Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Sat, Dec 31, 2011 @ 04:07 PM
Here are but a few of the many thoughtful blogs and predictions written in 2011 covering pharma marketing, social media and ePatient happenings...
But remember...
“It wouldn’t be New Year’s if I didn’t have regrets.” -William Thomas
What did you learn this year?
What will you do differently in 2012?
Enjoy...and wishing you all a most joyous, healthy and prosperous new year!
Pharma Marketing and #fdasm
AZ Heatlh Connections: FDA Issues Social Media Guidance, Real World Challenges to Communicating Real World Experience
Back of the Book: Is Your Brand Healthy and Thriving? Complementary eBook
ePharma Rx: Social Media Posts That Keep Pharma Up at Night
exl Digital Pharma Blog: Transform or Be Transformed: Digital Pharma East Day 2 Wrap-up
GSK: First In Health: The Medical Home Approach to Disease Management
Health Affairs Blog: Patient Medication Aderence: The Next Act
Healthy Conversations: New Insights for Healthcare Marketers: IBM Global CMO Study
Ignite Health: The Ticket Store Game Launches Online
Impactivity: How Can We...?, Doc Driven or Rep Driven?
Med 2.0: The 6 P's of Social Health- Reflections on SXSH 2011
Pew Internet & American Life Project: Pew Internet Health, The Social Life of Health Information 2011
Pharma Marketing Blog: Social Media Guidelines May be Moot if This Court Decision Holds Up
Pharma Executive Blog: Should the US Gamble with Risk Sharing?, 10 Emergency Brand Building Questions
Pixels and Pills: Adapt or Die: Why Pharma Needs To Get In Line, The Tyranny of Tech: Can Your Business Work Unplugged?
Science Roll: 12 Predictions for Healthcare, Technology and Innovation in 2012, Top Medical Social Media Stories of 2011
Siren Song and PharmPhorum: Rare Disease Patients are the Power Users of Social Media
Wall Street Health Blog: Best of the Health Blog 2011: CDC’s Zombie Warnings, Lipitor and Steve Jobs
ePharma and Social Media
Back of the Book: Pharma: Are you Ready to Optimize Your Digital Strategy Now?
Dose of Digital: Digital marketing Lessons From 2011's Top Memes , The Right Way to Use the Facebook Like Button
Eye on FDA: A Pharms Social Media Overview, Will Pharma Embrace Google+?
Edleman Health Barometer: Must Reads: Digital Innovation Opportunity in Health
Health is Social: X% Body + Y% Words + Z% Pheremones = The Enigma of Social Media
PharmaPhorum and Social Moon: 6 of the Best: Digital Predictions for 2012 Part 2, Part 1
Mayo Clinic: Kidney Donor Found Via Social Media
Why Dot Pharma: Why Pharma Engagement on Twitter Matters
World of DTC Marketing: Some New Fundamental Features Every Health Site Should Have
Mobile Health
exl Digital Pharma: Think Mobile. Think Small- 14 Mobile Musts From the Mobile Experts
Intouch Solutions: Looking Forward to 2012: Mobile is Everywhere
mHealth Insight: Telecare Aware Provocative mHealth Presentation
Path of the Blue Eye: Mobile Health: Hype or Hope
PharmaPhorum and Ignite Health: mHealth- The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Mobile Electronic Health Records
Pharma Marketing Blog: Games vs. Mobile Health Monitoring Devices- Which is a Better Motivator?
ePatients and Physicians
ePatient Dave: 2010, 11,12: Patient Engagement Rising, Right into the Media Lab's Hackathon
ePatients.net: Nancy Finn: Personalized Medicine and Participatory Medicine Intersect, Ellen Hoenig Carlson: Patients Beware: 1 out of 3 Subject to Hospital Error
DC Patient: The 5 Myths of Patient Engagement With HIT
Diabetes Mine: The Best Of the Diabetes Bogosphere, Diabetes Advocacy Orgs: 2011 Milestones and What To Expect in 2012
Digital Medicine: Infographic: Rise of the Digital Doctor
Healthcare Blog: How Doctors Die
Kevin MD: The Rise of Citizen Scientists and Patient Initiated Research, Patients Who Bill Their Doctor For Being Late, I Eat Lunch With Drug Company Representatives and I'm Proud Of It
Not Running A Hospital: Really The Most Significant?
