Pharmaceutical Technologist - September 2007 - (Page 10)

*Morpheus Communication lets us down As technology advances, the art of communication declines. Will this be the pharma industry’s Achilles’ heel? The pharmaceutical industry is considered to be a high technology sector. We pride ourself on the science that lies at the heart of our work and we constantly stress the innovative spirit that characterizes our companies. Yet, despite the technological nature of the pharmaceutical industry, its success depends heavily on humans. Therefore, it does not matter how advanced the systems your company uses are, you can only succeed if the humans that run your organization work efficiently together. In essence, communication is the key. We live in an age where the communication tools are the most advanced the world has ever seen, but every day experience suggests that we have become rather blasé about how we use them. However successful we feel we are as an industry, our communication methods are holding us back. As pharmaceutical companies become larger, we would expect communication to improve. It is true that many organizations will adapt their systems accordingly, but unfortunately they forget to train the people to use them. This means that company divisions will tend to operate independently of each other, thus reducing the overall efficiency of the organization. As drug development becomes more complex, the exchange of ideas between different groups of specialists can make all the difference to a project being successful (or not). Yet we pay little attention to ensuring that this happens. Even if people do communicate, it is done in a haphazard way that fails to foster trust and encourage teamwork. By the time you have recognized the problem it is too late because a ‘silo mentality’ has taken root. Forcing people to collaborate with each other fails to address the problem because this will only occur to the extent necessary for people to deflect their boss’s attention. Face-to-face What is needed is a process of education and encouragement that begins from the day an employee 10 September 2007 l pharmaceutical technologist

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Technologist - September 2007

Contents Editor’s Comment News Morpheus Market Watch CPhI Worldwide 2007 Compliant Pharmaceutical Labelling Q&A

Pharmaceutical Technologist - September 2007

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