STRATEGY
WORKING TOGETHER, APART Strategic planning processes must adapt to the new normal of social distancing Making strategy is usually a highly social process, involving the sharing of ideas and discussion between cross functional teams. And even though technology allows us to talk and share documents across distance, social distancing – either because of COVID or because of geographically-spread teams, can hinder that essential human interaction and make strategy processes less effective. In this article, the author discusses the visible and invisible parts of the strategy process, how they are influenced by social distancing and how firms can adapt their strategy process to be effective even when their strategists can’t sit across the same table. Brian D Smith, Principal Advisor, PragMedic
R
ight now, all over the world, cross-functional teams in pharma, biotech, medtech and other life science companies are working on their strategic plans. Large or small, companies usually follow this annual ritual. But 2020 is a very unusual year. Traditional planning processes, punctuated by face to face meetings and presentations to audiences, have been replaced by socially-distanced strategising, where all interaction is necessarily remote. This is a big change, not like anything we’ve
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