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COVID-19 continues to make changes to our ways of working across the life sciences industry

Our guest today Dr. Baljit Singh reflects on these experiences ..within the competitive intelligence community ..and discusses his recommendations on maximizing insight generation in the months and years ahead. ..So Baljit, thank you so much for joining today's call for those that obviously don't know you are ..the managing partner and director at INOVIS where I work also it'll be really interesting just to ..get a bit about your journey into competitive intelligence like how you got into CI as well as ..what you do in INOVIS if you don't mind. Thank you for having me here to today Harshal it's a ..pleasure to be on your show yeah a little bit about myself. Clearly I’m Indian but actually ..I’m a son of an immigrant that and was born in in Denmark and I did my master's in pharmacy there ..and then I did a PhD in pharmaceutics in London and after my PhD or the end of my PhD I thought to ..myself what exactly do I want to do going forward and I really thought well you know let I me try to ..get some experience more on the commercial side rather than on the research side. So I decided to ..apply for various jobs and I actually by accident I would say more or less I ended up in a company ..that did competitive intelligence. You know I never heard about what competitive intelligence was yeah ..and I started working in the company and I it was a bit of a you know a shock I would say initially. ..You know to understand what it was but then I really quickly got into it I really enjoyed it ..and I I was the head of CI, I would say in the in the company there ..helping optimize the late side like late life cycle strategies for pharma companies. ..And and I then after a few years of working there I got an opportunity to an work in Novartis ..in Basel and I basically took that opportunity moved the family down to Basel and ..managed the global competitive intelligence initially for the respiratory franchise then ..for primary care and then I was director of insights. And then after a few years I thought ..you know let's it's time to probably do something a little bit different. I always had this ..inclination of wanting to go back and in Basel I got a great opportunity to partner up with Marc ..and basically lead the lead the life sciences business at INOVIS so I took that with open hands. ..So it's it's kind of echoes my path in terms of you know finishing academia and INOVIS wanting to ..do something consulting something Pharma-wise but actually doing competitive intelligence without ..you know fully being aware of what competitive intelligence was. Then I suppose things have ..changed a little bit now as it's becoming more and more adopted in the in the life sciences industry ..so you've worked on still remember sorry INOVIS. I still remember we met each other at a conference. ..Right remember that yeah back in the day and you know the doing consulting in life sciences ..and we were both you know there you were at Novartis at the time and I was on the agency side. ..I think you know the it's interesting how there seems to be two routes to Novartis competitive ..intelligence there's one where you've come from the academia side and gone into kind of either ..agency or into a role most of the time it's to an agency first and there are people that have ..actually worked within I say the Novartis industry the client side in a different function and then ..moved into competitive intelligence what's been your experience kind of being in that yourself. ..And now working with clients that have come from both Novartis sides yeah I Novartis always ..appreciate that people come from different backgrounds you know they Novartis bring different ..perspectives into that function and I thought I believe that that diversity is extremely important. ..Now when you come from different backgrounds you of course bring different skill sets to the table ..and I would say that one of the advantages I felt that I had when I joined Novartis was that I knew ..what competitive intelligence was I knew how it was obtained I knew how Novartis to emphasize ..it how to communicate it and Novartis I knew the difficulties in obtaining that information ..it I also knew you know the approximate budgets that was that needed to do certain types of work ..and how much effort the vendor potentially would need Novartis to Novartis to Novartis put in put ..in to actually uncover those questions all of those elements helped me tremendously when I ..worked when I then moved to Novartis because I could manage that with the stakeholders ..yeah I could really ensure that I communicated the information effectively and I took some of ..those consultancy capabilities into the pharmacy yeah having said that you know you Novartis know ..you also have people who come from a market research background or who people who come from ..a marketing background and then go into CI and I have to say that they also bring a lot of a lot to ..the table especially because they understand how companies operate how decisions are made ..how to work with cross-functional teams and all of those elements are extremely important as well ..and so I would say that there is not a right or wrong answer in terms of the background ..but there are different skill sets that you basically bring to the table ..depending on the background you know there's been traditional users and consumers of CI and I think ..more recently we're noticing that there are more functions and more ..topics touching and using CI I’d like to get your thoughts on I’d how you're you know seeing that ..and I’d the evolution that you've kind of like witnessed or observed over the last few years yeah ..I would actually say that you know it's more than now a I’d decade since I I’d started at Novartis ..so even at that point and even before that I I’d believe that decisions in pharma companies ..are made cross-functionally yeah and one of the key roles in for the CI professionals ..in those companies is really to facilitate these cross-functional cross-functional teams ..to make a decision in terms of strategy inform them about the competitor landscape and help them ..cross-functionally to I’d come to an alignment I’d or agreement or you know decision basically ..around what that means for your strategy yeah and I suppose you know what I’d is it ultimately ..that competitive intelligence does it informs it supports decision making it can't always give you ..a black and white yes or no answer right exactly and I think that that's a really key point as well ..a