A leading global pharmaceutical company had decided to divest a successful business unit. The streamlining of the portfolio was intended to create scope for several promising new launches.
Managing the transition without damage to the company's image and legal risks
The interim manager was tasked with achieving two main objectives. Firstly, the transition had to be managed without damaging the image of the existing customers of the successful product. After all, this target group was also of great importance for other marketing situations in the future.
On the other hand, it had to be ensured that only those obligations that were required by law remained with the selling company after the transition. The interim manager's tasks were to prepare and manage the transition and to regulate communication after the end of the business. This included analyzing all contractual agreements, internal coordination with all functional areas involved and coordination with the acquiring company.
Information gathered in an extremely cross-functional structure
One of the special features of a business dissolution is that employees view such projects as past-oriented. As a result, the motivation to participate in the transition is rather low per se. Without the involvement of a large number of employees, however, such a transition cannot be accomplished. To make matters worse, even in a very well-organized company, it is never possible to record all agreements centrally and not all of them are documented in writing.
A large part of the interim manager's work consisted of gathering the information required for the transition. Almost all departments were involved. Departments, in particular, in which very different personalities were naturally active: From Pharmacovigilance (drug safety), Clinical Research to Legal & Compliance, Supply Chain, Finance and Sales, everyone's involvement was required to varying degrees. This extremely cross-functional structure required a broad knowledge of the functional areas, a great understanding of the areas of responsibility and experience with contracts and data protection.
With his experience from the pharmaceutical industry and his training as a pharmacist, the interim manager was ideally equipped for these challenges. In numerous one-on-one meetings and direct contacts, he identified points of contact, open issues and agreements between the respective functional areas and the business unit to be transferred.
Stakeholders motivated with transparency and proactive communication
The interim manager placed particular emphasis on ensuring that the process was transparent and that the project plan was always visible to those involved. In addition, careful consideration was given to which topics were discussed in one-to-one contact and which in meetings in order to be considerate of the capacity of colleagues.
Thanks to great empathy and proactive communication, the interim manager succeeded in winning over all stakeholders for the necessary cooperation. The fact that he was able to approach the project from a distance in a goal-oriented and objective manner certainly also contributed to this. As an external manager, he was neither involved in past conflicts nor did he have any emotional ties to products or measures.
Transition completed on time | Employees successfully in new positions
The interim manager not only managed to land on time for the handover date, he was also the last employee in the business unit on that day. This was because the employees of the transferred business unit were able to take on other tasks within the company at ideal times during the project phase.
Thanks to his open, positive communication, the interim manager also succeeded in maintaining the good image with the client and integrating everyone involved in the project. His project management was rated internally as exemplary.
