Ideas
2015年01月24日
pharma 2015
This year has started out great, with lots of opportunities to think about
where the pharma marketing in Japan will be going in 2015 and beyond.
Here are some of my thoughts:
1) generics are for real - we have heard lots of talk over the past few years
about generics, but there were still nagging healthcare professional
concerns about quality & supply issues, as well as general skepticism
among patients regarding switching from branded products. Those days are
gone. The MHLW is pushing the point system hard, almost every major
pharma has its own generic subsidiary or tie-up, and authorized generics
have debuted. Commercial teams should realize that Japan has finally
caught up to the rest of the world in this respect - and talk about "defending"
products after loss of exclusivity has become largely a waste of time and
energy.
2) area strategies will be key - as the market demand for local healthcare
collaboration increases, pharma companies are responding by shifting more
budgeting and tactical decision-making to field management. That means
that head-office commercial teams are going to need to be more flexible in
offering options, and also more sophisticated in gathering performance results
from disparate combinations of initiatives to identify what works best and
share that back into the field.
3) multi-channel advantages await - physicians new CRM solutions are
everywhere, but very few are working well on an operational level. One key
reason is that marketers have not yet adapted their traditional approaches in
order to leverage them properly. Those teams that can leverage insights
generation in order to define a true needs-based segmentation scheme, and
then tweak their market messages and activities to deliver value to priority
segments - instead of relying on across-the-board share of voice - will help
their MR's stand out and create real synergies with the sales force.
4) "beyond the pill" value is required - this has become a recent buzzword,
but MR's lining up in hospital corridors to hammer home product-focused
messages are not going to get face time with their physician customers
anymore. Marketers need to help them talk about patient types, treatment
options, local healthcare networks, and other tangential issues, adding value
to each and every customer interaction in the process.
Exciting times are on the way, as market pressures will help to distinguish
clever, strategic marketing from yesterday's run-of-the-mill approaches.
2012年05月01日
「患者会議」の新しい取り組み
２年近く前から「デジタルヘルス」のテーマについて会社として本格的に勉強し始めました。
私は理系ではありませんので、新規の医療技術の側面より、ソーシャルメディア、患者用アプリなどコンシューマー側のツールの発展について注目してきました。糖尿病、アレルギー、喘息、不妊、アルツハイマー、てんかんなど、それぞれの疾患における患者や介護者のtweetやブログ記事を読んだり、分析したりし、大変さと悩み事をある程度把握してきたつもりです。同時に母国のアメリカとヨーロッパ（大学の第二外国語はドイツ語でしたが、役に立ちました！）の状況を見ながら、日本との違いも実感しました。
そこで、何か自分が貢献できることはないかと考え、今回、新しい取り組みをスタートすることにしました。
「患者会議」という名前で、疾患別、テーマ別のディスカッションを促進できる「場」を用意しようというアイデアです。その「場」の形がいろいろな可能性をもつ、「アナログ」（＝フェースtoフェース）、「デジタル」（＝オンラインにてメール、チャット、ＳＮＳ，ビデオ）及びハイブリッド（＝両方のごちゃ混ぜ）タイプも視野にいれます。
参加する人は一般の患者・ご家族・友達、ドクター・ナース・薬剤師、または場合によっては製薬・医療機器・診断機器のメーカー企業側の担当者もありえます。
患者側から、病気のこと、生活の障害になっていること、知りたいこと、病気との接し方や対策に関する相互のアドバイス。
医療関係者から、日常生活の改善点、病気についての分かりやすい説明、専門的な立場から見た一般的なサポート。
メーカーから最新の国内・外の研究発表情報、生活支援のアプリ、疾患情報（日本の法令上、直接に製品を患者に販売できませんので、売り込みのない場であること！）。
当社からは、さまざまな疾患に関するトレンド情報、アメリカやヨーロッパのパワーブロガーの手法、患者や一般市民のヘルスケア関連のイベント情報なども提供したいと考えています。
ご興味のある方、是非ご連絡を下さい。この記事についてコメントを書いていただいても構いませんし、（自分のコメントを公開しないでほしいのであればその通りに書いてね）、kanjakaigi@3rockconsulting.com あてにメールを送ってくださってもＯＫです。これからやることですので皆さまの意見を聞きながら構築したいと思います。だれでもお世話になっている日本のヘルスケアシステムが破綻しないように、より患者側の視点に注目しながら、貢献していきたいです。よろしくお願いします。
2010年09月03日
8時半のルール
企業の人材開発プログラム、または公式のイベントなどで話をするとき、若いビジネスマン達の熱心さにはいつも感銘を受けます。ノートをとったり、良い質問をしたり。彼らが真剣に、どうすれば組織の中でより良い仕事をして向上していけるのか学び取りたいと思っていることがよくわかります。
しかしここで、もう少し高度なチャレンジを提案したいと思います。真のグローバルプロフェッショナル?-市場の中で自らの組織を抜きん出た存在へと変えていく人材―は、すべてにおいて、実際に「次の1歩」の行動へと踏み出す人たちです。彼らはレクチャーやトレーニングコースに出るだけでは十分とはしません。鍵となるのは、その後のフォローアップと、自らの仕事への応用です。
私の知る、最も成功している人たちは、懇親会で名刺を集めるだけで終わらず、翌朝さっそく前日会った人たちに思慮深い一文を送り、時にはそこに一歩進んだ質問を付け加えたりします。スピーカーが言及した本のタイトルをメモしたら、すぐに購入し、その日の帰りの電車の中で読み始めます。風呂の中で何かビジネスアイデアが浮かんだとしたら、長いTO-DOリストに書き加えるのではなく、同僚をランチに誘い、そのアイデアを実際にプロジェクト化する方法を探り始めるのです。
私はこれらの観察から得られるルールを「8時半ルール」と呼ぶことにしました。次に誰か面白い人に会ったり、新しいコンセプトを学んだり、あるいはアイデアを思いついたりしたときは、「翌日の朝8時半に何かを実行」するのです。同僚がオフィスに来る前に、eメールの処理に追われ始める前にです。信じてほしいのですが、このタイミングを逃したら、あなたが何かを実行することは二度とないでしょう。
2010年07月25日
dog days of summer
My dog Linda is one of those kinda-trained types that follows directions just often enough to allow the humans around her to feel a sense of control. After many years of daily feedings, morning and evening exercise runs, mock fights on the living room floor, and everything else we have shared, we both know the regular routines and hardly need to glance at each other to get through most activities without a hitch. But now that she is getting on in years, she is starting to pick and choose a little bit more whether to follow non-standard commands (refusing to go upstairs for bed until a certain time, not shutting up and sitting still when the rest of the family heads out on a Saturday ride to the pool and leaves her in the yard...).
