structure and image? In a way that is absolutely focussed on the single optimal objective of removing the dead or deceitful wood and providing a framework where open-ness and honesty become key standards that are not merely expressed, but also enacted. This latest very public debacle provides further evidence that the Pharmaceutical industry is at a strategic inflection point, and that serious time and money should be invested in the discovery and management of new strategies and direction through visible and emotionally intelligent leadership. NOW. This industry's leaders self-obsessed state of insularity can no longer exist. The networks and the connectivity that is now a real part of the way we live today simply won't allow it.

Some people never learn. Others learn very quickly to forget what has always previously been considered knowledge.

Change is not made without inconvenience, even from worse to better
(RICHARD HOOKER)

To try to finish on an optimistic note, this is another massive wound in the side of an industry that has surely to face up to the need for change. Not in the passionate and relentless development of better, more effective and safer medicines through innovation and technology, but in the way it is fundamentally managed and run as a business.

To quote the prophetic (and quietly optimistic) 1930's poet Louis MacNeice:

...new
Patterns from old disorders open like a rose
And old assumptions yield to new sensation;

Our business has been built on product brands. Perhaps we should be looking harder at the kind of initiatives and new behaviour/belief systems that will help to create meaningful and valued corporate brands. We have the toolkit to deliver on that.

But when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem ends up looking like a nail.