Advice Pool - Business

Recently a client told me a wonderful story about how a change of attitude helped her to keep a valued employee.

Angry and grumbling about one of the provisions in the company po

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

licy, the employee asked for a private meeting with my client, the owner of a small sales company, and began to tell her in direct terms what was wrong. The client couldn't hear a

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ything the employee was saying because she was too busy planning her own rebuttal strategy. It was important to let the employee know that the policy was a good one. On the other

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

and, she didn't want to lose her top sales agent. Physically, she could feel her body clenching and mentally, she was preoccupied with what she should say.

She Who Speaks First L

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ses.
Fortunately, she remembered an old adage from her own sales days: when you are negotiating to close the sale and you've asked for the order, it is almost always true tha

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

"the person who speaks first loses." The client thought about this, took a deep breath, and listened instead. Almost immediately she felt the physical tension drain away, and fou

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

d she was really listening for the first time since the employee had started talking.

Seek First To Understand.
In Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, o

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

ne of the most well known of the habits - and perhaps most difficult to achieve in difficult moments - is the 5th Habit: Seek First to Understand, Then To Be Understood. My client

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

began to ask questions to find out more of what lay behind the outburst. She became curious, wanting to know as much as she could about her employee's point of view. She grew incr

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

asingly interested, and soon it became fun to learn how the policy appeared to this person. The more she listened, the more she could see the situation through other eyes. As she

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

ought clarity, she began to regain her own equilibrium and power. She saw that she could acknowledge and build on her employee's thoughts and at the same time speak what was true

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

rom her perspective as the company's leader.

Hard on the Problem, Soft on the People.
She heard not only the employee's words but also what motivated the message - the emplo

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

ee was concerned about fairness, clarity of communication, and the reputation of the company. So was she. It seemed that they were on the same side of wanting what was best for al

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

. From this common ground, the client explained her own view of how the company policy supported clarity, fairness, and company vision, and specifically how adhering to it might s

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

upport the employee in the long run. She was able to stay open to some positive suggestions for change and, in the end, to reassert her role as leader and mentor. The company owne

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

helped to position the problem as something they could work on and solve together, and the conflict became an opportunity to reinforce their relationship and their ability to han

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

le future challenges.

Morihei Ueshiba, 20th century martial artist, philosopher, and founder of aikido, is quoted as saying: "Opponents confront us continually, but actually ther

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

is no opponent there." It is fascinating, rewarding, and an exercise in a different kind of power, when we can turn our opponents into allies. It is one thing to think we are lis

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ening, quite another to actually do it – to imagine ourselves in the place of the person we are listening to, and to position the issue so that it can be worked on as a mutual pro

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

lem-solving endeavor. Try it. You will discover that when you have security in your own power, you will be able to step away from it temporarily and discover something even better

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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On Friday night, as I am sitting in my study room, a thought just crossed my mind… is it right to accept a job opportunity with your ex-employer? I know some of you might say, “No, one should not” and many of you might say, “Yes, One should”.

The success of any fundraiser depends on organization, leadership, product selection, preparation of the sellers and motivation.

Spontaneous and informal employee recognition when carried out by immediate supervisors is the best way to recognise good employee behaviour. The rewards need not necessarily always financial. You can reward employees through a number of inexpensive non-financial rewards.

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Advice Pool - How to Keep a Good Employee: Look, Listen, Learn

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