TransAccel Group – management

Escaping the Information Vortex

By Mark Lane|June 1st, 2017|Categories: Information Management|Tags: commercialization, compliance, content, content management, controlled content, documentation, information, information management, life sciences, management, pharmaceutical, regulatory, version control|Comments Off on Escaping the Information Vortex

When we talk to our clients and colleagues in the pharmaceutical industry, their stories are very consistent: They are overwhelmed by the amount of information and documentation required to research, develop, approve, launch and commercialize a drug.

As one executive said, “If you think about it, we really produce two products: the marketed drug—and all of the documentation needed to support it through its lifecycle. And somehow, somewhere along the way, it becomes an information vortex.”
How did we get here?
The demand for information and documentation has grown exponentially as regulatory and compliance requirements have increased in scope and complexity. Patients, payers, and administrators are also playing a greater role in treatment and prescribing decisions, and desire increasing amounts of product information to inform those decisions. Throughout the research, development and commercialization processes, companies must capture, create, review, manage, store, distribute and track critical content and documentation.

Getting it wrong can impact approval, successful commercialization and create compliance risk for the company as a whole.
Are you trapped in an information vortex?
In a typical “information vortex,” there are many people creating, reviewing and approving information and content, using multiple tools and systems, stored in many places, shared over email or other platforms. The relative lack of process and structure leads to low reliability and confidence in the information. Knowledge workers can lose significant time searching for, retrieving and creating content, and tracking it through the collaboration, review and approval process.

When was the last time you had this conversation: “Is this the latest version of the document? Does it include the most recent results? Where is the citation for this? Has it been reviewed by Legal and Marketing?” That’s the information vortex.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Your …
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CIOs—Unsung Heroes

CIOs—Unsung Heroes

By Bruce Lotier|March 25th, 2015|Categories: security|Tags: C-Suite, CIO, CIO Challenges, CIO Role, Data Security, Information Technology, IT, management, Organizational Security, Security|Comments Off on CIOs—Unsung Heroes

In my 35+ years of being a corporate change agent, and now at the helm of my own consultancy, I have worked with all levels of the C-suite, and I have to say the CIO role is by far the most difficult. There are numerous reasons for this, not the least of which is an outdated model of the C-suite itself.

The fact is that most companies still view IT and the CIO role through the narrow lens of providing technology-based services; they have not broadened that view to take into account the stunning changes wrought by digital technology. IT is no longer simply responsible for building, operating, and maintaining infrastructure; it’s responsible for data governance, driving growth through data analytics, cyber security, connectivity and integration. However, since most organizations are peering through the old lens of IT-as-service-provider, they are blind to IT as a revenue-producer. The irony here is that Sales, Marketing, R&D, Finance, and HR—those typically considered revenue-producing—are only able to do what they do because of IT and IT’s ability to stay ahead of the curve.

According to a recent IBM study of 4,100 C-suite executives, only 42% of CIOs were involved in strategy, as opposed to 72% for CFOs and 63% for CMOs. This is puzzling. Since IT touches everything, the CIO has an enterprise-wide vision that would be invaluable in integrating an enterprise-wide strategy. Luckily, the IBM study suggests that this is turning around—the CIO is soon going to be considered one of the C-suite “triumvirate,”: CEO, CIO, CMO.

Another reason the CIO role is more difficult than most is that it bears sole responsibility for ensuring business continuity through critical service level agreements that define uptime, availability and redundancy. …
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Decisions, Decisions. Or Maybe Not.

Decisions, Decisions. Or Maybe Not.

By Bruce Lotier|August 7th, 2014|Categories: Change|Tags: Change, communication, decision, Leadership, management, strategy|Comments Off on Decisions, Decisions. Or Maybe Not.

Nothing is so exhausting as indecision, and nothing is so futile. So said Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, mathematician and political activist. Aneurin Brevin, the Welsh Labor politician put it this way: We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over.

Making decisions means risking what is known for what is not. In my line of work, I have seen many organizations mired in keeping the status quo because the bogeyman in the hall is whispering, what if you’re wrong? The irony, of course, is that by not making a decision—right or wrong—you end up doing nothing, and this poses a far greater risk because your competition is certainly doing something.

Fear of the unknown and fear of being wrong are formidable inhibitors to decisive action. There are others, such as a reluctance to be held accountable, but even that is anchored in fear. Another inhibitor is being overwhelmed by the number of factors involved: the people who will be affected, the processes that will change, available resources, and so forth—aspects I call the “what.” The “why” of a decision is the part usually easily identified; Something has driven the case for change. It may be an eroding top line, a dissatisfied customer, excessive overtime, the competition, or staff malaise. But how to address the “what”—that becomes the immovable object stopping many decision-makers from acting quickly and decisively. Often, they feel compelled to have all the answers before embarking on any course of action. Unfortunately, seeking those answers, they usually consider the internal ramifications—conditions within their control—and neglect those coming from external sources such as the market, competition, technological advances, etc. And those considerations don’t wait.

This is …
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