A disclaimer first. I am not Swiss myself. So, I claim being a (mostly) unbiased and impartial advocate. Since late 2008, I am working in multinational Swiss-based companies. And in all of them I now and then met other non-Swiss colleagues who whispered complaints about their Swiss colleagues. Typically it is about Swiss people being perceived as being slower with business progress, too much into details, causing delayed decisions. Thereby taking some non-Swiss colleagues’ nerves. After having had the opportunity experiencing myself the “Swiss way” and its business impact for a couple of years, I need to say … that I simply but totally disagree. There seem to be some cultural misunderstandings if not myths in place. Actually, I personally would love to see more Swissness and Swiss colleagues in business. So, also as my very personal homage to Swissness and tribute to many Swiss colleagues I had the honest pleasure to work and succeed with over the years here are my … 6 Reasons why every Swiss-based multinational should dare going for more Swissness OK, I am fully aware that I might also step into the pitfalls of (positive) prejudices and oversimplifications. I know that there is not “THE Swiss colleague”. That there are individuals with diverse characters, natures and strengths. But, to my humble opinion, it is important to not ignore cultural imprints and DNA which are part of all of us. The power is with not denying but using its strengths positively. 1. You are working for a Swiss company on Swiss ground … so, what is the point?! As an US-American would you like to be blamed for allegedly dabbling in everything … at home? As German for always “being too German” uttered by a non-German in a German company in Germany? As an English for being cold and without empathy by expatriate colleagues in the London office? How would this feel? Think about your own culture and the myths, prejudices and distorted pictures in place. For me personally, blaming someone for living his culture in his country is simply disrespectful, sorry for being fully transparent here. (no, this is not German rudeness, in our culture we simply enjoy ‘clarity’ 😉 ) Cultural inclusion & collaboration is a critical behavior in a diverse and multicultural business environment, actually boosting the quality and impact of team deliveries. All cultural nuances add to success. Together they are strong. 2. The company you are working for was grown and made successful by Swiss people The typical Swiss-based multinational (esp. in pharma) is among the top 10 global players. So, the Swiss style of the Swiss people who made the Swiss company big … obviously seems to have worked pretty well, wouldn’t you agree?! Or why did you decide to work for this company? Because of a low performance, weak market share and a bad reputation? Evidently, the Swiss way of growing business has been a success factor. Something worth to be acknowledged. 3. Swiss are more reserved and less good with promoting their successes … especially compared to people with other cultural backgrounds. So, the reason why the power of Swissness might not be evident every day could be that it happens more silent and in the background. This might not be exclusive to Swiss nature. And yes, poor self-promotion can be a big mistake in multinational business environments (which is a different topic). But it is important to be considered. 4. The proof of the prejudice fails A very simple counter proof. Honestly: did a reduction of the number Swiss people working in your Swiss-based company considerably increase speed and performance? You see! I am not aware of any example where the reduction of Swissness would factually have increased speed and performance. Myth and reality. 5. Swiss are not slow, they are involving and lasting Switzerland is known as one of the most stable and safe countries worldwide. The quality of its democracy is rated among the top 5. Swiss people are among the top 10 most happy citizens in the world. So, does this sound like an ineffective or toxic culture? And what is the Swiss secret sauce? To better understand Swiss business behavior, your need to understand the Swiss DNA. Switzerland is actually a culturally quite diverse and rich country. Each region has its own cultural heritage, history, and language. It is a bit of having 3-4 countries into one. So, the whole Swiss society and political system are based on finding common ground, collaboration, compromises, and bringing together a diversity of perspectives. Decisions are driven by having many people and views being included and aligned, aiming to reach broad acceptance. Swiss think and live the “we, together”. As a consequence, decision processes take longer, yes. Changes take longer, yes. But … the outcomes are solid and reliable, broadly accepted and aligned, lasting and sustainable, and investments into unnecessary changes are avoided. One certainly can take different opinions on that, and the approach without any doubt also has its downsides. But on the other hand, outcomes cannot be ignored. Just a few facts & figures … 6. The Swiss way is a way to economic success Switzerland is proven being … So, again, the Swiss way obviously and evidently seems to work pretty well. I find it actually more and more attractive and promising. So, I still boldly say as a non-Swiss: Dare to go for more Swissness in business. And work closer with Swiss colleagues. You cannot loose. Just benefit from and enjoy the power of Swiss business…

