Work study #1 - Facilitating Digital Transformation Across EU Digital Pharma Teams
Empowering EU Digital Teams in a UK Pharmaceutical Organisation through Strategic Facilitation
Discover how Philip, partnered with the digital leadership teams of a major pharmaceutical company to plan, design, and facilitate a series of offsite workshops to drive digital transformation and omnichannel marketing efforts across Europe………
Strategic facilitation has a big impact.
Max Talent facilitation promotes change and improves decision-making in a fun and engaging way.
Background
In October 2022, as the pharmaceutical industry faced increased competition and rapidly evolving digital landscapes, a leading global pharmaceutical company identified a need to align its digital transformation strategy across the EU5 (UK, Spain, Germany, France, and Italy). This alignment was crucial for ensuring cohesive implementation of omnichannel marketing strategies across Europe while maintaining synergy with global digital priorities.
The company recognised the need for a strategic facilitator to bring together diverse digital leads from each country, fostering collaboration and sharing best practices. Philip Davies was brought on board to lead this effort and to support the strategic objectives of the EU digital leads and the global digital team overseeing channel and omnichannel marketing transformation.
Learning challenge
Philip is proud to have supported the development of a strategic community among digital leaders spread across different regions, each facing unique market conditions. Each off-site fostered greater and greater alignment on key digital priorities, improved collaboration between regional and global teams, and started to address common challenges in digital strategy implementation.
Additionally, the workshops ensured that each digital lead had a voice in shaping the shared strategic direction while also aligning their local efforts with the global vision. This required a structured yet flexible approach to strategic facilitation as there were many passionate discussions to be had and to be managed.
Approach
Philip Davies played a pivotal role in designing and facilitating the first two-day offsite workshop in October 2022, bringing together the EU5 digital leads and global digital teams. This initial workshop set the tone for collaboration, focusing on building trust, sharing insights, and establishing a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities in digital transformation.
Building on the success of this initial offsite, Philip continued to support the teams through twice-yearly workshops hosted in different affiliate countries, including Paris, Milan, London, and Madrid. These sessions were designed to maintain momentum, address evolving challenges, and strengthen the sense of community among the digital leads.
Philip’s approach was grounded in consultation with key stakeholders. He identified emerging "hot topics" and pain points in the digital landscape. His facilitation ensured that each session was focused, goal-oriented, and resulted in actionable outcomes.
By using techniques such as strategic visioning, scenario planning, and problem-solving workshops, Philip helped the teams move from discussion to decision, ensuring that each offsite yielded tangible plans for improvement. Between the offsite sessions, he also offered ongoing consultation and advisory support, helping to sustain progress and adjust strategies as the market evolved.
Results
Philip’s ongoing facilitation resulted in several key outcomes that developed the digital capabilities of the EU digital teams and their alignment with global priorities:
Enhanced Collaboration: The workshops fostered a sense of community and mutual support among the regional digital leads, enabling them to address challenges collectively rather than in isolation.
Strategic Alignment: The twice-yearly workshops became a platform for aligning regional and global strategies, ensuring that the company's digital transformation initiatives were cohesive and consistent across Europe.
Accelerated Decision-Making: Through facilitated strategic discussions, the digital teams were able to make quicker, more informed decisions around channel strategies, content localization, and data integration, leading to faster implementation of new initiatives.
Strengthened Leadership: The workshops empowered the digital leads with the skills and frameworks needed to drive change in their respective markets, positioning them as internal champions of digital transformation.
Key Take-aways
Strategic Facilitation as a Catalyst: Bringing together regional and global teams through facilitated workshops can significantly enhance strategic alignment and collaboration.
Building a Community of Practice: Creating a sense of shared purpose among leaders fosters an environment where challenges are approached collectively, leading to more innovative solutions.
Adaptive Approach: Regular feedback evaluation and adjustments between workshops helped maintain momentum and ensured workshops remained relevant in a rapidly changing market.
Long-term Impact: A sustained commitment to facilitation and advisory support can have a lasting impact on digital transformation, creating a foundation for ongoing innovation.
To discover how Philip from Max Talent can help you and your team design, manage and facilitate effective and engaging strategic planning and review workshops book in for a virtual coffee through this website or you can email philip@maxtalent.co.uk.
