How to make advisory boards work a lot better for you. 10 common mistakes to avoid.
Advisory boards in pharma seem to be a subject of many debates in every company. Countless boardroom debates fuelled by many PMCPA verdicts about companies that tried to turn them into another promotional vehicle by the way they presented the data and the number of people invited or did so many of them that one could wonder how often you need to ask the same advise .... not good and not smart.
Compliance plays a big role but maybe that is because we have actually moved away significantly from the original concept: I have a question or a problem and I would like to ask your help solving it or creating a strategy. I am the first person to push the boundaries on these things but with advisory boards I want to go totally against the grain and argue for a return to proper advisory board basics (check the 'Advisory Board Architects' by the way for a nice view on these things and a little help). Send your advisors the stuff that you want them to think about beforehand and if they haven't prepared, don't have them. Be grown up about that. Ask them to think about the people they represent, not about what they would do, we know that already. Ask them to not answer what they think you may want to hear, that's not what you're paying them for. Last but not least, present them with a problem to solve not with a set of data and ask what they would do with it. The data can be part of your solution, they are not the topic of discussion. We've all been there, halfway through the meeting we are still discussing the trial setup and outcomes. That wasn't the point people. Make sure that doesn't happen.
Below are 10 common mistake I have identified and avoiding them will help you run better boards, avoid discussions with legal, medical, compliance and save you a lot of time whilst giving you better answers. Have fun.
1. You’re not crystal clear about the objectives of the advisory board and (worse) you haven’t shared the objectives with your guests. Do you want to update them on something and get their opinion or maybe is there a concrete problem that you want (them) to solve. They are sitting there being paid and wanting to help you with your questions so you’d better have a few clear ones. Don’t waste everybody’s time. They will feel guilty about that too.
2. You’re asking people to speculate about how their colleagues will respond. If you ask the opinion leaders, they will disagree and you woud also get different answers from the people on the ground who may even see a lot more patients and will be less academic, or haven’t done the trail? Don’t ask consultants to predict the behaviour of GPs or nurses. If you want to know, ask those people. You’re not paying the advisors for guesswork.
3. You’re asking people to speculate about a different speciality. You’re asking the wrong people. No point in asking a cardiologist about how a diabetologist would act. They think differently, and definitely about the usage of medicines. If it doesn’t have positive outcomes data, you might as well burn the money as far as a cardiologist will be concerned.
4. You already have a plan and just want them to choose one of your options. Advisory boards are about solving a problem together not about asking people whether they like option A or option B. Present the problem and not the options and hold back on possible solutions. If you want to choose and see responses to different campaigns or a detail aid, go and do market research. Advisory boards are not for market research.
As a general comment understand that managing decision making and advising is a difficult process, especially when, as every company does, you invite opinion leaders, thought leaders and specialists to the table. By default they will disagree with each other, they will think differently from the people on the cold face, they will have other priorities and most of all, since they most likely also sit with other companies, they will already be biased.
To the same account, if you want a discussion, stay as far away as you can from presenting possible solutions. It will limit peoples thinking and focus them on telling you what is right or wrong with your solutions, not free them up to think differently about the problem in the first place.
5. You haven’t defined the role of the company attendees or your guests don’t understand their roles. We think all those job titles are clear, not for them and especially not if different companies use different titles. Explain, makes it easier for them to understand your remit and how to response to a question you ask.
6. You’re trying to slot something else in that wasn’t on the agenda and your colleagues are not prepared for it either. Along the same lines, seriously avoid sideline or tea break or continued over lunch discussions. You’re listening to the fanatics who want to convince you about their point of view or you’re fishing for support with a limited view point.
7. The agenda is too full (the dreaded ‘in the interest of time we have to move on’ in the middle of a great discussion). This will turn everybody off. Especially when people are feeling that you were actually getting somewhere. I have seen the ‘why in heaven’s name did they stop that discussion’ across the table so often. Bad. So bad.
8. There wasn’t enough preparation time for presenters and guests. Or they actually didn't prepare. Deal with that.
9. Death by powerpoint. Data and slides are pre-work. And if you’re worried, do it as a telecom or so. You’re not paying them to look at slides, you’re paying them to give you advise. They can look at the slides on the train coming over.