Nurse Loretta: Diabetes Doesn't Have to Slow You Down- Get Tested- Especially Young Adults and Teens!
Patient POV: Patient POV's Best of 2011
Pharma Strategy blog: Making a Difference in the Lives of Cancer Patients: An Interview with Dr. Charles Sawyers
Siren Song: The Social Media Sites Physicians Use
Six Until Me: We're More Than Our Numbers, 30 Things About My Invisible Illness 2011, e-Patient Connections: A Patient Checks In
The Well Blog: The Provider Will See You Now
33 Charts: Distracted Doctoring
I'm sure that I missed many a good post. Feel free to add ones that you particularly like in the comments section! Cheers!
Image source: Traveling Content's Blog
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Tue, Nov 22, 2011 @ 06:53 AM
Just back from sub-arctic
Churchill, Canada, also known as the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” we had an amazing opportunity to not only see these magnificent animals ‘up close and personal’, but to also meet and talk with some of the
First Peoples (which include the
First Nations,
Inuit and
Metis) who shared their interesting history and stories.
Churchill is a small, northern town in the Canadian province of Manitoba and is located on the shore of the Hudson Bay, where the polar bears descend from October to mid-November as they wait for the Bay to freeze, so they can go back out and hunt for ringed seals. The only way to reach this remote settlement is by prop plan or a 40-hour train journey from Winnipeg. (We flew on none other than ‘
Calm Air’.)
The first thing that we were told as we were greeted in Churchill: “ At this time of the year, there is every possibility of a polar bear wondering into town, and remember, they haven’t eaten since July!... In other words, the bear warnings posted around town are not for show or to give tourists a frisson! [We also learned two important lessons should you come face-to-face with a polar bear: 1) do not run and 2) do not play dead.]
You might be wondering, why would a busy pharma consultant, Mom and wife be venturing up to northern Canada in early November to see polar bears? My adventurous 88-year-old mother! She has always wanted to see the polar bears as they migrate, and decided this was the year. Therefore, off I went with my ten year old to accompany her; leaving my older boys and hubby back home!
Of all the animals that the Inuit hunt, Nanuk, the polar bear, is the most prized. Native hunters consider Nanuk to be wise, powerful, and almost a man. Some call the polar bear the great lonely roamer.
- Polar bears are white for a reason. While you might think it would be easy to spot an animal that can weigh more than 1,600lb, with the wind swirling with snow, it is not. Wherever there is snow, the polar bears are excellently camouflaged. They also make little noise and can run up to 25mph, so before you know it, they can be in your face…
- Polar bears are curious. Being at the top of the food chain, gives them the heartfelt freedom to explore and to be curious! They often approach the ‘ buggy’ trucks to get a good look at people. When you see them at close quarters- the tundra buggies have an outside viewing platform- they look almost unreal, rather like cartoon animals, and it becomes impossible not to anthropomorphise them. It is easy to see why they are center of much Indian folklore and stories.
- Polar bears are smart, clever, and patient. This is evident by their learned ability to trap and catch seals, which is no easy feat. (They are thought to be just as smart as apes.)
- Polar bears are solitary, content to live most of its adult life alone. [They make the John Wayne archetype look like child's play!]
- Polar bears are superbly adapted for the cold, harsh arctic climate. They have long guard hairs, dense undercoat and thick layers of fat, compact ears and small tail to prevent heat loss, and large paws perfect for roaming the Arctic. Paws measure up to 12 inches across and help distribute weight when treading on thin ice. When ice is very thin, polar bears extend their legs far apart and lower their bodies to distribute their weight even more. They are expert at placing each paw precisely and quietly when stalking seals. They have heightened sense of smell, hearing and vision to help survive in arctic conditions.
Polar bears do not hibernate over winter in dens like brown and black bears. [Only pregnant females enter dens to give birth where they stay until the cubs are big enough to trek.] They have the ability to reduce their metabolic rate when food is scarce and adjust it again when food is abundant. An example of this are the polar bears that come ashore after the ice melts in Hudson Bay each summer. These bears have no food source and enter a state scientists call walking hibernation.[Looks like my teenagers getting ready for school each morning.]
Despite the harsh climate of the north country, the First Peoples do not believe in just living, but thriving. Perhaps the greatest symbol of the fortitude and determination of the Inuit and Canadian north are what they call Inukshuk (pronounced ‘in-ook-shook’). 
