The challenge of changing perceptions
Tim Hoctor
Fostering innovation and driving collaboration throughout the life science community to address patient needs and bring new therapies to market more quickly and efficiently
I hope to be an agent for change. And one of the hardest things to change is perception. As a part of an organization that is approaching 150 years in the market, we have built a strong and proud lineage, and one which is both globally known and well regarded. But as with any organization that has been successful for generations, we have also greatly evolved, expanding into new, dynamic and leading edge spaces. I mention this because at a recent pharma alliance meeting, I had a very interesting discussion with a long time member of the pharma community who gave me a very clear perspective of what we do, and what we ‘should’ do as a publisher. My feedback was first to thank him for his views, but then to equate his feedback as if he were to approach Jeff Bezos and tell him what Amazon should do because they are a book seller. Amazon is a book seller, the biggest in the world. But they are much more. Elsevier is a publisher, the largest STM publisher in the world. But many in our pharma community do not see that we are also a bioinformatics provider, a pioneer in cheminformatics, a leader in scientific and medical semantics and taxonomy development and application, a provider of text and data integration and mining capabilities. A company that understands and supports research data management.
As research needs evolve, we evolve to address today’s needs and to anticipate and prepare for tomorrow’s needs. And a critical component is to align that change with the community understanding that we have changed, and continue to change and to accompany us on this journey. Elsevier strives to be a leader in Life Science solution development, and a consultative solution provider across the pharma landscape (as well as many other domains). And at the same time, we work to preserve and build on our legacy.
After all, I still buy books on Amazon…
Product Management Professional
8yWell said. Evolve or die!
Strategic Account Manager, Consulting Services, QDI, North America | Data Science Evangelist | FAIR Data Evangelist | Omics | Translational Medicine | NGS | Drug Discovery
8yWith information becoming readily available the value of information is no longer merely about access to information (it's categorization and dissemination which is extremely valuable) but rather in it's analysis and drawing conclusions from it. Future trends will dictate the success or failure of even stable, "blue chip" companies. I worked in pharma in the 90's for a company owned by Kodak. They sold us off so they could "concentrate on their core business" which was film. Kodak executives were either too wrapped up in meeting quarterly profit objectives or in blatant denial of the future of film to act on their future demise which incidentally was invented right at their own company, the digital camera. A friend of mine who is a CEO of a major aerospace company told me once "behavior is dictated by the way we incentivize people" and in the case of Kodak management they clearly "buried" both "the future" and "their future" by doing nothing with their new invention in exchange for bonuses on short term profits. As publishing "evolved" into digital media and has made paper libraries obsolete the next trend will be in the way we look at data itself. The explosion of scientific data points to a future not merely in need of larger databases to contain that data and find information but rather to use that data to answer complex questions and predict outcomes for either scientific or clinical questions. To me, the value (and future) of information will be in the ability to use it to predict and answer complex questions. As drug discovery and development costs rise, pharma and biotech are seeking for ways to reduce the cycle time in both from discovery to candidate and candidate development to market. In my opinion, predictive analysis will not only be desirable but necessary to curb mounting R&D costs in light of pricing pressures on newly marketed drugs. This will require a fundamental shift in mentality, focus and resources to achieve. This WILL happen, the only question now is not if but when and by whom!
Great post Tim! As you mention, the challenge lies in the fact that elsevier as a company us evolving at a faster rate than our customers perception of what we are as a company.