THE IDENTIFIER PROFILE
| Name: | Rick Teo |
| Job: | Senior area director, South Asia (Singapore) |
| Company: | LEO Pharma |
| Highest Six ‘I’s® rating: | Identifier |
What challenge are you looking to solve with innovation right now?
Innovation is tough within the pharmaceutical market as it a highly regulated industry. There are a lot of things that we cannot do. This means that we need to innovate more, as many ideas will not be workable. Our headquarters is in Denmark, where our products are discovered, so innovation for us is in how we localise our portfolio of products across 13 countries within South Asia.
Looking at your Six ‘I’s® results, you’re an identifier. How does this knowledge impact or change the way you work?
Due to the nature of the industry, and the slow pace in which it operates, the general mindset of people is often focused on what cannot be done, rather than on what can be done. But disruption is happening all around us, and our industry is changing too. My results impact the way I think about my role, and the importance of anticipating the trends that are shaping our environment. I need to support the business, be ready for change. This will prepare us for the next evolution of our growth.
How do you play to your strengths? What advice would you give other people who want to get better at identify?
Get out and about, talk to more people, as well as your peers, and spend time understanding insights – in our case, patient insights and the insights of health care professionals. You can’t see what you can’t see, so you need to see from other people’s perspectives so you can identify gaps. Being good at identify doesn’t always mean you identify the right things. So, you need courage. You need to be able to try. Not trying is tantamount to failure. Knowing my strengths has helped me reflect on how I work and also the importance of drawing on the diverse capabilities of team members.
What steps, if any, would you take to improve the areas where you are not so strong, or that are important to you and how?
The key area of focus for me is investigate. Some ideas are not good ideas after all, and there are others that I think won’t work, that could, if they were investigated more thoroughly. I don’t want to kill an idea, or approve of it straight away, but learn how to build this investigate bridge between an idea and its investment and implementation. One way is by bringing in subject matter experts on the areas that need deeper investigation. This will help to accelerate my learning and to help me see my blind spots. Another way is to continue having ‘market dives’ or planned excursions and thorough investigations of whether an idea might work in a particular country’s market.
How has The Six ‘I’s® helped you and your teams/business? What examples, if any, can you share?
In partnership with HR, we conducted a Talent Development Programme across South Asia with a focus on innovation. We actively used The Six ‘I’s® as a framework and process for developing new commercial sales and marketing ideas, and how we could engage our Health Care Professionals (HCPs) to build closer relationships. One innovation that came out of this process was the development and roll out of a quality care digital platform and online applications to help HCPs support patients who have psoriasis.
Have you produced something you would consider innovative?
Back in 2013, we had 1 per cent market share in the Philippines with our product Fucidin®, an antibiotic preparation that helps people with skin infections. Despite having a licence to sell directly to patients via pharmacies – over the counter (OTC) – we had been promoting via the ethical/doctors channel, but it wasn’t working. The market was flat for the last 10 years and we were seeing very minimal growth. We questioned our own mindset towards what we were doing and identified an opportunity to try something new. We ignited an idea to switch an integrated OTC promotional model, innovative for us, as it was a first in LEO Pharma Asia. We investigated different ways of promoting the product and made the investment to enhance product visibility as well as free skin screenings through partnership with drug stores and dermatologists. This helped us to increase our brand visibility and patient engagement. We implemented a marketing campaign through cable, national television, radio advertising and celebrity endorsement, which resulted, despite the competitive nature of the industry, in a growth of market share from 1 to 15 per cent. We continue to seek ways to improve what we have done both on this project as well as other ‘cross-pollination’ opportunities across South Asia.