In my last post, Challenges/Barriers to Stakeholder Integrated Plan Development, the need and execution outline for a cross-functional “Vison Workshop” was introduced.  This workshop forms the foundation of short-and long-term stakeholder planning.  Once the consensus on cross-functional objectives are identified for the next 1 to 3 years, you are ready to begin tactical planning designed to accomplish your targets.
There is no shortage of companies with electronic tools to facilitate stakeholder planning and tactical execution.  Monocol, Pharmaspectra and PulsePoint all have stakeholder tools. Whether you are in the early stages of Stakeholder Engagement and require tactics like identification, profiling and mapping or in more advanced stages of engagement, the tools you utilize to document the tactics developed by the cross-functional team should demonstrate a number of characteristics:

• Utilizes the “KISS” Principle (Keep it Simple Stupid) - The level of simplicity will vary depending on:
  • The commercialization stage of the product (early/mid/late-stage development or post-launch)
  • The company experience in the marketplace
  • The number of cross-functional disciplines involved in the planning
  • Manpower and financial resources available to facilitate the planning and execution process
• Cross-functional‒friendly
  • Is sensitive to the lexicon and tactics of your stakeholder planning team?
• Commercialization stage adaptive
  • Can easily mirror the objectives of the Vision Workshop rolling 1 to 3-year plan
• Facilitates and tracks a continuum of engagements with KOLs
  • Identifies a progressive level of collaboration based on mutual interest and benefit
• Capable of tracking (and measuring) activities from strategic to transactional engagements
  • Interactions at annual congresses or KOL offices

So, let’s get specific about some simple tools for planning that will help to ensure cross-functional alignment for Stakeholder engagements.  My organization, Omni Healthcare Communications, has made a number of these available on our website (https://www.omni-hc.com/tools.html).  Several of these key tools are addressed below: 

• Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template – A basic general template that can accommodate cross-functional planning.  Once all of the individual team member plans have been created using this document, a consolidated plan can be established.
• Stakeholder Analysis Matrix – This template expands the traditional thinking of external stakeholders as only HCPs to additional influencer categories of government, societies, patient advocacy groups, etc.
• Individual Stakeholder Analysis – As stated previously, there are many organizations that can support your needs for identifying, profiling and mapping stakeholders.  The systems they provide can create great volumes of data on an individual target.  However, this Individual Stakeholder Analysis template should be sufficient for initial use.   
• Tactical Plan – Once stakeholder strategies are identified by segment, it will be critical to identify tactics designed to accomplish those strategies.  The tactical plan template will help to ensure that strategies and tactics (by stakeholder segment) are linked.  The strategies and tactics should be updated with the annual plan.
• Engagement Planning – Two templates are provided—one for centralized, strategic engagements and another for transactional, MSL interactions.  The forms can be useful in identifying collaborative opportunities between your organization and the targeted stakeholder.
• Engagement Tracking – Again, there are many highly sophisticated tools available.  However, the basic needs of documenting your interactions can be accomplished with the MS Access Database, Stakeholder Simple Database, which is available on our Omni-HC.com/tools.html page.

Ok, we’ve now looked at the history of stakeholder relations, challenges/barriers to integrated plan development, as well as planning tools to achieve cross-functional alignment.  Our next series of posts will focus on various ways to engage external stakeholders, whether they be strategic or transactional. 

Leading up to an American Urology Association (AUA) meeting in the mid-1990s, my colleagues and I had been hearing about a new product for erectile dysfunction (ED) coming out from Pfizer.  Since this was a competitive product, we were closely monitoring the information and data coming out of the studies and learned this new agent was going to change the ED landscape. 

During a plenary session at this meeting, data from the trials of the ED product was released. I recall going up the longest escalator I had even seen at the same moment that the session ended, and waves of health care providers came streaming onto the down escalators.  Even in those early days of cell phones, there were numerous physicians making calls. I must have overheard 10 conversations where they were talking to stockbrokers and telling them to buy Pfizer.  I remember being stupefied — didn’t they know about this project before this meeting? What I had forgotten was that the scientific community would not take note until they were given access to the data and reviewed all the information.  This plenary session at the AUA was the first time they were able to access the data and information. 

Ensuring access is a critical component of solid scientific exchange.  As we navigate the sea of changes driven by the digitalization of scientific communications, it is critical to remember awareness and access of scientific data and information is critical to effective scientific exchange.  The new tools that digitalization offers us can ensure productive ways to increase access and awareness for the targeted community.  One avenue that should be considered at the earliest stages of publication development is the use of Open Access (OA).