10. You haven’t given the guests the bigger picture so they will propose solutions or plans that will simply not work or will not be approvable or you have tried them already. Of course they want you to launch at price parity or even lower because that makes life easy for them, not for you. Their drivers are not your drivers. Set the playing field and the boundaries.
Compliance plays a big role but maybe that is because we have actually moved away significantly from the original concept: I have a question or a problem and I would like to ask your help solving it or creating a strategy. I am the first person to push the boundaries on these things but with advisory boards I want to go totally against the grain and argue for a return to proper advisory board basics (check the 'Advisory Board Architects' by the way for a nice view on these things and a little help). Send your advisors the stuff that you want them to think about beforehand and if they haven't prepared, don't have them. Be grown up about that. Ask them to think about the people they represent, not about what they would do, we know that already. Ask them to not answer what they think you may want to hear, that's not what you're paying them for. Last but not least, present them with a problem to solve not with a set of data and ask what they would do with it. The data can be part of your solution, they are not the topic of discussion. We've all been there, halfway through the meeting we are still discussing the trial setup and outcomes. That wasn't the point people. Make sure that doesn't happen.
Below are 10 common mistake I have identified and avoiding them will help you run better boards, avoid discussions with legal, medical, compliance and save you a lot of time whilst giving you better answers. Have fun.
1. You’re not crystal clear about the objectives of the advisory board and (worse) you haven’t shared the objectives with your guests. Do you want to update them on something and get their opinion or maybe is there a concrete problem that you want (them) to solve. They are sitting there being paid and wanting to help you with your questions so you’d better have a few clear ones. Don’t waste everybody’s time. They will feel guilty about that too.
2. You’re asking people to speculate about how their colleagues will respond. If you ask the opinion leaders, they will disagree and you woud also get different answers from the people on the ground who may even see a lot more patients and will be less academic, or haven’t done the trail? Don’t ask consultants to predict the behaviour of GPs or nurses. If you want to know, ask those people. You’re not paying the advisors for guesswork.
3. You’re asking people to speculate about a different speciality. You’re asking the wrong people. No point in asking a cardiologist about how a diabetologist would act. They think differently, and definitely about the usage of medicines. If it doesn’t have positive outcomes data, you might as well burn the money as far as a cardiologist will be concerned.
4. You already have a plan and just want them to choose one of your options. Advisory boards are about solving a problem together not about asking people whether they like option A or option B. Present the problem and not the options and hold back on possible solutions. If you want to choose and see responses to different campaigns or a detail aid, go and do market research. Advisory boards are not for market research.
As a general comment understand that managing decision making and advising is a difficult process, especially when, as every company does, you invite opinion leaders, thought leaders and specialists to the table. By default they will disagree with each other, they will think differently from the people on the cold face, they will have other priorities and most of all, since they most likely also sit with other companies, they will already be biased.
To the same account, if you want a discussion, stay as far away as you can from presenting possible solutions. It will limit peoples thinking and focus them on telling you what is right or wrong with your solutions, not free them up to think differently about the problem in the first place.
5. You haven’t defined the role of the company attendees or your guests don’t understand their roles. We think all those job titles are clear, not for them and especially not if different companies use different titles. Explain, makes it easier for them to understand your remit and how to response to a question you ask.
6. You’re trying to slot something else in that wasn’t on the agenda and your colleagues are not prepared for it either. Along the same lines, seriously avoid sideline or tea break or continued over lunch discussions. You’re listening to the fanatics who want to convince you about their point of view or you’re fishing for support with a limited view point.
7. The agenda is too full (the dreaded ‘in the interest of time we have to move on’ in the middle of a great discussion). This will turn everybody off. Especially when people are feeling that you were actually getting somewhere. I have seen the ‘why in heaven’s name did they stop that discussion’ across the table so often. Bad. So bad.
8. There wasn’t enough preparation time for presenters and guests. Or they actually didn't prepare. Deal with that.
9. Death by powerpoint. Data and slides are pre-work. And if you’re worried, do it as a telecom or so. You’re not paying them to look at slides, you’re paying them to give you advise. They can look at the slides on the train coming over.
10. You haven’t given the guests the bigger picture so they will propose solutions or plans that will simply not work or will not be approvable or you have tried them already. Of course they want you to launch at price parity or even lower because that makes life easy for them, not for you. Their drivers are not your drivers. Set the playing field and the boundaries.
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