EXPRESS PHARMA – Issue: 16 – 30 June, 2007
http://www.expresspharmaonline.com/20070630/pharmalife01.shtml
Best practices in project management
Project management involves a gamut of processes which are linked to an organisation's bottom line. Sushmi Dey focuses on the multifarious responsibilities of a project manager and the challenges he encounters to ensure project success.
The
foundations of the pharmaceutical industry rest on science, but there is
another reckoning fact-that this science also has a business side to it. The
Indian pharma sector is booming and the race for manufacturers to bring new
products to market faster is closer than ever before. The business focusses on drug development, which involves strategic,
operational and organisational processes. Most drug
development processes suffer from planning problems resulting in delays,
unforeseen activities, cost overruns and losses resulting from high turnover.
This is the reason why pharmaceutical companies everywhere are exploring new
and innovative ways to develop their products faster and within budget while
maintaining quality standards. To cope with these challenges in a competitive
business scenario, many pharmaceutical companies have started streamlining
their project management processes.
Pharma projects
Unlike managing general affairs in business, project management in pharmaceuticals' business means developing marketing programmes, launching blockbuster drugs, run annual sales meetings, and manage clinical trials and drug development processes. Projects here are temporary, one-off affairs organised to achieve a set objectives or goals, with teams assigned for the duration of the project and strict attention paid to scheduling and budget.
Therefore, project management is a multi-task job that has performance, cost, time and scope requirements and is bound by strict deadlines. Tanu Hora, Dy Manager-HR and Administration, Mankind Pharma, states that in the pharma sector project management is planning, organising and co-ordinating resources to accomplish a short-term objective. Agrees VA Peerzade, VP-HR, Medley Pharmaceuticals, "A project is carefully planned, organised and is usually one-time effort to accomplish a specific target." The key drivers of a successful project in terms of effectivity are avoiding time and cost overruns and ensuring consistent quality. These overruns result due to various reasons. For instance, the exact nature of the project in terms of its core value proposition is often not assessed properly. Many areas in project management also remain underestimated. This misdirects project team members who end up giving wrong solutions.
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- Arnab Ray |
"Effective and high quality project management is a key business requirement," asserts Arnab Ray, Associate Director, HR, Chembiotek. Getting products to market on time and with operational efficiency is a major challenge for the time-starved workforce. Project management comes as one of the most simple, easiest and cost-effective ways to improve processes involved in pharmaceutical business. "Project management is a fine balance amongst forming the right team, delivering quality services, managing schedules, uplifting manpower motivation, attaining right productivity and operational management," adds Ray. Additionally, project management is also instrumental in speeding up the phases of research involved in the form of clinical trials and the process of product development. "Project management accounts for timely delivery of client services and managing scientific productivity, and hence business profitability," points out Ray.
Not good but better
Since project management aims at accomplishing a short-term objective, the specific needs vary over time. Implementing best practices in project management would, therefore, mean revaluating options and beginning to embrace new trends. Initiating, planning, executing, controlling and closing are essential for seamless project management. "Project management is a science of facilitating the planning, scheduling and controlling of all activities that must be done to achieve project objectives," opines Peerzade.
Planning: "The first rule of project management is that the people who must do the work should plan it," states Peerzade. Planning is important in order to define the project properly, to reduce redundancy as much as possible, to define exact start and end dates, and anticipate the success probability matrix.
Implementing: The second step in project management is implementation of planning and ideas. According to Ray, this step includes major decision-making, e.g. assigning the right people to the right job, have a good process flow interwoven with the creativity in science to reduce routine labour as much as possible, guiding and disciplining people to complete the desired tasks with other aspects like safety, teamwork in place.
Project monitoring and controlling: Project monitoring and controlling is basically keeping a track of work output against planned, keeping a financial control on the project, managing team motivation, reviewing project deliverables with the team on a continuous basis, etc. However, tracking of projects and developing a monitoring mechanism for the same is important to ensure its timely completion. "Monitoring and controlling of projects can be facilitated by developing inter-functional teamwork and by defining the roles and responsibilities of team members in advance. If necessary, periodical reviews for co-ordination and mid-course corrections can also be conducted," suggests Professor R D Joshi, Director-Business Processes, Interlink Business Consultancy.
Apart from the three crucial steps, there are other strategic aspects which have to be taken care of while implementing best practices in pharmacos, CROs and biotech companies. For instance, creating and managing productive team combination is must for a successful project. Being a research-oriented business, it is very important to create a research-oriented culture in pharma companies, especially in the laboratories. "The best practices of project management must include continuous improvement in the skill level of the team and it should be strategically linked with appraisal and training needs," says Ray.
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Practices for perfection |
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The man in charge
The
project manager is ultimately responsible for ensuring project success. In face
of increasing competition, project managers today have to go beyond the
traditional project delivery practices. "The new system requires thinking
of the project as a business enterprise and managing it as a business venture.
Thus project managers have to consider not only the success of the project but
also its outcome," avers Peerzade.
The gamut of project manager's responsibilities include planning of resources like human capital, money, machinery, etc; organising all these time to time whenever required, concluding and taking corrective action at the time of deviation. As a project team leader, the project manager is 100 percent accountable for the performance of his team, the quality of deliverables and the budget. "It is the responsibility of the project manager to check that project should not exceed the time and cost planned for budget," says Hora.
Ray points out that the role of a project manager is of primarily two types. First, as a facilitator or co-ordinator and second to have effective "situational leadership" ability. "The project manager has to ensure that the project is carried out in time and up to the expected standards. While ensuring this, he has to encourage and empower the members of the team to play their roles effectively," adds Joshi.
Within the project team, the project manager is also the communicator. Besides, motivating and integrating human resources to achieve the standards laid down at the time of planning, he also has to ensure that all information passes between the client and the internal project team. According to Peerzade, the project manager needs to understand how the organisation creates value for its major stakeholders, that is, the shareholders, customers and the business team. He must also take the responsibility for delivering that value.
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Why best practices? |
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It is important to maintain best practices in project management
because:
Source: Chembiotek |
Major challenges
A project manager's main problems are related to proper utilisation, allocation and integration of resources. Manpower crisis is yet another concern area. "The constant change in team creates a disruption," says Ray. The project manager also faces challenges in managing performances, developing the right skill sets, getting rid of dead woods, etc. Another major challenge is associated with project delivery as per the defined standards. The delivery related challenges are mainly concerned with the quality of the finished materials. Ray believes that the organisation must set up a good quality control department and effective training mechanisms to deal with such issues. Furthermore, awareness programmes must be linked intricately with performance appraisals and reward systems.