The Management of Change in the Pharmaceutical Industry Research Paper

The Management of Change in the Pharmaceutical Industry - Research Paper Example According to Lerer and Piper (2003, 201) ‘digital technologies have offered new opportunities to pharmaceutical firms’; it is further explained that using these technologies pharmaceutical firms have been able to cooperate more effectively with patients and physicians. Moreover, Bakeev (2010) notes that the continuous improvement of knowledge management in the pharmaceutical industry would allow the industry’s firms to become more effective in supporting patients and healthcare professionals. Online tools have a series of advantages, including the increased potentials of firms involved in managing knowledge. At the same time, the costs of representatives in the pharmaceutical industry are quite high; a research developed in 2007 showed that ‘in 2006 the pharmaceutical firms spent approximately $150,000 for each representative in primary care and $330,000 for each representative in specialty drug’ (Bak and Stair 2011, p.137). The use of online tools wo uld help pharmaceutical firms to resolve a series of operational problems and to decrease the costs of representatives, a practice followed by Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., as explained below. 1.2 Diagnosis of change The implementation of change in pharmaceutical firms is unavoidable, in the context described earlier. ... scribed as follows: a) to check the level at which online tools are used in the pharmaceutical industry, b) to identify the benefits and weaknesses of these tools, as reported by the industry’s firms, c) to check the effects of online tools on the operations of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., d) to identify the strategies used by the above organization for implementing change, as related to these tools, and to evaluate these strategies’ requirements, implications and risks, and e) to identify the potential long-term benefits and consequences of online tools in the pharmaceutical industry. 1.3 Implementation of change Under the pressures of the rapid development of technology globally, especially in regard to the involvement of the WWW in organizational activities, the pharmaceutical industry had to face the following dilemma: should its operations be transformed meeting the global trends in regard to the use of online tools in prescribing and informing customers on the d rugs’ use and implications? This issue is made clear in the case of Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In 2010 the firm launched Prescribe Responsibly, ‘an online system for supporting appropriate treatment of pain’ (Johnson & Johnson 2011). In August of 2011, the firm updated the specific system adding new tools and features so that the support provided to health care professionals to be increased (Johnson & Johnson 2011). This initiative has resulted because of the failures and the delays that the company had to face in regard to the support provided to the physicians for handling pain. 2. Literature review The efforts of continuous improvement of operations are often related to the appearance of Taylorism, a trend that changed the manufacturing processes in the automotive industry in the USA.