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 mindset and thinking. “Five sensations, by which the world is currently essentially improving” (“Fünf Sensationen, durch die sich die Welt gerade entscheidend verbessert”, WELT 10.11.2024) was written by the German journalist Axel Bojanowski in the newspaper WELT, is the article which inspired me to this post. Let me share just 10 things (and there might be many more) which got better and continue to … Does all of this mean that everything is perfect in this world? No! But also … not everything is getting worse and we are not “sliding into hell”. No, we do not. Two of my personal mantras are “Never panic!” and “Fear is a bad advisor.” Yet another time I am really happy to see that real-world data are supporting this mindset. And it is such a great thing to remind oneself about all the positive things happening. READ MORE…

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 has been “X”‘s unilateral decision to cut all API connections. Which simply makes it much more difficult and painful to use for me personally. This came together with the fact that over the past years X/Twitter became less and less relevant to me and actually adding no value to my life anymore. I don’t really remember last time I got useful information from there. It feels being less and less useful information, but more and more false information from all sides. Less and less listening & discussion, but more and more “shouting”. And to very honest, I value my lifetime too much to waste it. You anyhow know where to reach me (otherwise you wouldn’t read this ;-)). And I continue looking forward to having controversial, challenging and opinionated discussions … but always based on mutual respect and open mindsets. Best…

Those who know me a bit longer know me for being a big advocate for seeing patients as customers (of healthcare providers, pharma included). This can be perceived as a quite provocative statement. But I think, I have some quite good arguments at hand. A big thank you goes to Mark Doyle by “A life in a day” for the opportunity to share my thoughts today, to discuss them, and to the be challenged on it. Feel free to watch the recording on the ‘A life in a day’ website, please. Read more at…

‘Agility’, is without doubt a key enabler for digital transformation. Most organizations request their teams applying agile approaches to business . You might now that the agility idea originates from a revolution in IT software & tools development, where lean, flexible and iterative project management methods replaced the old way of doing projects with a huge gap of months if not years between specifying requirements and delivering/testing. One key principle of agile approaches is to fail quick, learn, and improve in an iterative way. Repeatedly, in short cycles. Flexibly and step-wise approaching the ideal solution starting from a minimum viable product (“MVP”), instead of having a single big shot. A few years ago, I had the exciting opportunity being part of a great cross-functional team developing an in-house “PubMed+” at Novartis. Within 6 months from mandate to launch! Following the ‘Scrum’ framework for agile development. This experience had been a true eye opener for me. As the agile methodology has been proven to revolutionized software development and successfully shown its effectiveness in IT project management, I was very happy to see that the same concepts are being more and more applied to business projects. So far, so good. But does the following sound familiar to you? “We want you to be more agile! Instantly and consequently! … … … but(!) watch out sticking to the processes … and don’t bypass established decision lines … and do not forget to include Aaaaa, Bbbb, Cccc and Ddddd … and do not forget to provide me with your 3-years plan …” What??? Sometimes, management seems to expect their people winning the surfing world championship … but in the Sahara desert. ‘Agility’ necessarily means finding new ways of doing instead following the established. ‘Agility’ requires the readiness for taking smart risks and aiming at failure. ‘Agility’ expects iterative approaches following the paths of customer needs, and not the needs of process paths or organizational structures. If agility as a business approach is wanted, it needs to be part of the corporate culture, consequently. If you miss this culture, then be brave and take smart risks! Have the courage being an example that agility works and delivers. READ MORE…

