Author: Christian Velten

Do you also sometimes feel flooded with bad news? Wars, climate change, natural disasters, species extinction, hate speech, political egomaniacs, weakened economy, financial uncertainties, real or perceived restrictions to freedom … an endless list of mental toxins that are bombarding us day by day by day. Do you also sometimes feel an antipathy to continue watching or reading the news? I recently was reminded about the amazing amount of positive things that are happening on our beautiful planet, too. How many aspects have factually improved over the last decades. And to not let the ‘bad-news-sells’ principle allow to dominate my…

Since late 2022, I am leading the Roche Pharma corporate Voice-of-the-customer (VoC, customer feedback) Program. During the past ~2 years, I have been designing, setting-up and deploying VoC @Roche Pharma. As part of that I have set-up a lean and high performing cross-functional matrix team driving the effort. The program’s set-up includes … Since the MVP had been activated in summer 2023, we see an increasing number of VoC success stories across the organization, showing real-life proof of business impact and value. CLIENT:Roche Pharma Global Product Strategy(as a Roche employee)PROJECT TIME FRAME: September 2022 – today

People who know me a bit better also know that photography is my personal passion. Even provided it is not really my preferred genre, but I took an opportunity to improve my capabilities on landscape photography at a 1-day small-group workshop in the Black Forest, Germany. Together with a professional photographer we started in the darkness of the pre-sunrise morning, walking up the Herzogenhorn peak (where the photo above was shot). This was followed by additional locations around, the Feldsee (lake) and the Fahler Wasserfall (waterfall). Photography is my perfect way to clearing my head and resetting my brain. Looking…

This week, I had the pleasure to host the biannual meeting of the cross-industries CX Council (European chapter) at Roche HQ in Basel. The CX Council is a “safe space” where CX leaders across industries share and discuss their best practices and challenges. It is a “safe space” for open discussion by having one representative by industry only and following the Chatham House Rule. Roche colleagues presented and discussed Roche Pharma’s approaches to Omnichannel and Segmentation, both receiving a lot of acknowledgement. Council members judged the quality and set-up of the Roche advancements as being highly advanced and mature. Hear…

My wife and I have a new project. We are renovating a new home in the Black Forest. A truly lovely place to be. The woods around produce a lot of good air, oxygen and positive energy. Hiking trails are nearby. We instantly perceived a kind of ‘revitalization’ on the spot. And it is an area where other people go for vacation. OK, in all honesty, there is also a lot of work to be done as we are factually fundamentally renovating the house. On some days this might be more a challenge (esp. when it is about bureaucratic paper…

When I joined the new enterprise-level position as a Strategic Lead for Digital Customer Experiences at Roche Pharma in early 2022, I firstly did an in-depth analysis of the internal landscape of customer experience (CX) tools, methodologies and initiatives in place. And what I found was a colorful bunch of innovative assets and committed individuals. But all more or less disconnected, and all one-man/woman armies. At the same time I had personally decided to change my own strategy to making Roche more customer experiences driven from preaching CX to executing CX. “From talking to walking”. To make it real in…

Dear “family & friends”, Just a quick update that I have decided to leave Twitter. Actually, I am not happy with it for quite some while already. I am basically fine with Elon’s mindset towards “free speech”. And I appreciate him as an inspiring innovator challenging existing dogmas. But I am not happy with Elon’s autistic not-consideration of me as a customer. The renaming to “X” … is OK for me. If you are (partially) living in the digital space for >30 years like me, you have learned that nothing is for eternity. But what really hit and annoyed me…

Feb 2022 – present / ROCHE PHARMA – Leading the Roche Pharma enterprise patient and customer feedback program (Voice-of-the-Customer). • On enterprise level, strategically and operationally enabling Roche in creating an outstanding, enjoyable, consistent and impactful patient and customer experiences. • Provide strategic guidance and expertise on e.g. patient-centric and impactful launch strategies and other enterprise initiatives with a holistic patient or customer journey perspective.

I am proudly sharing that “CareRing“, the Roche internal community for employees who are patients or caregivers, has won the 2020 Reuters Pharma Awards Europe in the category ‘Most promising MVP/pilot’. The CareRing platform is homed in the Medical Customer Experience department I am heading. But I cannot claim too much contribution myself. I just gave CareRing a home at times of uncertainties, and acted as an inernal sponsor. My sincere congratulations are going to a truly cross-enterprise team of enthusiasts and passionate individuals who are jointly leading and driving and who were doing a lot of things very right.…

Together with my team, we effectively consolidated the Roche medical portfolio of platforms & tools supporting customer and patient engagement. The Digital Engagement team in the Medical Customer Experience department – which I have the honor to lead – is managing all digital platforms, touchpoints and tools which are directly or indirectly serving Roche customers and patients. Examples are the Roche medical information portal, the ForPatients platform on clinical trials participation, and Medically, a non-promotional resource for healthcare professionals to exchange scientific information & developments. But also Roche-internal tools like an internal one-stop-shop for all information on Roche products, a…