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The Pharma Career Ladder · The country manager · Step 5: Building the organisation · Lesson 4

The seven elements

A plan needs the whole organisation behind it

By Ahmed El Menshawy · 20 years in pharma, from medical rep to country manager in the UAE. Founder of RepPharma. LinkedIn
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I have seen good strategies fail for reasons that had nothing to do with the strategy.

  • The plan said hospitals. The incentives still paid for retail volume.
  • The plan said key accounts. Nobody in the team had managed one.
  • The plan said collaboration. The leadership meeting still ran on blame.

The strategy was fine. The organisation around it was not ready.

The McKinsey 7S model is old, and I still find it one of the most practical checks a country leader can run. Seven elements, and they have to pull the same way:

  • Strategy. The few choices the plan backs this year.
  • Structure. Who reports to whom, and which team owns which customer.
  • Systems. CRM, reviews, incentives, approvals. How work actually moves.
  • Shared values. What the team protects when a quarter goes badly.
  • Style. How the leadership team behaves, not what it says.
  • Staff. The right people in the right roles, with names behind them.
  • Skills. What the organisation can really do today.

The first three are easy to change on paper. The last four take much longer, and they decide whether anything changes at all.

My habit now: before announcing any change, I ask what it means for the other six. It usually saves a painful quarter.

“Strategy is one element of seven. The other six decide whether it happens.”
The seven elements: A plan needs the whole organisation behind it

Lesson 4 of 17 in Step 5: Building the organisation, with the full guide and a checklist for this week.

More lessons in step 5: Building the organisation

Lesson 1Structure follows strategyDesigning the team the plan needsLesson 2Field force size and structureHow many reps, and whyLesson 3Span of controlHow many reps a manager can actually coachLesson 5Building a capability mapWhat your organisation can and cannot do yetLesson 6Did the training work?Kirkpatrick's four levels, applied to a product launch trainingLesson 7Building a training curriculumSequencing skill over a yearLesson 8Hiring managers, not repsWhat changes in the selection barLesson 9Promoting the right managerSelling skill is not managing skillLesson 10Developing your second lineGrowing the managers who grow the repsLesson 11Succession without dramaTwo names for every critical roleLesson 12The cost of turnoverReplacing a rep is not freeLesson 13Culture is what you tolerateThe behaviour you walk pastLesson 14Values that survive a bad quarterTesting culture under pressureLesson 15Changing a team you inheritedAssess, decide, act, in that orderLesson 16The complete team changeWhen rebuilding is the only optionLesson 17Engagement at scaleMeasuring it, then acting on it

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