Taking My Own Medicine (In a Good Way)

I’ve been looking back on how far we – this whole community – has come and coalesced this year, and while I’m not sharing some notable stats right now (that’ll come soon, I promise),I wanted to talk about both why and how it’s been possible.

So, what’s the big secret?

I’ve been doing all the things for myself and this community that we as communicators recommend as best practices for our clients and companies!

As someone who’s used to being behind the scenes, like a lot of you are, this has been a monumental shift and admittedly, is still a work in progress.

I still have to pause and take a deep breath before every single one of these weekly videos!

To get to the “why” we’ve been successful, it’s because we defined our mission up front and have stuck to that no matter what.

From day 1, Ticket to Biotech has been here to cultivate conversations and connections for biopharma communicators.

But “how” we’ve done that this year has undergone metamorphoses many times over.

Because all of you have been so generous with your time, your positive energy, your candid feedback, and you’ve taken a leap of faith to support our grand vision, you’ve enabled me to stay agile and pivot constantly – all while staying true to what we’re here to do.

Together, we’ve done what this industry does best: experiment, scrutinize the results, take what we learned, and try again until there’s proof of concept.

The magic that’s happened as a result of all these efforts is rooted in your trust in me and this community. Thank you.

Extending Industry Impact

Everyone we know in the life sciences is here because they want to make a difference, improve people’s health, improve lives.

Although most orgs’ missions focus on that, there are plenty of other complementary opportunities to extend our impact.

Look at how to elevate corporate values beyond the nice posters in the hallway. Assess which causes can help you walk the talk and meet stakeholder priorities.

Whether you’re an office of 5 or 50,000, your org is operating in at least one location. In all likelihood, each location was carefully selected for the support it offers the business. Think about how your org can embed itself in the local ecosystem and what you uniquely can contribute to ensure its long-term sustainability.

Consider your current talent pool and what the gaps are. Determine how you can support preparedness for a robust talent pipeline well into the future.

Diversity is critical, full-stop, but research also shows that diversity is good for business. Although many companies are making strides in the right direction, very few, if any, can say that they’ve achieved gender parity. Keep taking that hard look in the mirror and challenging yourself to build infrastructure that facilitates all kinds of diversity and at all levels, from the boardroom to the bench.

There’s much to be said about DEI and broader impact issues like health equity, but we’ll leave you with another actionable nugget that’s applicable, regardless if you’re just entering the clinic or are an industry behemoth: Be proactive about running diverse clinical trials that as closely as possible reflect the actual target patient population makeup.

This list here comprises only a few of the many ways we can amplify the good work we in biopharma do every day.

What are you doing to seize the opportunity to achieve greater good, and as communicators, how can we support these efforts?