The Inukshuk is simply a pile of stones arranged to resemble the shape of a human being with arms stretched out. Traditionally the Inuit made Innuksuit (plural) in different forms and for different purposes: to show directions to travellers, to warn of impending danger, to make a place of respect, to store food, or to act as helpers in the hunting of caribou. These stone structures are common across the Canadian Arctic.
The Inuit Inukshuk, though made of inanimate rock, has evolved into more than just stone markers. It embodies the spirit and persistence of the Inuit who live and flourish in one of the worlds’ harshest environments. Inuksuk’s represent strength, leadership, and motivation. Each stone of an inukshuk is a separate entity but was chosen for how well it fits together with other stones. The stones are secured through balance. Each one supports the one above it and is supported by the one below it. Together, the stones achieve strength through unity. This effect is applied to a philosophy for people where a group can achieve greater success with cooperation and team effort rather than individually. The inukshuk stands for the importance of friendship and reminds us of our dependence on one another.
Both the polar bears and peoples of the North Country do more than just live in the harsh, cold climate—they thrive.
Whether due to polar bear strength, adaptation and smarts OR the Inuit belief that communities thrive best when they cooperate and work together, thriving is characterized by success and prosperity…
What can your company or brand learn from the great polar bears and The First Peoples of North Canada? How can your brand thrive? Become stronger, faster, more adept? Build a stronger sense of community and collaboration?
More pictures below if you are interested...We had a great trip!
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Tue, Oct 25, 2011 @ 01:46 PM
Day 3 of ExL's Digital Pharma East Conference [#digpharm] focused exclusively on mobile and was co-chaired by Bob Allen, Director of Mobile and Social Media, AstraZeneca and Brendan Gallagher, SVP Emerging Technology and Channels, Digitas Health.
Speaking first was Bob Allen who offered up this definition of #mhealth: “the practice of medical and public health, supported by mobile devices.”
While a smaller turnout than the previous two days for the general digital conference, the Mobile health day was jam-packed with seven strong speakers who had lots to say about why Pharma needs to “Think Mobile First’ and how Pharma can best execute mHealth strategy:
To read the full article " Think Mobile. Think Small. 14 Mobile Musts From The Mobile Experts. ExL Digital Pharma East -Day 3 Mobile Wrap-Up" click here to go to ExL's Digital Pharma blog.
Related posts:
Loaded For Bear: Day 1- ExL Digital Pharma East Conference
Transform or be Transformed. ExL Digital Pharma East Conference- Day2
Med Ad News Pharmalive's YouTube Interview with Bob Allen at ExL Digital Pharma East Conference
Kevin Nalty's Mobile Workshop at ExL Digital Pharma East Conference- What's Next for Pharma in Mobile?
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Mon, Oct 24, 2011 @ 07:04 PM
If I were allowed but one word to describe Day 2 of ExL's Digital Pharma East Conference #digpharm, it would have to be the urgent need for transformation—the need for Pharma Co's to work faster than ever to effect internal change and to jump start meeting current and evolving customer expectations.
Throughout both days actually, speakers talked about the industry having to move from brand marketing to customer marketing, to move on your own with change or risk getting moved by others… and creating your own ‘Kodak moment’ or worse yet becoming a dinosaur…
To read the full article "Transform Or Be Transformed. ExL Digital Pharma East Conference- Day 2 Wrap-up", click here to go to ExL's Digital Pharma blog.
Stay tuned for Day 3's Digital Pharma East- Mobile Day Wrap-up...
If you missed Day 1's Digital Pharma East Wrap-up, "Loaded for Bear", click here
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Thu, Oct 20, 2011 @ 08:47 PM
Pharma, are you ready to leverage customer insights and closed loop marketing (CLM) in your iPad and mobile initiatives to help support customers?
To read the full article "Loaded For Bear: Day 1- ExL Digital Pharma East" click here to go to ExL's Digital Pharma blog.
Stay tuned for Day 2 and Mobile Marketing's Day 3 summaries...
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Fri, Oct 14, 2011 @ 02:22 PM
The recent release of Edelman’s Health Barometer 2011, continues to demonstrate how consumers are redefining what health means to them and their expectations for greater support by key constituents in their lives, including business and government.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the 2011 Health Barometer global study as presented Thursday. Or you can also read Richard Edelman’s Post: Social comes to health or Jane Sarasohn-Kahn’s post: Health is a team sport.
