Background
The relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the NHS is undergoing rapid change, with the latter experiencing rising demand for medicines and increasing cost pressures, while needing to deliver better value and improved outcomes for patients. Sanofi Diabetes & Cardiovascular (DCV) saw this as an opportunity to improve the way its people worked together to better serve its customers through shifting ways of working from short term, price-focused conversations, to longer-term negotiations based on customer insight.
Approach
It worked with Rubica Change & Analytics to achieve this through Key Account Excellence (KAE). To enable the vision, a change of mindsets and behaviours was required; barriers had to be broken down between field and back office teams that influenced their agility, speed of execution and how they worked together; and an environment had to be created where everyone felt equipped, empowered and able to work together to develop ‘the best way’ to engage with customers, add value and improve the way Sanofi worked with the NHS.
The strategy included discovering existing beliefs and behaviours of teams that would support or hinder the success of KAE and looking for ‘cultural hotspots’ that could be amplified or replicated elsewhere in the business. To bring the vision to life a mentoring workshop and toolkit was rolled out to provide a practical framework and encourage critical thinking and develop capabilities that would enable KAE.
"Cultural hotspots' were amplified and replicated elsewhere in the business"
Outcome
After just four months results were shared and celebrated. Medical and marketing teams became involved – supporting the need to combine forces to better serve the customer – and Spearhead Accounts were introduced: high-calibre, cross-functional project teams focused on applying the principles to a small number of important customers.
A Step Ahead group champions KAE ways of working and inspires colleagues to embrace best practice, embedding the ‘new’ as the ‘norm’.
Sanofi asked London Business School to measure the execution of its strategy associated to KAE. The impressive results place Sanofi DCV in the top 25% of businesses efficiently executing their strategy and rate it highly in the four key areas of alignment, performance, coordination and agility.