Two books that I read recently made me think a little bit more about how Linda might be seeing things. And they also gave me some insights into how I might better deal with the people around me as well, especially those that I need to coach and teach in my job.
I highly recommend the first one, The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. It is narrated in the first person by the eloquent Enzo, a lovable mutt firmly devoted to his master Denny, an aspiring race care driver with a sick wife and lovely young daughter. They go through a lot together, with Enzo constantly frustrated by his inability to communicate consistently with Denny because of his lack of thumbs and an effective tongue to speak with. As he says in the first sentence: "Gestures are all that I have; sometimes they must be grand in nature." And as with my Linda, those gestures range from wild barking and jumping to urinating on papers and ripping up a roomful of girl's dolls. But the power of the writing makes you really understand Enzo - and made me really think again about how little I sometimes work to truly listen to and understand those around me. And I don't just mean Linda.
If you are into car racing, there are also some real treats in this book - including the scene where Enzo accompanies Denny out for some hot laps on a test track. "Two barks means faster!"
The other book, Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training by Karen Pryor is basically a how-to approach to applying the rules of training by reinforcement. If you can get used to its kind of weird mix of technical academic terminology (conditioned reinforcers, event markers), animal anecdotes ("I shaped a large hermit crab once to ring a dinner bell by pulling on a string with its claw.") and human behavior examples (from conducting orchestras to learning how to putt), it offers some really valuable insights into how you to motivate and "shape" yourself and those around you in a positive way. And not just by bringing a clicker to the next company meeting...
2010年02月06日
asashoryu and the future of japan
Sumo grand champion Asashoryu's sudden retirement was a real
downer for me, as it reminded me of many things I don't
particularly like about Japan. As a foreign rikishi, he surely
had to go through a lot before achieving the success he did. I
can easily imagine his loneliness during those long days of
training, his frustrations at not easily understanding or
being understood by his colleagues and peers, his bewilderment
that certain things that he considered unimportant were seemingly
blown out of proportion by everyone around him...
Of course, it would be an overstatement to say that Asashoryu
Was "driven out"of sumo by some shadowy cabal that can't stand
the idea that for many years the top ranks of sumo have been
dominated by non-Japanese wrestlers. His behavior has long been
controversial here, and as a matter of principle it is important
for any foreign guest in any country to play by the law of the
land – so in large part his stepping down was just the logical
result of his earlier actions.
But coming from the US, where our famous athletes REALLY know
how to get in trouble - from shooting themselves in the leg at a
nightclub and brandishing firearms in the clubhouse pre-game
locker room to jumping into the stands to fight fans on a semi-
regular basis - Asashoryu's transgressions seem tame at best. At
the end of the day, the expectations of society became too heavy
for him, so he stepped down just when his rivalry with Hakuho was
heating up and sumo was developing a compelling storyline that
might have helped revitalize the sport.
From my own perspective, this reminds me of cases I see in Japan
business too often. An established group is threatened with a
looming crisis (as with the sumo world, this can often be
summarized as "shrinking domestic business"). They have some
emerging yet controversial potential strength at hand (an
exciting yet scandal-prone yokozuna, a technology proven in
the local market yet untested overseas, or the untapped
resources of young women that could be used to develop new-
look business models in their company). But leveraging this
new strength would require wholesale changes in their group or
corporate culture and leadership styles. Instead of making a
move, they dither and dather, trying to hold on to the status
quo and praying for the emergence of the next Takanohana /
Wakanohana Japanese-born sumo pair, a rebound in the yen-dollar
exchange rate, the next blockbuster drug, or whatever other
magic they might need. Of course, that doesn't come to pass,
and by then that potential strength is long gone.
Think JAL's top management with blinders on over the last decade.
Think Japanese government and industry's need for innovative
entrepreneurship and the way they absolutely decimated any
possibility that risk-taking would improve by excoriating
Horiemon & Livedoor several years ago. Think any pharma company
that clearly recognizes that young female MR's are outstanding
performers but haven't made the real effort needed to give them
a career path and retain them past the age of 30 (less than 1%
of the sales managers I meet in that industry here are women).
I really hope that Japan as a whole will find a way to avoid a
fast slide into an age of irrelevance. Many people just write
this type of problem off to the seniority system and expect that
things will do a 180 once the "dankai" generation filters out
of action through age attrition. But I think there is more to
it than that. As a whole, the culture needs to adapt to better
support outliers like Asashoryu, problematic as they might be.
All in all he did a really good job at fitting in. His Japanese
is excellent. His interviews were a bit edgy, but never
ridiculous. His dohyo entrances were done with dignity and
style, even as his pre-bout preparation was borderline manic.
More than anything, he performed, and people appreciated what
He had to offer. It is a shame that they couldn't find a way to
keep him where he belongs – in the dohyo.
