Putting Customer-Centricity into Practice
with Grünenthal’s Florent Edouard
In episode 10 of Contextual Intelligence, we interview Florent Edouard, Global Head of Commercial Excellence at Grünenthal. For the last 3 years, Florent has been reimagining the organization’s commercial model and cultivating a culture that’s relentlessly patient-focused and not afraid of change. Before that, he spent 12 years shaping and delivering global strategy at AstraZeneca from Japan and the UK. An outspoken champion for digital transformation in the life sciences, Florent gives his take on where he believes the industry needs to go and how we can get there.
During the podcast, Florent breaks down what catalyzed the life sciences digital transformation process at Grunenthal, sharing lessons learned and challenges that surprised him along the way. He also discusses the importance of becoming a data-driven organization and offers pragmatic advice to leaders endeavoring to shift their internal culture to be more tolerant of risk and change. This entire episode is packed with helpful insights, but if you’re pressed for time, start with our list of key takeaways below.
Key Takeaways
[5:51] – The difference between talking about customer-centricity and actually practicing it as an organization
Organizations must remember whom they are serving. Everything should ultimately benefit the patient, but HCPs are the true customers, and every HCP is an individual. Getting their attention requires a massive transformation in how we personalize the customer experience.
[10:30] – What prevents customer-centricity from being embraced
The love of the product often blinds enterprises in positioning the customer as a priority.
[12:14] – Moving from a product-oriented to customer-oriented mindset
Organizations must create the right customer experience by asking what customers want and delivering against those demands.
[14:15] – How to ensure the commercial side of life sciences benefits from the same analytical rigor as R&D
Using sophisticated analytic methods to understand data, the commercial side of the business can derive insights on operations to make better business decisions.
[16:38] – What’s holding back the most ambitious digital transformation initatives
Changing old business methods (and attitudes) and gaining leadership endorsement are important steps in paving the way for digital transformation.
[21:44] – The Nessie Project (or why it’s important to take a deep dive into your data lake)
You need Artificial Intelligence (aka Nessie) to analyze datasets too big for humans to handle in detecting important customer trends.
[32:51] – Transparency and trust are key to accelerating adoption
Building trust, relationships and openness within the organization and customers moves digital transformation faster.
[35:17] – Florent’s predictions for the role of the rep in the new normal
Increased content quality, reduced contact frequency, more digital interactions and longer visits will drive change in the way reps interact with customers.
[41:29] – Florent’s favorite recent read
(Spoiler: it’s The Hype Machine by Sinan Aria, an MIT professor who specializes in analyzing social media.)
About Contextual Intelligence
Contextual Intelligence is a podcast by Aktana that conducts discussions with smart and interesting from different avenues of the life sciences and artificial intelligence. Focused on important, relevant topics within the industry, the podcast shares learnings from industry experts that you can apply to your own business situations.