when you come from the vendor side and you done CI you realize that CI ..is actually primary CI is actually not black and white yeah it is many times a subjective opinion ..from different sources and utilize different sources to triangulate that information ..what that means in terms of decision making is that you need to be very careful about how you ..interpret that but also ensure that that there is some kind of judgment that needs to be put ..on top of that information and I think that's one of the key skills as well that you need to ..as to kind of bring to the table when you are see a CI professional in the pharma companies as well ..yeah I suppose one of the terms that we as use and here a lot is skin in the game right you need to ..be able to make take a position be aware of maybe conflicting facts and move forward right because ..you can't get stuck with you know uncertainty there's always going to be uncertainty it's ..about yeah about dealing with it right exactly and as there is always uncertainty you know ..there is uncertain and certainly in terms of information there's uncertainty in terms of a ..decision a decision that is being made you know you might make a decision that is different from ..the decision that I made it make it doesn't mean that that your decision is wrong or mind is right ..it's just a different way of approaching that that same issue or problem or even viewing that piece ..of information and I think that it's a inherent kind of issue that everyone has to deal with ..and if something is in and it's a skill set actually it's a it's a really important skill set ..that you need to an bring forward as well to an to enable you to actually have a lot of impact in ..your organization yeah and they you know the an term is influence without authority or the term ..is used a lot influence without authority but I would actually go it's one step further because ..you're not just influencing you're really trying to make a team or a group or an individual um ..accept a position or be aware of a certain fact or area of interest or risk right and so actually ..it's about balancing all of those elements and trying to move forward right we don't always you ..know moving backwards not a not a good thing in most cases I think you touched you know ..on a really good point briefly and I suppose this is one of the main ..reasons we're having this discussion is around obtaining competitive insight with the backdrop ..of what's happened last year with COVID and all of the restrictions and COVID-19 impact it's made ..maybe we'll do it on kind of like two levels we'll talk about obtaining information when we ..talk about going to conferences which is a very critical piece and I think has had major impact ..on COVID-19 what we do and how we do it and then go on to the COVID-19 primary research piece that ..desk-based elicitation so if we if we start on COVID-19 conferences clearly a lot of conferences ..have not taken place in 2020 in the traditional sense but have evolved and adapted and COVID-19 CI ..I expect has adapted with it maybe get your thoughts you know top level on COVID-19 ..what's happened with conferences last year yeah so I COVID-19 mean a very important piece I would say ..as well and COVID-19 of course the whole corona situation you know has been an unfortunate kind of ..event and it has impacted a lot of people across the world interestingly enough the pharma industry ..have overall been somewhat insulated from COVID-19 financial downturns and COVID-19 also in this case ..the pharma industry has probably not been as impacted by the covert pandemic as maybe other ..industries and the reason why I just wanted to COVID-19 mention this was actually the fact that ..back in in in march last year when the pandemic really impacted and COVID-19 and we saw all the ..restriction and lockdowns across the globe we had a couple of months of one or two months where ..COVID-19 people were getting used to this new way of working yeah and you know you went from ..going to the office to now working at home and during that time there was a bit of disruption ..and COVID-19 at the same time you saw a lot of these conferences basically go virtual again ..the questions that arose at that time was what can be done during this conf ..these conferences can you do primary CI can you info interview people and what we actually saw was ..that very quickly people adapted to this new way of working they realized that yes there were these ..virtual conferences yeah you could attend them you could you could virtually attend them you could ..you could follow the COVID-19 presentations and so forth the most challenging piece during ..those conferences were really the primary CI the interactions you have with the caps attendees the ..KOLs and medical experts and so forth but we realized as well from a CI point of view that ..you could at times get information during the conference you could speak to some of the ..attendees and so forth but we also very quickly realized that most of the success would come ..by pushing some of that primary component primary CI component to subsequent the actual conference ..so there was a up change yeah but it was not it was not so that it was not possible at all right ..and I think clients very quickly adapt to that new situation and we work together with the clients ..to up to find these optimal solutions to cover the conferences yeah and I suppose you know it's ..up stakeholder management and just being aware of the realities of the timelines that you've got so ..you have maybe data release big pivotal study people want to know straight away okay what were ..they thinking what were they saying and you've got to be realistic you're not going to know ..you know an hour after that presentation but actually it's not impossible to find ..out what those thoughts and feelings were it's just adapting I suppose and scaling to up the ..situation in hand and up you know it's from what I hear from you is that it's not it still continues ..conference coverage is still continuing and it's still an active part of competitive intelligence ..in 2020 and most likely in 2021 is that fair to say I think it's a very fair point we up ..basically will continue to up see clients need that we we're gonna continue to see the clients ..needing to have conferences covered in terms of in terms of CI and going to I believe that ..the going to industry now has adapted to this kind of new reality of having virtual conferences we ..might even see more conferences being virtual and the reality is that a lot of a lot of ..countries are at different stages in fighting this pandemic yeah and