- 80% define health beyond being disease free.
- Lifestyle and nutrition are among the top factors that we most control and most impact our health. When thinking about their lifestyle and nutrition, friends and family are key to shaping our health.
- The knowledge-action gap in health continues…Consumers know what behaviors they should avoid, but don’t. Further, while 62% report having tried to change a negative behavior, 50% were not able to sustain their change. The top three reasons are: enjoyment of the negative behavior, addition or dependency and did not experience benefits soon enough. Living in a society where immediacy is king and 24/7 the growing norm, I would venture that “not seeing benefits soon enough” is probably understated!
- Consistent with Pew Internet Research and other studies, regular use of tools, devices and apps for managing or tracking health are still used by the minority at 20%. And younger consumers, 18-30 years old, are most digitally engaged.
- Helping others is the primary trigger of health advocacy, but experiencing a significant life event or reading or hearing information in the news are also significant triggers.
- Interestingly, 31% of consumers reported spending less time with a friend because of their unhealthy behavior. That translates to some powerful influence that each and every one of us can exert [I also sincerely hope that my two teenagers are adopting this behavior :-)]
- Patients join experts (doctors, pharmacists, nurses, nutritionists) as credible sources while those ‘without any real skin in the game’ have very little.
- Similar to studies by Prevention and WEGO Health, commercial interest doesn’t automatically detract from credibility. Consumers largely appreciate the Pharma industry’s expertise and are happy to use good information when provided.
- Health is an imperative for business. In the US, 72% rated it important for business in general to improve or maintain the health of the public. Globally and in the US, there is still opportunity for business and government to improve their ‘healthprint’. And those companies that consumers think are effectively engaging in health, the research suggest that it will help to build trust, sales and recommendations.
In other words, as we continue to think about what health means to each of us personally and to our businesses, and to consider both our individual and company/brand’s ‘healthprint’, we are reminded…
Health and sustained behavior change is COMPLEX
Health is social
Health is a team sport
Health goes well beyond the absence of disease
Health is about the 4 P’s: Personal, People, Professional, and Public
…Health is more than selling pills.
...Health is both individual and at the same time influential and far reaching to others.
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Wed, Oct 05, 2011 @ 07:14 AM
We are intrigued by the launch of Is My Cancer Different? and its potential impact on both patients and the business.
Is My Cancer Different? is an unbranded educational website that promotes a movement of sharing, with the intent of prompting patient dialog with their oncologist. The simple -but compelling- question is designed to raise awareness that each person’s cancer is different and to get patients to ask their oncologist to see if their cancer might respond to a more individualized cancer treatment.
You can click on the image below to visit the Is My Cancer Different? website and learn more from their numerous- but simple -patient and physician testimonial videos.
The site supports Clarient, a GE Health Company’s new molecular test that may help doctors identify which treatment can best target a person’s particular breast cancer. Interestingly, Clarient chose to share the official website launch during the 2011 Social Health Summit #SXSH that we attended, along with many other pharma/healthcare social media enthusiasts, ePatients, and Patient Opinion Leaders (POLs). [Be sure to read Shwen Gwee's recap: The 6 P's of Healthcare]
During the conference, Is MY cancer different? received twitter support; following the conference, ePatient’s wrote blogs. Here are a few examples of the word of mouth generated over the last few weeks:
Blogs: Cancer Hawk , Diabetes in Spain, Chronic Babe, Where We Go Now, Aaron Outward, Stem Cell Transplant, Social Media Club
This campaign reflects many of the points we raised in our complementary eBook: 2011 Brand Champion Health Check.
- Are you working to deliver more personalized treatment, content and experiences? [pg. 8]
- Given smaller targets, how can you leverage existing social networks and dialog to online or virtual communities, to extend messaging to low incidence patient groups in a cost effective way? To create buzz? To enable 'peer-to-peer' healthcare? [pgs. 8-9]
- Are you speaking with a voice that reveals humanity—in a conversational tone, with personality, empathy and true emotions? Are your choice of words simple, using the language of your patients and caregivers? [pg. 10]
- Are you doing your part to stimulate patient learning and involvement; to encourage patients to be their own best advocates and health team partners? [ pg. 10]
- How can your brand help to encourage greater trust and dialog between doctors and their patients and families, to help improve patient outcomes? [pg. 15]
Is My Cancer Different? is a great example of brand champion leadership. They have committed to a challenge of 1 million shares in 1 million minutes. What do you think? Will they make it?
