The digital transformation by oneself

Photo: The digital transformation starts with you. Credit: Unsplash

Traditionally it has been understood that the big fish eats the small one. Making a parallel with the new business world that is being managed at a fast pace, we could say that now it is the fast fish that eats the slow. That is to say, the waist and agility of response to the digital challenge is what will define the future of companies, more than their dimension or historical inertia.

Is this is where creativity can play a decisive role. It is a real accelerator of change that provokes the following reflection: How is quality creative thinking produced, Where can imaginative solutions to real and everyday problems be generated in the operation of the next generation of companies?  

This is a key question that the pharmaceutical laboratory of medicines for high specialty and primary care in Latin America, decided to answer last summer. The creative treasure could be hidden in your workforce, those who are in the day-to-day of the operation and, therefore, those closest to the needs of both the client and the company itself.  

Innovation is the name of a pilot initiative, launched last autumn, and open to all employees who want to be part of a new look at innovation. A recipe whose ingredients, disruptive ideas and agile methodologies, promote a new culture where the capacity for entrepreneurship and the connection with the ecosystem are the main thing.  

"Our collaboration with the pharmaceutical laboratory began with the initial preparation of the program, helping them identify and define their own strategic challenges. From here we design the brand identity of Innovacción and the communication plan aimed at its collaborators. This phase was finished with the creation of a specific web platform so that all of them had access to participate", says Miguel Ángel Foces, Project Leader of Opinno.  

The program incorporates people-centered design methodologies. Design Thinking and Lean Startup, two complementary procedures that facilitate the early validation of product and service ideas, one of the key challenges we defined in the first phase. The latter was joined by new challenges, how to strengthen the role of the medical representative with innovative solutions, reach the end user with new business models, or improve access to the public sector? It would also be necessary to understand in detail the needs of customers and to adjust the business model to local peculiarities.

All those enrolled received initial training in master class format to optimize the focus and quality of the ideas they would propose next. As a result, 133 initial ideas were registered in mid-October that we pre-analyzed from Opinno to select the 80 with the greatest potential. These would be considered by the executive committee for this purpose to decide the 9 finalist proposals.  

The 9 chosen subsequently defended their ideas in a presentation session where the teams of each project tried to convince the committee. Three imaginative and viable solutions for redesigning the ordering process, streamlining financial planning and using video in drug administration.

32 weeks of work, 160 collaborators and 20 managers trained in methodologies and management of innovation projects, with a final score of 8.25 encourage us to continue collaborating in this pilot program that will undoubtedly have future editions.