- [Asha] And, you know, a lot of times,
people are doing strategy, and just don't know
that they're doing it, right?
And also if, you know, talking about it in the framework
of strategy, you know, throws people off,
then just don't use that word, 'cause I mean, you know,
a lot of times people are doing it,
and they're just not calling it that.
There's no need to use certain words if you just,
you just need to get done what you need to get done.
And again, strategy, just helps you do that,
more effectively and more efficiently.
(quiet peaceful music)
- [Kevin] Welcome to Strategy for Scientists.
This is a podcast
for scientists interested in learning about the fundamentals
of business strategy through stories.
I'm Kevin Hartman, at the University of California,
San Francisco, UCSF.
We just heard Asha Collins,
describing the far reaching importance
of strategic thinking.
Asha is currently Vice President at McKesson Corporation,
where she leads US clinical trials sourcing business.
Her perspective draws from a breadth of experiences,
spanning management, consulting, business development
and public policy.
She will share with us her process of setting strategy,
and what I found particularly insightful,
is how strategy is shaped by qualitative values as much
as quantitative measurement.
She also explained how to carefully handle decisions
that represent a pivot
or shift in the way things are being done
by an organization.
First, Asha spells out how anyone can apply strategy
and benefit from strategic thinking.
- [Asha] Um, I think this same type of strategy
that I do in business every day, can be applied
to someone who's looking to create a body of knowledge
and to establish himself as an expert in a certain area.
It's really supposed to help you align all your efforts
to a single, clear goal.
So, actually, instead of saying this is what I want to do,
I want to, you know, define the pathway, I want
to define a sort of mechanism, I want to define, you know,
these, I want to achieve X, Y, Z for, say, growth
of my business, whatever that goal is, the strategy is
to make sure that everything that you're doing,
will help you get to that goal more quickly,
and as easily as possible.
- [Kevin] So, strategy is setting goals
and defining the pathway to get to those goals.
What is Asha's process for setting and communicating goals?
- [Asha] Clearly, I think the first thing is,
to make sure that I am really clear about the goal, again,
I think it's a very sort of vision, down process, so,
making sure that clearly articulated goal, vision,
the objectives are, are clear, not just for myself,
but for my stakeholders.
So that would include my leadership, people I report into,
people that they report into, but also for the people
who report into me, and other people
who have significant roles in what I do.
So the first step is really around making sure that
that vision is clear,
also making sure that the vision's good.
And so what that would really entail is just making sure
that it aligns, perhaps, with a broader goal
that your organization has, but also
that it has staying power.
One, you want to make sure
that your stakeholders are aligned with what you're doing.
That definitely includes your customers, future customers,
the way the market is moving, um, so making sure
that you're positioning yourself for scale
for growth, versus sustainability,
is one of the first reasons in having a really good goal
and a good vision, and then making sure that
that's actually, um, quantitative as well
as qualitative, but making sure
that you basically have, sort of, SMART goals around them.
So goals that are, more important than anything,
that you can actually measure so that you can step back
and say, okay, are we getting closer,
or actually further behind in terms
of where we're looking to go?
- [Kevin] By SMART goals, Asha refers
to the acronym, S-M-A-R-T,
for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant
and time-based.
We delve more into the process of defining SMART goals,
in the accompanying developing strategy video lecture.
In essence, they provide quantifiable ways
to track your progress.
So I come from a very quantitative background,
of bioinformatics and chemical engineering,
and through all these discussions of strategy,
I've envisioned lists of assets, financial models
and numerical projections,
but Asha shared an interesting story
where the qualitative values of the company were really
what shaped the decision to keep
or divest part of a business.
- [Asha] Um, so I mentioned the quantitative piece
of it more in a previous, um, answer,
but there's also this other part too,
just about people, right?
And the ability to actually implement
a strategy successfully, really requires, not just
that things make sense on paper,
but that people can actually get behind it,
and they feel good about it, that there's a story
that resonates with them, and that includes making sure
that strategy align with company
and people's
values
and how they see themselves.
We were working at a Bio Farma organization, and they
were looking to actually pivot to, two, um, focus areas,
cardio and neurodegenerative, so they were really looking
to release from their portfolio,
and from their, um, business infrastructure, any assets
and investments that didn't align to those two areas,
um, and in so doing that,
we were going through the organization basics,
so that we, you know,
we created a map of the organization, and there was a part
of the business that, um, had a very strong
capability, um,
in the outsourcing business or industry, and that was part
of our strategy, to, you know, take this part of it,
'cause it didn't necessarily align to either one
of those therapeutic areas.