Feel free to join the movement and help spread the simple question that can make a huge difference in the fight against cancer. Follow @ismycancerdiff on twitter and/or facebook.
You can also learn more about the ePatient movement at epatients.net and join The Society of Participatory Medicine.
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Tue, Sep 13, 2011 @ 08:03 PM
After reading a recent blog in Fast Company called The Zipcar Case: Zipping from Very Good to Magnetic, I started to consider, what would it take for BioPharma and Healthcare brands to not just be liked, but to truly be magnetic? And what lessons, if any, might Zipcar’s success suggest for the BioPhama and Healthcare industry?
While admittedly, Zipcar still has a ways to go financially, most agree that it redefined the Rental Car Market by offering consumers hassle-free "wheels when you want them"...
With success in hand and a recent IPO in April 2011 valuing the company at over $1 billion, Zipcar offers marketing and branding lessons for Pharma that transend the car rental market:
1. Start-ups create new markets, or they don’t survive. Zipcar didn’t chase the existing car rental market at airports with incremental change, they imagined a new market—car rentals by the hour, 5-10 minutes from where you live or work. Zipcar didn’t depend on market data (it doesn’t exist for a non-existent market) or simply asking consumers what they want, which often biases companies toward incremental improvements of current solutions. To quote Henry Ford, “If I had asked customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” [What Zipcar Can Teach The S&P 500 Business Week and HBR May 2011]
2. Zipcar is creating a BEMI—a “big enough market insight.” A BEMI is an insight that serves as the foundation for the creation of a major new business. To identify a BEMI, companies/brands must answer three questions:
- Is the insight big enough for your company? While it is always tempting to think BIG, the authors of Jumping the S-Curve caution that it just has to be big enough and executable.
- Is the insight valuable enough to customers? What will customers be willing to pay for the new product or services, and how many customers will exist?
- Is the insight certain enough? A genuine BEMI comes from a wise reading of technological, geopolitical, or demographic trends. [Business Week: Finding a Big Enough Market Insight]
3. Success didn’t come initially, not until Zipcar keyed in on business design and redefining its core business issue— density with a new hyper-local strategy. How to make Zipcars plentiful when Zipcar’s lack of popularity limited the number of cars available? Zipcar needed to build density because they understood that consumers didn’t want to walk more than 5 minutes to a car. This led to concentrating Zipcar’s marketing efforts in a few carefully selected locations populated by young, tech-savvy, environmentally conscious people. Once a market achieved critical mass, they expanded to the next community fueled by word of mouth.
4. Zipcar looked for new ways to fuel density, through creative partnering, including 'unlikely' partnerships. Early on, Zipcar partnered with universities to provide cars for students and faculty. [Read Harvard example] Most recently, they’ve announced a partnership with Ford on 250 college campuses—an unlikely partner given that Zipcar touts its car-sharing benefit and not having to own a car. [Ford and Zipcar in Deal on Campuses]
5. Zipcar intimately understands their customer drivers and triggers, and importantly, stays focused on delivering consistent value and customization. They understand that they need to insure convenience and low cost via proximity with clean, reliable cars and no hassle paperwork. But they also understand that each neighborhood desires different cars to drive, and they accommodate different tastes.
6. Zipcar focused on technology to help ensure service and convenience. Click here to read about the Zipcar technology.
7. Zipcar focused on segments that competitors overlooked or didn’t consider priority opportunities, such as college campuses and small business.
8. Zipcar didn’t overlook creating and supporting a unique brand personality—"Zipsters" are cool, hip, educated, smart consumers. Zipcar keeps the brand a little edgy and fun.
9. Zipcar and the market are taking a longer term view to profitability…The IPO is based on future market potential, not quarterly profits...
Implications for how BioPharma and Healthcare brands can improve their magnetism?
1. Incrementalism will no longer suffice in this increasingly payer driven and generics-dominated industry. We need to start thinking differently; focusing more on creating new markets, identifying BEMI's and trying new go-to-market strategies that answer patient insights...Supporting customer segments that are often overlooked....and feeling more comfortable that bigger isn't always better.