Yes, pharma is behind most other industries in terms of digital transformation, e.g. of customer engagement and solutions. As a permanent repetition of the evident, multiple studies (example), journal articles and blog posts are frequently reporting about pharma’s digital retardation. But that is not a fair comparison. Also being part of the truth, markets for treatments, medical devices and health services are actually no free markets similar to other industries. They are highly regulated. I am not complaining, there are good reasons for having limitations in place. It is just a general circumstance which needs to be considered with the challenge of leveraging pharma customer engagement in the digital space. But, despite a limiting environment … there are a things we in pharma actually can change … to facilitate digital transformation of our customer engagement. There are some self-made road-blockers, which can be addressed and changed. Willingness assumed. Customer-centricity … comes first. And should be self-understood … but actually is easier said and assumed than properly done. I am afraid to say that we at pharma sometimes have a fatal tendency falling in love with fascinating innovative technologies, intriguing eHealth solutions and exciting digital projects … without checking if factually a prioritized customer need is met … if any at all. Serious customer-centricity means that asking and listening comes first. What are the burning needs of physicians or patients? Which of them can be met with digital measures, which by other? Which communication channels does each single one of them prefer? Where are bottlenecks? How can we marry customer needs with our business levers? How can me measure success? … Getting the right message to the right customer at the right time and the right place via the right channel. It is not about what we would like to do or what we think our customers would need. It is about knowing real-world customer needs and preferences first. Culture “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”, one of my personal favorite sayings, originating from Peter Drucker, legendary management consultant and thinker. And it is nowhere else more true than with digital transformation. Many people hear “digital” and think “technology”. No, that is exactly not what digital is about. At least not in the first instance. Certainly, technology is a key enabler. But it is not the solution. Especially with digital customer engagement, technology is nothing without a cultural change. Digital does not fail due to lack of technology; there is a vast and multifaceted market of digital technologies available, which simply need to be picked-up and applied. Digital does not fail due to a lack of ideas for exciting projects; the heads of pharma guys are full of them. Digital fails because we focus on innovative and exciting digital projects, and not on customer needs and preferences. Digital fails because it is ending up on top of the other stuff on people’s desks. Digital fails because people are concerned it might make their job redundant. Digital fails because it is seen isolated from other business activities. Digital fails, because the culture of the organization is no ‘fertile soil’, e.g. in terms of agility, collaboration and mindset. Digital transformation is not about technology. It is about changing the way we work, prioritize and communicate, actually an organizational cultural change. And this challenge needs to be tackled seriously. Digital upskilling A key enabler of the cultural change mentioned before, is a general and broad digital up-skilling of the organization. Digital is not a niche for nerds and digital passionates. Again, it is about changing the way we work and interact with our customers. So, everybody needs to be included … and to be trained in digital basics. Actually that is also what pharma associates themselves tell us again and again with every survey done. People want to do more digital, but don’t feel well equipped regarding the what and how-to, and broadly miss opportunities to develop. Willingness is not the issue, but enabling is a clearly identified bottleneck. Over-engineered compliance processes As mentioned before, we are working in a regulated environment. This is a given. But the responsibility for a pathological tendency to persistently over-achieve as well as for numerous over-engineered internal review & approval processes for digital tools and content, this responsibility is with pharma enterprises alone. Most of those processes are still developed and optimized for creating printed brochures or one time launches of (static) websites. They typically do not at all fit to the highly dynamic reality of digital content and tools updates. E.g. … There is no doubt that a the requirement for review & approval is vital. But digital business demands lean and agile processes for the same. And I dare to say, whoever is going to provide a smart solution for this general issue to the industry, is going to be a rich (wo)man. “Cobbler, stick to your trade” Honestly spoken, pharma should not try being the better digital tech provider. This simply is not our core competency, and all arrogant attempts being better than specialized companies have spectacularly failed. Always started with a lot of noise, but died silently after a couple of months if not years. Let’s focus on pharma’s core business and its challenges first, where there is still more than enough to do, but simply shop the digital tech parts from the true experts. So, let’s stop complaining about our industry being behind and authorities’ regulations repressing us. Let’s start doing our part, removing self-made road-blockers and creating frameworks for pharma digital transformation unifying agile innovation and the legitimate wish for patients’ safety and…