City of Paris

The third Personalized Medicine World Conference, Silicon Valley, was held, appropriately, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. A pre-conference announcement from the organizers spoke of more than 800 attendees, but it must have been closer to 1,000 when I arrived in the afternoon on the first day. The conference was impressive in its scope, covering the gamut from science to regulatory to multiple facets of business. On the podium and in the audience, there was good representation of providers, payers, government, industry and patients (or at least patient advocacy). As a marketer, I’ll start with some takeaways for marketers from a diversity of sources.

If anyone ever doubts that healthcare is patient-centric, or that healthcare is moving toward a patient focus, think again. The focus on patients is here. This was illustrated by providers like Ralph Snyderman, MD, of Duke University, who spoke of a study that demonstrated dramatic improvements in adherence and reduction in costs in congested heart failure patients who received personalized care plans, intensive education and feedback loops. The theme was echoed by Vance Vanier, MD, whose genomics testing company, Navigenics, is partnering successfully with employers to make preventive medicine a reality in the workplace. Kathy L. Hudson, PhD, Chief of Staff, Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health (NIH), boldly envisions a future where everyone participates in personalized medicine and thinks “it’s cool.” And Leroy Hood, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Systems Biology spoke of the need to educate physicians and patients. Andrew Schorr of Patient Power, a master of ceremonies at PMWC 2011, hosted a session on patient empowerment.

The bottom line is that every marketing plan for a drug or diagnostic-related product needs to take into account the role of the patient or, more broadly, the consumer audience. Increased adherence to therapeutic, monitoring or self-monitoring regimens is a well-established rationale for educating and involving the patient. The power of patient advocacy in driving reimbursement or regulatory approval has been proven many times over. The propensity of patients and families to take ownership of becoming informed and pursuing treatment options in life-threatening, complex and/or chronic diseases such as cancer is another reason for including the patient in one’s marketing and communication plan. But there are other reasons. For example, an educated and engaged patient can contribute to care efficiency by making providers’ jobs a little easier. The healthcare system will see savings due to a decrease in unnecessary complications and emergency room visits. And above all, the transition from disease management to health management begins with preventive medicine and the educated and empowered consumer.

A marketing consultant came to one of the companies I work with, and she recommended that we think green—make our products recyclable, etc. My initial reaction was that being green—whatever that means and encompasses—is now the price of entry for any business. For as long as I can remember, recycling has been a part of agency life. And I have been bragging to friends about the fact that the solar voltaic cells on our roof generate most if not all of the electricity we use at home.

But exactly what does thinking green mean in business and, more specifically, in marketing and branding? There is a fair amount of good reading out there. Here are a few thought starters.

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility are broader, and more meaningful, frameworks for thinking about a company’s interaction with its stakeholders, society and the environment. Beyond conservation of resources, companies must begin to think responsibly about their impact on behavior and culture. This concept is summarized nicely in a Bloomberg Businessweek article, Finding Promise in Sustainability 2.0 and in a McKinsey Quarterly article, When sustainability means more than ‘green’.

So how do we turn these ideas into practice? Or, where do corporate social responsibility and brand communications come together? Moving Up to Sustainability 2.0: Five Trends Shaping the New Agenda offers some good insights and importantly connects corporate social responsibility to social media, making a strong case about the convergence of the two. “Where social media has the biggest impact is in enabling greater openness and transparency between brands and people,” writes author Becky Willan. Well said.

This past Sunday was the first day of the Year of the Tiger. I thought I’d dust off my Sun Tzu strategy books in honor of the occasion and share some of the well-quoted principles that seem relevant to management issues today—particularly concerning people and motivation.

• People make things happen. And so business enterprises must be centered on people, and business leaders’ preoccupation is to mobilize the workforce to take action by motivating them. Central to this is the notion that when you have an empowered workforce, your opponents will defeat themselves—meaning that your team will be so strong that success will come naturally.
• Timing is everything. This begins with an inner calm, a focus and sense of purpose, which is conducive to a deliberate assessment of the surroundings and the patience to wait for the opportunity to take action, such as striking when competition least expects it, or knowing when to temper an overzealous team or energize a deflated one.
• Go with the flow. Just as the ancient military strategists stopped at a body of water and studied the ebb and flow to come up with a game plan, today’s managers need to harness the forces driving workers and customers to achieve behavioral changes with the least effort. And knowing yourself as well as you know your competition is the key to survival.

There are lots of reference sources on this celebrated ancient Chinese general, including Wikipedia pages. Sun Tzu’s Art of War is available for download for free. Or you can get relatively inexpensive bound volumes.