2. Might Zipcar's hyper-local market strategy provide some new thinking for Pharma new product launches? Can coordinated hyper-local efforts help increase traction and density among payers, physicians and patients, especially for smaller brands operating in smaller disease states? Are there some new partnerships to consider?
3. How can Pharma leverage new technologies to improve customer experiences along every touchpoint? Mobile health applications are just the beginning for what technology can mean for patients and physicians. Zipcar worked hard and long to optimize its RFID chips and GPS technology to support its unique business model. And the customer benefits of their seemless technology payed off in greater word of mouth and loyalty.
4. How can Pharma make prevention, staying healthy and treating certain diseases more hip, fun, smart? Clearly, this is a critical element to creating greater 'magnetic moments'!
Do you have other thoughts to add? Do you know of other BioPharma or healthcare companies that are leveraging hyper-local business models? Leave your comments...
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Wed, Aug 31, 2011 @ 08:18 PM
It’s hard to believe that it’s been two years since I wrote Marketing Lessons From Our Family Camping Weekend. This summer we spent a week on Saranac Lake in the Adirondack Mountains near Lake Placid NY, with three generations, ages ranging from 9 to 87.
Before the blush of summer vacation wears off, here are my key takeaways:
1. Listen like your life depends on it. During our first family rafting trip down the rapids after heavy rains, my listening, and that of my husband and three boys, greatly improved when we knew our safety depended on it! When there was a sense of conviction attached to our leader’s words and we were bumping around not sure if we were going to stay in or get tumbled overboard, our listening improved!
We all know that listening is a critical success factor today, and that there are many services and tools out there to help us do it better. .. But unless you are listening ‘like your life or business depends on it’, the words going in may not be really registering or garnering the necessary action. The river also taught us that if our leader said stop, you had to stop immediately, not one stroke earlier or one stroke later, as that would cause us to over shoot or under shoot our path…It wasn’t enough to just listen, we had to listen and act immediately!
2. Why do we continually forget that working collaboratively and in unison dramatically improves speed and efficiency? Spend any time in a raft or kayak, and it’s pretty evident that working together gets you there faster and with less effort! And if you are sitting in the back, it’s up to you to modify your paddling and approach to stay in unison with the person ahead of you.
3. The use of video/YouTube and mobile can no longer be overlooked. What do you do if you are 13 and unfamiliar with how to use a minnow trap? Seek out or wait for someone older or more experienced to come along and help you? Absolutely not! You take out your smart phone and search ‘minnow traps’ on YouTube!
Marketing Lesson: If you are marketing to today’s youth, you are likely missing out if you are not on YouTube. Lesson to Parents: perhaps we need to look to YouTube for particular lessons we want to teach our kinds? Might they not engage more with a YouTube video than listening to their parents tell them?
4. Fear is in the eye of the beholder. What represents fear to one human is simply not to another and vice versa. And it can be quite hard to overcome our own fears. I know, try as I might, I could not get over my fear of heights and jump 20 feet into the water-- even after my son jumped in right ahead of me! Yet, there were many happy to jump off the 20 foot rock and almost as many willing to jump off of the 30 feet rock…
5. I had forgotten how hard it is to swim against the current. The tide’s opposition quickly saps your strength. Yet how many times do we try to make a person do what’s unnatural to them or assume that we can shift a business trend with nothing more than slight modifications to last year’s plan? Swimming against the tide reminds you that it takes much strength and perseverance to succeed, and even then, it may not be enough.
6. Nature shows us yet again why we should ‘never judge a book by its cover’. Nature provides many lessons when you have the time and space to observe and take in. During a lull in our day, my nine year old and I decided to take a walk with a camera not knowing what we would stumble upon. We ended up watching a family of brown ducks. At first glance they looked like they were just ordinary brown ducks. But after a few minutes of concentration, we saw little bits of a beautiful blue show through…
7. Why is it that humans are generally resistant to learning from their elders and those who have already gone down paths they now face? Is learning equally as effective when you learn from someone else vs. when you learn it first hand? How many times over the week did my boys resist suggestions from their grandmother and parents? What is the best way to teach and learn?
