Partnership working – reality or fallacy?

I thought I’d mention the Eyeforpharma Key Account Management Europe Summit 2010 as I’m hosting one of the Roundtable Discussions.

Partnership is the issue we’ll be discussiing, specifically: Partnership working – reality or fallacy?

I’m very much looking forward to the meeting; eyeforpharma tend to put on a good show and I’m delighted to be participating. It will be a great chance to re-new some acquaintances and make some new ones.

The subject of partnership for pharma seems to come round regularly but application of the approach as a way of doing business is patchy at best. Having said that, it’s easy to be critical of this situation but you have to put the evolution of collaboration between pharma and the NHS in the context of a business relationship that has remained unchanged and been maintained by the stakeholders on the basis on mutual self interest for a generation.

The industry has yet to get its collective head around what it means by partnership and where it sits within their organisations. It is interesting to note that many companies have opted to give responsibility for partnership to their Account Managers who have a sales role. I’m not sure that’s the right place; but where is?

The NHS are more experienced in joint working (I wouldn’t call it partnership) than I think they think they are! Health organisations (PCT’s, Hospital Trusts etc) have had to working with other public bodies to deliver local health care; social services, local authorities etc. And the imperative to continue to do so is never been more apparent than the current economically motivated re-structuring.

So partnership working is a complicated beast and we clearly won’t come up with too many answers in one roundtable discussion. We will however use the time to share some perspectives, share our experiences and perhaps consider these questions:

• How do you recognise and stimulate collaborative working in your own organisation?
• How does the organisation support collaborative working with customers?
• How does KAM and Partnership working relate – or not?
• What aspects of collaborative working needs to improve in your organisation?
• Why are most of the exemplars of good collaborative working practice the same ones that have been used for a number of years now?

In addition, I have some of my own independent research we can use as stimulus and if you are intending to come to the summit and would like the roundtable discussion to address a particular question, feel free to get in touch by email.

See you in London.