I was catching up with an old friend and telling her about my clients on the East Coast, in the Midwest and in Southern California. Then I explained how I work with my team—none of whom “reports” to work at my office. When I read the Financial Times interview with Professor Lynda Gratton of London Business School, who talked about the future of work, it all came together for me. Mine is a consultant’s view. People in the corporate environment no doubt will experience it in other dimensions and with different nuances.

Post-geographic. There was a time when only road warriors crisscrossed the country and perhaps the world to conduct business. Now, as the Internet makes more and more communication options open to more of us, working across geographic regions is accessible to anyone with a computer and optionally a phone. Now, global teams can collaborate easily on a day-to-day basis, adding that much more efficiency to the workplace.

Cross-cultural. I like being able to touch base with my colleagues in Europe in the morning and switch to speaking Chinese in the evening. Living in California gives me the flexibility to do all of this without working extraordinary hours. It opens up a broader array of resources and talents I can tap into, as well as business opportunities, not to mention the rewards of variety and intellectual challenge.

Multidisciplinary. If we can transcend geography and time zones, surely we can begin to reach beyond our comfort zones. Marketing communication professionals are accustomed to working with strategic and creative disciplines. We have been good at tapping into research, media, medical and scientific resources. Now, we can and should begin to tap into specialties such as behavioral sciences and refine our approaches to influencing perception and adherence.

A balancing act. The Blackberry makes it difficult for us to duck emails, especially when they are coming in a steady stream from different time zones. For me, it means disciplining myself to carve out downtime, so that I can stay fresh and effective. Likewise, cyber contacts cannot replace the face-to-face interactions and personal relationships that are the basis for trust and collaboration, not to mention just “getting on the same page.” Good thing I do like travel.

Always integrated. I think flourishing in this new environment is about weaving together different cultures, disciplines and perspectives. That’s where we can derive synergy and generate fresh ideas. Otherwise, we’d simply be working longer hours in more places, and that would be a pity.

The dawn of the new millennium doesn’t feel like that long ago. Remember the days when the Y2K bug was our primary concern? A look at the lists of “10 best” and “10 most” of the year—or the decade—is telling of our times and the choices we face.

On energy, Financial Times posed two lists of questions to consider:
Top 10 energy questions for 2010 - Hydrocarbons edition
Top 10 questions for 2010 - Climate change and clean tech edition

For a quick recap, here is a comic strip to take us through the history of finance of the past decade.

Where do we begin on healthcare? For those of us who are still undecided, here are 10 reasons to support the healthcare reform bills.

Or vote on the healthcare deal of the year.

Everyone is writing about social media. Here are two that may interest healthcare marketers. Top 50 Twitter Topics of the Year and the Top Viral Videos of 2009.

And finally, lest we forget: Top 10 Worst Humanitarian Crises.

Consolidation, cost cutting and product pruning seem to be a way of life in publishing these days. Witness the recent decision by Condé Nast to discontinue Gourmet magazine. And thus it was refreshing to read about Bloomberg’s strategy for BusinessWeek, which Bloomberg acquired from McGraw-Hill recently. Instead of the expected bundling and special package pricing for advertisers, Bloomberg plans to beef up BusinessWeek’s editorial and possibly increase the price, which according to Advertising Age is $35 annually, compared to $106 for The Economist. I’ve long since switched over from BusinessWeek and Fortune to The Economist, despite the higher price, precisely because of the editorial. And I’ve made a decision to discontinue my Wall Street Journal subscription once it expires, as Financial Times offers me a global perspective and better-quality writing worth the premium price. Ironically, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) just passed USA Today in circulation, reaching 2.2 million compared to USA Today’s 1.88 million. I don’t want to be a snob, for I enjoy USA Today once in a while, especially when I’m overseas and hungry for news from home. But the very fact that WSJ is being compared to USA Today speaks to the problem. As WSJ tries to appeal to a broader audience with the likes of scandals and lifestyle-related editorial, its management seems to have adopted the strategy of expanding its circulation by picking up higher-income households in general, possibly at the risk of losing some serious business readers.

I think there are lessons here for healthcare marketers, especially those of us who operate within the business-to-business model (e.g., clinical diagnostics, medical devices). Although price is part of the buying decision, businesspeople are more likely to look closely at value (e.g., productivity gains with a more reliable though more expensive product). So, first of all, lowering the price is not the only path to business in a down (though perhaps recovering?) economy. By the same token, packaging deals without true added value won’t do it either. Buyers see through that quickly and, if not, a more thorough business analysis by the bean counters will reveal where the true value is. Lastly, why not take a bold step and take advantage of lower costs to improve products, so you’ll end up with a better product to sell, perhaps at higher prices?