Brand managers today have a tough job—and it results in many sleepless nights. After all the work put into a launch, some teams end up biting their fingernails, wondering, “Did we hit the mark?” After all, launches don’t always turn out as expected. In fact, according to Janet Winkler of Publicis and Brian Fox of McKinsey & Company, authors of our cover story, Five Inconvenient Truths That Can Make or Break a Product Launch, nearly half of all launches underperform the pre-launch expectations of their companies. And during the next five years, we will see three times as many launches than we’ve seen in the past five years!
But agility is the key to preventing your launch from becoming a dud, our authors say. And that is the ability to pivot, to incorporate new insights and re-work messaging, and to deal with unforeseen circumstances quickly. But, perhaps more importantly, it also takes bravery. Those who are not afraid to fail, most often get it right.
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are also facing a brave new healthcare environment in which they will need the agility to stretch themselves and partner up to create drug/device/diagnostics combo products that will break the mold and result in the required “better patient outcomes.” Author Michael Austin of Palio, stresses, “Core to the future of healthcare is pharma’s ability to partner with device and diagnostics companies.” As this happens, it will lay the groundwork for vastly improved patient outcomes. In the end, all stakeholders will potentially thrive as personalized medicine becomes the standard of care. See our feature to learn more about how these industries are, or should be, coming together to innovate, how this can be accomplished, and where it will lead.
Speaking of innovative, don’t miss our annual Innovations Issue next month. It will virtually burst with our industry’s forward-looking work, demonstrate the creativity, ingenuity, and yes—the bravery—it takes to push beyond the leading edge. Get ready to be dazzled.
We have something else to dazzle you as well—the polls are open for 2016’s PM360 Pharma Choice Awards—and you decide the winners. Visit our online voting site (www.pm360online.com/pharmachoice-vote) and choose your favorite in each of our categories. Our January issue will showcase the winners.