So tell me, what did you learn on your summer vacation? :-)
Posted by Ellen Hoenig Carlson on Mon, Aug 01, 2011 @ 02:43 PM
How many times in the last year or so have you participated in planning sessions where the discussion centers on the strong desire for the brand or company to be perceived as trustworthy, to act with transparency and authenticity? Last week’s planning session was yet another example, giving me cause to pause…
In a world where trust is paramount yet scarce, BioPharma is no exception. The latest Harris Interactive 2010 poll continues to show Pharma close to the bottom on the trust barometer with 11% of adults rating Pharma as generally trustworthy. And with the increased public scrutiny, under which companies and brands find themselves due to the evolution of social media and ‘citizen/e-Patient journalism’; it is no wonder that anyone and everyone who touches the BioPharma and Healthcare industry is focused on improving transparency.
What does transparency mean for a company or brand today? It’s a word that seems to mean different things to different people.
Transparency, as used in the humanities and in a social context more generally, implies openness, communication, and accountability – Wikipedia
The Business Dictionary defines transparency:
- Lack of hidden agendas and conditions, accompanied by the availability of full information required for collaboration, cooperation, and collective decision making
- Minimum degree of disclose to which agreements, dealings, practices and transactions are open to all for verification.
- Essential condition for a free and open exchange whereby the rules and reasons behind regulatory measures are fair and clear to all participants.
Shel Holtz and John Havens describe it this way in their book, Tactical Transparency.
Transparency is the degree to which an organization shares the following with its stakeholder publics. In transparent companies:
- Its leaders: are accessible and are straightforward when talking with members of key audiences
- Its employees: are accessible to reinforce the public view of the company and to help people when appropriate.
- Its values: ethical behavior, fair treatment, and other values are on full display
- Its culture: the way things get done is not a secret
- The results of its business practices, both good and bad: successes, failures, problems, and victories are all communicated
- Its business strategy: a company’s strategy is a key basis for investment decisions so is of particular importance to the investment community and other key audiences
Transparency is NOT: Full disclosure. It does not mean you have to share absolutely everything about your organization or that you produce a never-ending sea of data and information in order to bolster the perception that you are keeping nothing hidden.
I like the way that Shel and John define transparency beyond the typical reporting aspect, including a focus on the actions of a transparent company or brand’s leaders and employees.
Pharma is certainly adopting more open reporting and communications in general; Most pharma companies publish their ethical standards and guidelines [E.G. click here for Pfizer’s standards] and already are or will be required to publish their relationships with Physicians due to the Sunshine Payment Act. Many are continuing to diligently work to avoid mishaps in communicating clinical drug safety, to provide employees with social media guidelines, to initiate corporate blogs etc. [E.G. JNJ BTW, AZ Health Connections, Sanofi’s Discuss Diabetes]
But, the fact remains, that few Pharma leaders speak openly to the public and few allow or encourage their employees to be visibly accessible and to ‘help the public’ (Afterall, helping might result in seeing and/or acknowledging an AE)—There are many Pharma companies whose risk profile will not allow their employees to read patient blogs or patient comments for fear that this will open them up to further FDA actions.
With the exception of Paul Levy -who as President and CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston became one of the first CEO’s to start a blog back in 2006 to actively communicate with employees, patients and key stakeholders- I’m not sure there are other leaders/CEO’s who are investing their time to consistently blog and openly communicate in the bioPharma industry.
Pharma: Can Transparency Lead You To The Right Path?
Earlier this year, Seth Godin wrote an interesting post: Why You Might Choose To Be In Favor Of Transparency? His hypothesis goes somewhat like this…using an example where thousands of doctors signed up for a service that, among other things, would try to prohibit patients from posting reviews…His argument goes beyond ‘truth’ or ‘choice’…it turns out that transparency increases profitability…
When consumers get used to transparency, they’re also more interested in the quality of what you sell, and are more likely to willingly pay extra. They’ll certainly cross the street to buy from an ethical provider. And once people start moving in that direction, the cost of being an unethical provider gets so high that you either change your ways or fade away….The arguments holds true for doctors. Once information about good doctors becomes widespread, patients will be more willing to seek out those doctors, rewarding the ones who consistently take better care of their patients. The entire profession doesn’t suffer (we’ll still go to the doctor) merely the careless doctors will… Sunlight (transparency) is an antiseptic and the marketplace rewards those that behave—and the entire market grows (and profits) when the standards increase.
Can the genuine act of transparency lead to greater BioPharma industry profits? What do you think? Do you have any good examples of Pharma transparency that you’d like to share?
Does your company/brand have what it takes to truly be transparent?