Read the Conversation
EF: 2020 was the year of diagnostics, and 2021 was the year of vaccines; what do you think 2022 will bring?
MC: I see 2022 as the year of reinventing ourselves. Despite suffering a pandemic, we have kept growing and have not had negative results; we adapted to the challenges of remote working while engaging with clients, customers, and stakeholders. Now is the time to implement transformation and digital platforms in our DBT (Digital Business Transformation), in which we are investing. We have hired a professional to lead the transformation, and I believe 2022 will be the year where the "new normal" will be executed. The biggest challenge will be to keep our people safe and minimize exposure to the virus as we want to bring people back to the office.
EF: What are the lessons learned during the last year and managing remotely?
MC: Before 2020, I travelled to the Headquarters in Brussels at least seven times a year. In late January that year, I was in Brussels and everything was normal, but in March, the pandemic hit. On March 9th, the indication from global was to be wary of the local situation while trying to do business as usual, which of course, was not an option. We did business as was possible in Brazil and not as usual. On March 16th, we decided to close the offices for two weeks to see how things evolved. My intuitive reaction was to do business as possible, a concept later used in other international markets. We did what we could, especially from March to June 2020. The clients and physicians were at home, and our speciality clients were in hospitals, many of them were state or federal-level public payers. The HMOs had closed, and the market dynamic had changed completely.
Business as usual became business as possible. From July 2020, we tried to reinvent ourselves using remote tools and channels to interact with clients and keep our people at home and engaged. We established a Covid-19 Crisis Committee in Brazil to manage all the situations arising with weekly meetings, looking at the situation city by city, and allowing our people the flexibility to choose to be in the field or not. By the end of 2020, the business was going well, growing in double digits, overcoming the price increase and the market growth, and generally delivering a solid year. In 2021, in Brazil, we worked together locally to provide solutions while waiting for the vaccine, concentrating on getting through each wave as they came. We did not dismiss anybody; fortunately, the business was going well and we only had a few Covid cases in the first and second wave, mainly due to working from home. Later, when people went into the field, there were challenges, and we compensated them for those efforts. After a quiet beginning, 2021 was a good year of reconnection. In December, we invited people from Brussels to face-to-face meetings, testing everybody twice a day. We also had our sales meeting for the 2022 kick-off in December 2021, and as a result, people are very engaged with the company.
The Brazilian Real has devalued against the Euro and the US dollar, making Brazil a cheaper country to buy from, favouring our business. Some of our colleagues have left the company, but it is part of the process, and we are also attracting new talent. We created a Committee called WIL (Women in Leadership), led by the head of our legal area, and she works on respecting work boundaries for mums. It has been quite a journey and a lesson learned in working autonomy and cross-collaboration, key for the moment- together with the resilience of each individual.
EF: If you had to design a Master's in Pandemic Administration, which two courses would you consider mandatory?
MC: My choices of courses would be: i) the importance of collaboration among people as a critical element for the company's success, ii) how to reinvent ourselves after the recent experiences and traumas. We all have needs and interests as individuals, and over the last two years, many people had the feeling that life stopped and that their careers have been put on hold.
EF: Did you introduce new KPIs to adapt to the changing scenario?
MC: We use the same KPIs as quantitative indicators related to business performance. Regarding customer engagement in digital platforms, the KPI’s emphasis is on soft skills. Communication, for example, is vital and has to be transparent, respectful, and authentic. Communication is a soft skill I prioritize, and we now see it as a KPI. To have authentic leadership, one must be open and available to offer help wherever it is needed, and respecting the boundaries of others is fundamental for a good working environment between colleagues and clients, for example, not over-pressuring physicians. It is about understanding the message we want to deliver and adapting.
EF: Could you elaborate on your company's DBT (Digital Business Transformation)?
MC: We have hired a professional to lead the transformation, and our ambition is to create our channel platform by 2023. We have invested in excellent tools, but they are not yet linked together in a common direction. The DBT will be our future way of working and will include space and respect for our customers, prove our resilience, and reach areas where we haven't had a presence before. Brazil is a vast country, and we cannot reach all its corners, but DBT will go a long way in helping us to be more far-reaching. At the moment, we are trying to get our 145 employees to adapt to the transformation tools.
EF: Do you see a straightforward adoption of digital by physicians and patients, and are they prepared to use the assistance of technology?
MC: It is a challenge, especially in the public sector. Brazil has 26 different states and the capital state, 5,600 different cities, each with its health secretary. The infrastructure is an issue, as are the conflicts of interest between the public and private sectors. But, since the beginning of the pandemic, we have closed three big deals with the Minister of Health using Zoom, something that would have never happened pre-pandemic. Before 2020 it would have entailed many trips to Brasilia and many meetings, adding up much cost in money and travelling time.
EF: Are you especially excited by any new products in your portfolio or pipeline that you could share?
MC: We are preparing for new entities in the rare disease arena; we bought two products recently, which has been very exciting as it means rare disease products will now be included in our portfolio. With IQVIA, we are preparing a market study for the first phase, looking at price, access, and reimbursement to define our strategy for LATAM. The outcomes for psoriasis are very promising, and we are investing in new formulations and solutions for the existing portfolio. We have products for epilepsy which is part of our main business alongside Parkinson's. More entities will be forthcoming, and we need to find new markets.
EF: When you look back at this period in your professional career, how would you like your tenure to be remembered?
MC: My contribution to my team is important to me; I believe in leadership by example and exposure. I would be happy and proud to follow my team's careers; see them contribute, and become role models as leaders. My role will be through my team and the consolidation of a biopharma company, a great legacy to have. I joined Pfizer in 1999 as a sales rep; I am very proud of my journey and hope to be even prouder in ten years. Finally, this year in May, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the company's acquisition. We will commemorate the company's transformation, becoming a biopharma company in behaviour, practice, and principle. We are getting better by reinventing ourselves daily, which is not easy in Brazil as we face many challenges, such as patient access to care limitations, pricing issues, etc.
