Tag: strategy

Food for Thought: Re-thinking Operations for a Two-speed World

How to sustain in both high and slow growth markets at the same time? The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) have teamed up to analyze the most recent trend for global businesses: meeting the requirements for two different rates of growth, fast and slow, simultaneously. While regions like Europe, North America and Japan have turned to slow growth rates, emerging economies like China, India and Brazil are characterized by fast growth. To succeed in this so-called “two-speed world”, companies must develop different strategies, new products, and innovative, low-cost operating models.

According to BCG, big pharma expects about 70% of future business to flow from developing countries. To stay in the game, companies will have to develop a sound corporate strategy to cope with both speeds. Key strategic differentiators include profit vs. growth, best price vs. best value, differentiated product design, and new (interal) reward systems for meeting market expansion goals. Smaller biopharmaceutical companies will need to adapt to these changes, too, if they want to sustain in this two-speed world.

The full report called “Rethinking Operations for a Two-speed World”, which was published in early Febuary, can be downloaded here

Food for Thought: The Art of the Long View

– Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World –

First published in 1991, “The Art of the Long View” by Peter Schwartz continues to be one of the classics on a forecasting method called scenario planning. Initially developed at Royal/Dutch Shell, scenario planning allows for a systematic strategic approach to assess future developments in a best case, base case, and worst case scenario, respectively.

Based on comprehensive information gathering and processing, this long-range planning approach not only enables decision makers and entrepreneurs to outline potential scenarios, but also to track the change of key parameters for their business, thereby determining the likelihood of individual scenarios.

Sounds too abstract? Take a drug development company with several compounds in clinical development. Assembling and tracking information on key value drivers, such as statistic failure of product candidates at various development stages, recent market developments, latest trial data of the compounds etc., will provide a comprehensive overview of the progress of the company´s pipeline and its likelihood to get to the market.  More important, it is also an opportunity to prepare for less favorable scenarios and act quickly if they become reality.

For further information about scenario planning and Peter Schwartz´s work, please click here.