Case
Studies
#2.
Creating a Culture of Innovation
A
top global pharmaceutical company was in danger of becoming
a victim of its own success. Over the years the company had
established numerous processes to manage its drug development.
At first the processes worked well. Drug development hummed
along nicely and the company's fortunes rose.
Eventually,
however, the processes took on lives of their own.
The company began to act as if its processes were a source of
value rather than the products and ideas those processes were
supposed to manage. The system rewarded management for the number
of NDAs filed rather than for their commercial potential. Entrenched
decision-making procedures stifled innovation. The future of
development was threatened.
Our goal
was to shift the company's attention away from process management
and back to the creation of value-added content.
We created
a template for function managers to use in dividing their activities
into one of two categories: content or process. Eventually,
"process" activities would be outsourced, leaving the development
group free to focus on "content" tasks aligned with its true
mission.
Not surprisingly,
most activities came back labelled "content." So we
developed a second filtering template and worked with managers
individually. It was a difficult time for some because we forced
them to re-assess the value of their habitual activities. Anyone
associated with process was threatened. We dealt with that by
creating a scenario in which process activities could be spun
off into stand-alone value centers.
The most
important result of our work was the transformation of the group
into a thinking organization. People now seek to add value by
promoting creative content. It’s no longer about managing process.
"We are
changed forever," said the head of drug development.
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