OA is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment.  OA ensures that anyone can access and use these results.[1]

Recently, researchers found that the proportion of OA papers published by 23 large drug companies, such as Pfizer and Roche, almost doubled between 2009 and 2016.[2]  OA publishing models and licenses vary widely.  The researchers used two major types of OA publications, the gold route and the green route.  Publishing via the gold OA is usually on a publisher’s site with a CC-BY license. This approach offers both free and immediate access to the article and allows the research to be shared and reused.  However, publishing through the green route is usually separate from the publisher, does not require a CC-BY license, but usually requires waiting until the embargo period from the publisher is over.  Unfortunately, gold routes may be restricted as most medical journals with a high impact factor (>15) do not currently permit pharmaceutical companies to publish under a CC-BY license.[3]

Yegros-Yegros and van Leeuwen found in their research that there is a growing tendency towards the publication in OA by large biopharma companies.  Their data shows a trend for gold OA publishing gaining momentum, especially when it comes to trial results, but the majority of publications are still going through the green OA route.  Whether it is the green or gold route, OA can offer significant advantages to various publications and should be considered at the early phases of communication and publication planning.  Some advantages that OA publishing can offer include:

• improve transparency and increase the credibility of the research
• increase scientific exchange due to potentially broader audience
• improve access for all readers
• maximize control over identifier creation, and
• tremendously improved feedback, both in real time and enduring.

Depending on the objectives of each publication, OA should be considered as an increasingly important and unique avenue to broaden the community understanding of the science.  In fact, due to increasing university system traditional publication subscription cancellations and increased emphasis on open science, OA may be the best way to allow the entire scientific community to participate in the scientific discussion and cite your data.  In the last year, the University of California System joined several others in cutting back on traditional publication subscriptions relegating researchers who produce close to 10% of scientific research access to only OA journals.

At Omni-HC, we routinely investigate OA opportunities while creating publication plans, as well as other ways to increase the awareness and access of your communications and publications to the entire community. To learn more about our capabilities, please visit our site @omni-hc.com or contact us for more detailed information about how we can enhance your communication or publication plans.

[1] SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.
[2] Yegros-Yegros A & van Leeuwen TN. Proc. 23rd Int. Conf. Sci. Tech. Indicators. Available at: https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/zt6kc (2019). Accessed 18 Sep 2020.
[3] Sherwood D. Opportunities and challenges in open access publishing of industry-sponsored research.
International Society for Medical Publication Professionals (ISMPP) Blog Post. Available at: https://thepublicationplan.com/2020/09/18/opportunities-and-challenges-in-open-access-publishing-of-industry-sponsored-research/. Accessed 18 Sep 2020.

As I stated in my last post, gaining agreement on the need for an integrated Stakeholder Relations plan is easy to accomplish.  However, there are significant challenges and barriers to accomplishing a truly integrated plan that satisfies the needs/objectives of all internal partners, as well as the external stakeholders targeted for engagement.

Having sat on “both sides of the desk,” at a Pharma company creating cross-functional planning and engaging stakeholders and, now in an agency supporting the needs of clients in developing integrated plans, I can provide some unique perspectives.  There is saying indicating that “your ability to be objective is in direct proportion to your distance from the problem.”  Internal stakeholders are “close to the problem,” having a number of individual objectives that may not be compatible with those of their colleagues.  Therefore, there are some benefits in employing an independent third party to facilitate the creation and coordination of cross-functional planning meetings.

One way to identify and address barriers/challenges to the development of an integrated Stakeholder Plan is through the creation of a cross-functional planning workshop.  These types of programs are called different names in various organizations, but at Omni-HC, we refer to them as Vision Workshops.  The word Vision addresses the need for a long-term “view or perspective” on the various internal and external stakeholders regarding mutually beneficial collaborative opportunities. 

Key steps in the creation and execution of this Vision Workshop include:

• The identification of the cross-functional team
  • Who are they?
    • What departments, which individuals?
• The creation of a Stakeholder Engagement Survey
  • For internal Stakeholders
    • What are their expectations/objectives and needs for external engagement over the next 1-3 years?
    • What are the specific roles/responsibilities identified for external stakeholders?
  • For potential External Stakeholders
    • What are their goals in collaborating with Pharma companies?
    • What type of responsibilities (prioritized) are they interested in performing (research, consultation, education)?
    • How much time are they willing and able to allocate?
    • What are their preferences for mode of communication?
• Cross-functional Planning Meeting(s)
  • Sharing of survey results
  • Identification of cross-functional gaps
  • Identification of opportunities to mitigate gaps
  • Creation of consensus complimentary Stakeholder Engagement objectives for next 1- 3 years
  • Creation of a visual depiction or map of achieving these evolving objectives over time with specific milestones
  • Agreement on the frequency and mode of cross-functional team interactions

Having completed this Vision exercise, we are now better prepared to develop the Stakeholder Relations  Integrated Plan.  The tools and techniques for accomplishing this next important task will be the subject of my next blog.