Strategy and Planning

Workshops, whether in the form of a half-day strategy session, a company-wide offsite or some other configuration, have one thing in common: They represent an opportunity for a group of people to come together in real time — to establish connections, share information, generate solutions, and achieve clear objectives. When done well, they are more than just meetings — they are highly structured, interactive, rewarding, and dare I say, fun!

In just one month, life for all of us has changed dramatically. This week, we learned that the new normal would extend at least through April, probably longer.

Many years ago, when we first started working with emerging life sciences companies to provide a roadmap for the commercialization of their technologies, we began with a list of essential activities and the corresponding budget that would be required.

For more than 27 years, I have been blessed to work with the same executive assistant. I know how long it’s been because Georgia started with me when my daughter, Ariel, was seven months old and, you guessed, she is now 27 (Ariel, that is).

This topic of “transition” came home to me (literally and figuratively) over the Thanksgiving holiday. With our adult kids returning, my husband and I decided it was time to have them go through their “bins” and throw out, donate, or take back with them, their childhood.

Networking! You know, that activity that one either embraces or goes running away from as quickly as possible. For many, the word evokes a grueling, overwhelming, unnatural process, and something that requires stepping way out of one’s comfort zone.

For those of you following closely (thank you!), you may recall that in an earlier e-conversation — 21st Century Commercialization — More than a Point in Time! — we defined commercialization as neither a function nor a process.

Ah, June, the season of life transitions — weddings, graduations, school progression and, with the year nearly half over, a reminder to reflect on where we have been and where we are going in 2019.

Back in the early 2000s, I was head of commercial strategy at Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I remember saying to then CEO, Mark Levin, that we had an opportunity to define how the company vision, “Transcend the Limits of Medicine,” could be translated at the customer level.

Living in a parallel universe, launching a company and drug simultaneously.