Technological advancement holds potential to reshape pharma industry

You have been at the core of hiring leaders for pharma health care life sciences industry. Due to the ongoing pandemic, what practices and trends do you see will reshape the future of pharma and healthcare industry from the talent perspective?

We are seeing a huge shift in the way healthcare products and services are being consumed, predominantly driven by technology. The disruption caused by the pandemic has accelerated digitalisation in the pharma industry. Even the corporates who already embarked on this journey had to pause, reflect, and revisit their operating model, by slicing and dicing of the processes to carve out portions of the work which have either become redundant or can be digitalised or worked remotely. We might witness a change in the way traditional manufacturing units work in the future. Industry 4.0 will enable increased manufacturing productivity, accurate forecasting and planning, and better supply chain management in the healthcare sector. This will lead to design change and will have a significant impact on talent landscape within the organisations. There will be a new set of emerging competencies to meet this need. For e.g., the corporates will be more open to outsource or hire talent across borders, basis new skill and competencies, thus overcoming the mobility barrier. Local talent will have to now compete with the international talent pool for key roles. Digitalisation translates to more influx of young tech-savvy professionals into the system. These technological advancements and trends have a great potential to spur diversity with reference to gender, age, industry experience and cultural backgrounds.

D&I is in the top agenda for all organisations. Has the pharma and healthcare industry been welcoming of women leaders across all levels?

One of the key characteristics of pharma and healthcare industry is that it is heavily science-based, highly regulated and strict on compliance. These characteristics had led to inbreeding from the talent perspective. Though the pharma and healthcare industry started late on Diversity and Inclusion subject, it gained momentum swiftly and today is topping the chart along with other progressive industries. The pharma industry was quick to realise that when a diverse, talented group of people work together, there is a better exchange of ideas, viewpoints, market insights and problem-solving skills. Most corporates are not just doing lip service but have made D&I a part of their global hiring and people policy and have started measuring the diversity ratios. While the pharma and healthcare industry has been welcoming of women leaders, most top jobs are still underrepresented. Each company is at a different level of progress on the overall diversity chart. Happy to share, we at Stanton Chase are signatory to the 30 per cent club and we are committed in spirit and in writing for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion hiring. Our promise is to provide a good gender representation for every leadership hiring project we undertake.

How do you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

The definition of leadership to me is that of an ‘enabler’. I believe in adaptive leadership, the essence of which is to mobilise teams, their energies and collective intelligence in achieving common goals. Staying positive tops my chart. I learn through my experience by continuously venturing out of my comfort zone and I advocate this to my team as well. Thanks to my profession, I get to meet professionals across industrie