By Luis Truchado and Roberto Vola-Luhrs, co-founding partner of Voyer International.
Originally published on ConSalud.es
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More than 20 years ago we started in Europe with the Health and Pharmacy practice; today we are in Latin America, we have expanded our range of services and our collaboration is truly global.
Today, the industry has consolidated the name LifeSciences to include many sectors and segments that represent great growth and vitality.the requirements of companies have changed.those Laboratories we worked for then have merged and changed names several times. Those who were candidates yesterday have become clients and even friends today. Classic search positions have disappeared, making way for others we would never have imagined.
As we look back on so many good memories, perhaps it is an opportune moment to review the trends we see taking place in employment – or perhaps better, in the recruitment of senior managers – in the LifeSciences sector.
1. Major growth of collateral segments. If there was a time when Pharma was the big employer in the private sector, today there has been a major development of other segments that were less visible. Biotechnology, Medtech (Medical Devices), Cosmetics and Nutrition, as well as specialised Professional Services are some of them. In addition, Digital Health is already here redefining many tasks and roles at galloping speed.
Our first assignments in Spain for biotech companies came from the US or major European markets and were profiles such as General Manager or Scientific-Medical Director in charge of Regulatory. In some cases, there was no structure in place and the first task of the CEO was to choose a law firm, set up a company, register the new laboratory with the Ministry of Health and find an office to accommodate the first group of collaborators.
Spain has become a benchmark for third parties
Since the end of the 1990s, there have also been Spanish biotech companies which, since their foundation, have taken on the challenge of globalisation and require managers of international stature capable of working in an HQ in Spain or Miami. This makes it necessary to take on more risk, as not only are there few references with respect to the major world markets, but also Spain has now become a reference point for third parties. We can confirm that the Spanish and Latin American management level for this type of attractive positions is very high and they are being attracted or transferred by companies to key responsibilities in Latin America and elsewhere.
2. Outsourcing, which is here to stay. Although it may sound strange now, more than 20 years ago there were only three or four incipient CROs in Spain and they were regarded with suspicion. The publishing sector was based on paper, Market Research did not know about Big Data and Consultancy was not so specialised.
Outsourcing is now a fundamental tool in the panoply of possibilities that modern management offers. The question that previously had to be answered and resolved has been turned upside down: ‘Why would we want to do that work in house, when there are companies out there more efficient to carry it out under our supervision?’ As well as Spain, for example, in Latin America countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, etc., have developed this type of services with great talent and suitability.
3. Professionalisation of the Services sector. There were several pioneers in establishing solid service companies founded in the spirit of partnership of the Laboratories to bring added value and invest in long-term structure.
Their professionalism and in-depth knowledge has led to the fact that we now interview top professionals of international stature who work in communication groups – on all types of media and platforms – or the large consultancies that have embraced Business Intelligence, Sales Force Effectiveness or CRM.
The accelerated modernisation of these two decades has generated very attractive and challenging management positions in the Services Sector, with an international dimension which, in the globalised world, is a great opportunity for professionals willing to expatriate.
4. Structural evolution towards matrixes and Business Units (BU). The functional structure, separating Sales and Marketing and both Medical-Scientific, has become a thing of the past. BUs were implemented in niche therapeutic areas where it was easy to parameterise their results, such as oncology, HIV or CNS, but they have spread; at the same time, many companies have grown to excessive sizes by including unrelated businesses that are difficult to manage, such as vaccines, orphan drugs, allergy, etc., with which they had no synergies.
Living with uncertainty does not help our performance, and the requirement to ‘learn to manage ambiguity’, which has become so popular, is a chore for many.
This structural change hides a trap for many: you can have more than one boss, which leads to conflict; you can have a boss who is not the one who sets the bonus; and you can even be for a time or on a project without an obvious boss. Most managers are uncomfortable with this change, and rightly so. It is much safer and more comfortable to have a clearly identified boss on the organisation chart and to know that he or she is responsible for our appraisal, development and motivation. Living with uncertainty does not help our performance, and the requirement to ‘learn to manage ambiguity’, which has become so popular, is a chore for many. We regret to conclude that this can hardly be reversed.
5. Loss of power of the Country Manager. In some companies, the General Manager of a multinational was on a par with the power of the national laboratory and enjoyed almost absolute management autonomy. Globalisation and strategic planning were implemented with the weight of rationality and figures, and the Country Manager gradually lost areas such as R&D or Manufacturing, which became strategic, as well as Finance or Medical-Scientific, etc., which became ‘corporate’.
What is left in today’s structure? Basically, in many traditional companies there are still super-Commercial and Operations Managers with legal and institutional responsibility, and partial responsibilities for Market Access, Regulatory, etc. Country Manager positions still exist -of course-, but sometimes they become Regional Iberia, Latam or include other countries and their ‘thick line’ reports are to international HQs.
6. Multidisciplinary positions. Today, the professionals demanded by this sector, which is constantly innovating, cannot remain in one function within one department. Functional structures have grown to the limit of what is reasonable and even a little more, while at the same time the UN has developed, which demanded and still demands new professional competencies. These new positions are more agile, more effective and efficient, much more focused and more functional, immersed in a digital interactive environment.
From the UN came positions such as Medical-Marketing, Medical Liason, etc. and also Medical Advisor. The Market Access position is paradigmatic, as it combines Commercial, Medical and Regulatory experiences with new concepts of Key Account Management, Relations with Autonomous Communities (Provinces or States, depending on the country), Pricing and Reimbursement, Clinical Development and participation in international teams.
New talent is needed to respond to unfamiliar challenges in new channels and for clients who were not on the scene in the past.
The professional required today is radically different in each company and the emphasis is often placed on different skills depending on the line of work required. On the other hand, in different companies there are positions with the same name but which perform different tasks, while different names respond to a similar job description.
Continuing with our initial reflection, and after going through several global and sector-specific crises in these more than 20 years, we will say: the ‘health’ of employment in the health sector is ‘very healthy’.
Regardless of the size of the company, wherever research, development and innovation take place, there are constant incursions into new markets. New talent is required to respond to hitherto unknown challenges in new channels and for customers or stakeholders who were not on the scene in the past. Once again, Digital Health already represents what the future will be.
It is undoubtedly an attractive market for those who belong to it, but also for all the outsiders who continue to view it with admiration and some healthy envy. As we usually define it when we are asked: ‘our job is to bring talent to where it is appreciated and needed’.
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