And so we presented this and
there was a huge concern in the organization,
because it was one of those things that, just in terms
of the values of the company, they needed
to keep that inside.
They didn't want to have it outsourced,
'cause they felt like it would, um, change who they were,
their identity, and that was a really interesting pivot
for us, because it actually changed
the entire business model too, and sort of
what things looked like, and made us sort of go back
to the drawing board, and reassess a number of things.
- [Kevin] The types of recommendatinos that Asha made would,
sometimes, require big-scale changes
to the organizational structure of a company.
Rapidly evolving business environments mean
that companies have to quickly adapt, but companies are made
of people who are affected by these changes.
Asha explains some considerations
that can help navigate the process of a pivot.
- [Asha] And so, a lot of times,
when you're implementing a new strategy for a company,
you need strong, estranged management
to help the people in the organization understand
what's going on, and why.
Estranged management is really helping people move
through shifts in how business is done,
or how things operate.
Um, one thing I think helps in situations like that,
and one, just really being upfront, and giving people
as much notice as possible, even
when the decision isn't necessarily even clear,
but change may be coming, trying to
at least give people time to start shifting.
Then, when decisions are made,
being really transparent about those decisions, so that,
again, at the same time, not just
saying, well, this decision was made, um,
but also talking about why.
Also thinking through, you know, how to help people,
perhaps, if possible, helping to give them sort of a step
or a stool towards their next step.
Helping them through that.
No one likes being surprised, generally,
in cases like this, um, so no surprises, be transparent,
be, you know, as open as you can about the situation.
Um, but also just, I mean, being compassionate
and simply vocalizing that, you know,
if someone's upset about it, that, you know, you understand
that it's upsetting, or it could be upsetting to them,
um, but again, helping, giving them that helping hand
to go to the next step, and making it really clear
about why this was the best decision.
- [Kevin] The implementation
of a strategic strange will profoundly impact the moral
and longterm effectiveness of an organization.
The good news is
that there are well-structured methodologies
for change management, based on the research
of behavioral and organizational science.
So far, we have mostly seen
how Asha has applied strategy in a business context,
but what differences were there in the public policy sector?
Asha has served as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow
at both, the NIH and the National Academies.
- [Asha] I think you actually have
to be a lot more nimble of policy, than you even do have
to be in, um, in publicly treated organization.
Because your stakeholder base is so, absolutely fraud,
and so the ability to be clear on who your customer is,
can be, actually, pretty daunting.
Um, so for example, when I was working
at the
Monash Cancer Institute.
We were working on a consignum atlas project.
We were working with public organizations,
we're still working with academic universities,
we were working with private industry, um,
genome sequencing companies, as well as, simply,
just private cancer institutes.
Um, and then, in addition, we were also working very closely
with patient-advocate groups, with cancer survivor groups,
and with other parts of the Federal Government, as well
as local governments, to make sure
that everyone understood and knew what was going on.
And so, the strategy, one, to make sure
that everyone even understands what your doing,
and how you're doing it, and what that means to them,
generally includes a lot more players
that, either have more articulate
or more vocal
stake in what you're doing, and so the way
that you approach your strategy, though, I think it's still,
generally, other than the fact
that I think it's just more multi-layered,
it's generally the same, in terms of what you're looking at.
What assets do you have?
What your timeline is.
What your budget is.
And then, also, I think, the other part of that too,
that plays a bigger role, um, you know, looking at policy,
is that sort of greater good piece.
And it's because the greater good is not just the board,
it's not just your stock price, it's, you know,
everything from single-patient to, you know, groups
of patients, to cities, the states, the countries, you know,
to regions of the world,
and then really sort of globally as well.
Right, I think there's a lot more focus
on the qualitative goal,
so that your strategy will also have to align to that.
So that's just another input
that you think about a bit more broadly than
when you're not in a policy arena.
- [Kevin] In business or public policy, setting
and implementing a strategy requires alignment
across many stakeholders.
Accommodating these, sometimes disparate perspectives,
requires clear and proactive communication.
We thank Asha for sharing with us how she has been able
to build consensus around a strategy in a wide range
of settings.
Thank you for listening to Strategy for Scientists.
If you're interested in learning more,
check out the online lectures co produced by iBiology
and the UCSF Office of Career and Professional Development.
We would like to thank the Burroughs Wellcome Fund,
and the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences,
NIGMS
for grant funding.
Thanks also to the PRX Podcast Garage,
for the studio space and helping us get started
with this production.
Tune in here
for more stories about scientists using strategy.