Mal's Musings: A new mission statement for pharma
Many organizations have a mission statement that attempts to encompass the purpose of the company. It provides clarity and direction and sets boundaries for operations.
By on Aug 23, 2010Many organizations have a mission statement that attempts to encompass the purpose of the company.
It provides clarity and direction and sets boundaries for operations.
Unfortunately, this is rarely the case in practice. Most employees have no idea what the mission of their organization or industry is.
Surely, pharma is different, and the mission of pharmaceutical companies is clearer?
Unfortunately, it appears this is a fine example of an industry doing its best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
The mission of our beloved industry is at best confused.
Why does the public need a pharmaceutical sector?
The answer seems obvious but, as often is the case, common sense is not common practice.
The words mission and pharmaceuticals evoke warm feelings and thoughts of healing, wellness, and life.
There is a strong argument that the mission of the industry is, indeed, tied to the core need of mankind.
In truth, the feeling borders on selfless, charitable endeavoruntil one takes a closer look.
We may well have started off that way, but is our original mission now secondary to our new and true missionmaking money?
Businesses exist to make money. We all accept this. But we hope this is a secondary and not a primary goal, although increasingly we are persuaded that this is just not realistic.
It is acceptable when we talk about the electronics and entertainment industries because of the nature of their service; they do not save lives.
We do not need electronics or entertainment, although we want them.
The pharma industry is different. We are meeting an absolute core need for society; without health, nothing else matters.
But in our increasingly capitalistic society, financiers influence the vision and mission of organizations and industries.
The needs of The City and Wall Street and the needs of customers are often mutually exclusive.
The financial sector has successfully convinced us that our success is intrinsically linked to their success, a deluded version of a win-win scenario in which the wins are not equal and the financial victory takes precedence.
It is difficult to see how we can turn this around without freeing ourselves from the clutches of the financial sector.
I wonder if the price we have paid for the accelerated production of blockbusters may prove too high.
Many argue about the uniqueness of the industry and rightly so; we must be the last industry to give up on our purpose in pursuit of dollars.
How do we measure success: in return on investment or the number of lives we have changed for the better?
I accept there is a connection between the two, but the fact that health authorities and governments are fighting to maintain this correlation is a clear indication that we are losing our grip on the reason we exist.
We must remember that the aim of a business is to serve its customers; the result is profits.
This principle is even more exaggerated in our industry.
We have a mission, and it is too important to ignore.
We have a mission and its not only profits and sales.
Creating the post-blockbuster future, diagnostics, personalized medicineits time to bring all these together and concentrate on the best way to restore health.
And let profit take care of itself.