Client Successes
Building R&D Leaders’ Business Acumen
The Challenge
An international pharmaceutical company faced a number of industry pressures – from changing healthcare legislation and rising costs, to the growing complexity of clinical development and an increasingly mature product portfolio. In the midst of this evolving environment, the company’s R&D leaders are charged with making scientific decisions that impact drug discovery, with billions of dollars at stake. To continue to translate high science and medicine into products that save lives and build value for the company, the organization believed its R&D leaders would benefit from enhancing their business acumen skills – enabling them to make informed scientific decisions that ensure the company applies its resources in a prudent and responsible way.
The Solution
iQue Group designed, developed and delivered a customized business acumen skill development learning journey tailored to the R&D audience, using a blended approach that maximized learning and engagement and minimized travel. The journey integrated brief, self-paced learning modules on key business acumen concepts with a live classroom session in which learners used a pharmaceutical industry-specific simulation to put their newfound knowledge and skills into practical application. A series of post-session webinars and activities then helped them turn the learning into on-the-job action. At a reunion webinar two weeks after the classroom, participants shared how they were already applying the learning on the job – developing processes to better evaluate project requests to ensure they support company strategy, evaluating the hidden costs of bringing products to new markets, and challenging operational processes to ensure they support the company’s value proposition.
What our client had to say...
“The scientific decisions made in R&D have billions of dollars attached to them, so they must be made in the context of business. iQue Group is helping our R&D leaders build that skill through a program tailored to drug development and the R&D function. I’ve heard fantastic feedback from our learners. iQue Group is great to work with and is now a ‘go to’ source for our learning and development.”
– Executive Director
“Our learners clearly embraced the importance and value of the program – everyone was engaged and excited to participate. And the simulation was an amazing tool to reinforce and apply their advance learning. I’ve worked with many vendors, and iQue Group made this one of my best experiences. Not only was it was seamless, but there was a great team dynamic.”
– Associate Director