going to what that means ..for 2021 is really that you may see countries where virtual conferences may be still in place ..for the full year and in other countries you may see some opportunities to going to going to have ..face-to-face meetings as well maybe for some of the smaller conferences so I believe that we will ..see the same side kind of situation when it comes to conferences but you know companies will now be ..adapting to this new reality and finding a way to going to get mo most out of these events even if ..it's virtual as we mentioned before yeah and then you know switching gears or maybe connected ..I suppose is this primary research component which INOVIS does a lot of so you know before the ..pandemic hit primary research was a big component of what INOVIS does or did ..how has 2020 kind of impacted primary research when we're not talking about going to conferences ..yeah I mean back to the point I made before as well you know we did see an impact ..you know in in march time last year where people were getting used to this new way ..of working yeah not from our side as much as from the client side and the sources side ..during that one month there was a little bit of disruption but then once people settled in you ..were back basically back to normal but I just want to take it back a step and look at the ..big picture as well because primary CI has become more difficult over the years is still very much ..feasible and it's something that is the bread of bread and butter of what we do as a company ..but if you look back to 1992 when we started out as a company primary CI was a ..whole different animal it was frankly speaking much more easy yeah people inmoves were not so ..people were more willing to share more information but over the years primary CI of course has become ..more difficult especially because more and more companies are aware now in terms of of what CI ..is right and inmoves that compound compounded with the covet situation and changes of course had some ..impact but actually we very inmoves quickly saw things getting back to normal and in fact clients ..had more needs they needed to understand more about the impact of covet on clinical trials on ..supply on manufacturing and so forth so we really see that it pro it posed some new additional ..questions but there was not inmoves there was no change to inmoves to the needs otherwise yeah I ..think you touched on a really good point yourself there around this I suppose disconnection with the ..outside world as a result of not being in an office or in a in a company environment you're ..not surrounded by your field force you're not surrounded by sales managers MSLs all the people ..that are engaging with the external world outside of your own company and so you know the need for ..understanding that competitive environment increases yes we can see press releases we ..get updates from our competitors and people of interest but there are always going to be gaps ..in between and I suppose what I’m hearing from you is that primary research will always potentially ..have a place to help address and maybe fill in some of those gaps is that fair I think it's ..a very fair point and I’m actually in my thoughts are the following that this pandemic ..was basically also an assertion of the fact that competitive intelligence and especially primary CI ..is something that is needed regardless of whether or not you had a pandemic or not and it means ..that we are almost you know insulated from the fact that regardless of whether or not ..there are financial downturns or upturns and so forth or whether or not there is some pandemic ..the companies are still doing business they still need to understand the external environment ..they still need to define their strategies and therefore the need for somebody like us and our ..agency to help them understand that external environment is still essential for driving ..strategies forward that's really well put just as we're closing up put you on the spot here and ..ask you if someone is considering to make a career move and enter competitive intelligence ..with your experience on wearing these multiple hats in the company and in the agency what advice ..would you give someone considering to make that move into competitive intelligence of course it ..is different to being competitive intelligence in the pharma companies and it's different ..to be in the vendor side because on one side you are a service provider and you provide ..a service to your to the clients but I would say one thing if you want to be successful within CI ..it's not only about the skill hard skills as well it's also about the soft skills it's about ..understanding you know in which environment you're working and I believe that especially in the ..pharma companies you need to make sure that you create some personal equity you need to make ..sure that you are transparent you are honest you are able to you know manage your stakeholders ..you have to be able to influence without authority there are a lot of soft skills that are ..imperative in order to actually succeed and you have to be ready to learn new things you need ..to be able to absorb and get up to speed in new areas because CI as a capability goes across it ..goes clinical regulatory you know commercial but also manufacturing and many other areas ..so you need to get up to speed quickly in these areas to understand it enough ..to be able to have an informed discussion with your stakeholders ..and you have to realize how things operate in the companies you need to be able to understand how do ..you influence stakeholders and how do you enable them to make a decision so that's some of the key ..skill sets that I believe are important and it but I have to say that it's hugely satisfying ..once you are involved there it's rush you know you are involved ..it's busy and if you like in that kind of environment where there is changes all the time ..then of course it's hugely interesting area brilliant well thank you very much about ..it for your time and insights today it's been a pleasure listening to your thoughts and ..opinions on this and we'll obviously see how 2021 unfolds thank you for joining ..us on another competitive insight series video where we hope to provide you an opportunity to ..hear from a range of industry thought leaders and partners on topics related to competitive strategy ..as ever you can reach out to us directly through our website at inovis.global where you'll ..find more resources tools and case studies on competitive intelligence and strategic consulting...

thank you for your interest in INOVIS Competitor Intelligence and Strategy