Jessica Federer, Head Digital Development at Bayer.
I’ve been talking and working with leaders of Pharma and Consumer Healthcare industry, and they are all confronting one big challenge: how should we drive and accelerate the digital transformation that we know is necessary.
Jessica Federer, Chief Digital Officer at Bayer, gives ‘5 golden rules’ to do this on a very big organization like Bayer.
- Be top down: In a big organization we needed the top level to say “This is a priority”. So our Board (Bayer’s Board of Directors) sent a pretty clear message letting the organization know that digital is not the flavour of the month. Digital is crucial to the success of the company.
- Find the right people to start: Find your movers and shakers, find your drivers. Find the people that are passionate about digital and are obsessed about it: find people that care. In the transition of ‘traditional marketing’ to ‘digital marketing’ you will see that there is some people with sparks. This is more important and has more impact than any traditional training or initiative. Activate your people.
- You found them. Now connect them: In a company like Bayer there are always people doing amazing things. But finding one person in a group of 100 000 is sometimes hard. So after you find them connect them and make them work together… take projects that work in one country and try them in another county.
- Celebrate success! Celebrate success of one team or one country (doesn’t matter how small!). This sends a signal to the rest of the organization that digital is important and strategic to our success as a company.
- Don’t be afraid to fail: If don’t want to fail, and want to learn more about how to drive Digital Transformation in Pharma, this is a great (AND FREE) book to start: http://www.pharma3d.com/ (You can see some videos of Jessica Federer here)