Project Management for Global Pharma Merger

The client had acquired a larger competitor and needed to merge products, systems, marketing, sales, procedures, technology, product pipelines, and regulation for thirteen separate departments. Agile Project Management proved to be more effective than traditional waterfall methodology in enabling the client to complete the merger in record time.

The client is a global pharmaceutical company with a differentiated portfolio focused on branded medicines in gastroenterology, respiratory and inflammatory diseases, pain, osteoporosis and tissue management. An extensive range of OTC products completes the portfolio. Its R&D is structured around partnerships, and in-licensing is a cornerstone of the company’s growth strategy.

The company employs 12,000 associates worldwide, and its products are available in more than 100 countries. It has strong platforms in Europe and in fast-growing markets such as Russia/CIS, and Latin America. While US and Japan is commercialized through best-in-class partners, the company is strengthening its own position in key Asian markets.

Challenge

The client had acquired a larger competitor and needed to merge products, systems, marketing, sales, procedures, technology, product pipelines, regulation, quality, etc. In all there were 13 separate departments. The client decided it needed an alternative approach to managing its merger. They had recently removed the initial consultanting firm because they did not feel they were progressing fast enough and feared missed financial deadlines. We were approached and after confirming the characteristics of the merger matched our Agile Project Management processes, we started on the project.

The Solution

We began by establishing weekly Team Leader Meetings consisting of leaders and proxies from all departments. We hosted smaller weekly meetings for groups of intersecting departments and weekly meetings with department leaders and proxies to identify necessary activities, their priorities and required completion dates. We used our proprietary execution planning and management tool wPDT to keep track of the overall project and a custom MS Excel worksheet that followed the wPDT structure for department level activities.

Although wPDT was more than capable of performing all management and tracking activities, we chose to use MS Excel for political reasons. The team had become anxious that financial deadlines were fast approaching and thus were sensitive to any perceived delays like learning a new tool, no matter how simple. A read-only shared folder allowed department leaders / proxies to access MS Excel files in order to review any department’s activities and when they were scheduled to be performed. After some initial skepticism the team soon become accustomed to our simple straight forward and transparent approach.

Customer Benefits

  • The merger completed months ahead of schedule, despite a late start – Tighter, efficient and adaptive techniques avoid waste.
  • Large complex project made easy – By leaving tasks at the department level, the department leaders could focus on higher level activities.
  • Near 100% transparency of all department activities – Everyone is able to see what everyone else was doing.
  • Issues address swiftly before negative implications – Heightened communication and collaboration.
  • Business value and timeline focus not project plan focus – Team members own their activities rather than execute given tasks.
  • Risk reduction – System easily identifies high priority high risk items so they can be addressed as soon as possible.
  • Management feels high level of confidence in project success – The system provided simple, clear and concise reporting.
  • Significant savings – Early completion and lower consulting overhead.