Strategy: It should be at the root of why we do our research. It should be the first thing we think of and the last piece of the puzzle. Yet, often it becomes clear that it’s the last thing a Competitive Intelligence Department considers. In this climate of “Why?” Ted Talks which have everyone thinking and hypothesizing about their motivation, my question is, “Why aren’t people giving projects more thought?” Not everything we do should be reactionary – a large portion should be based on where you would like your product, department, division and/or company to go.

We have several clients who are not only looking at things from a strategic perspective, they are starting from one: “We want to be here in 3 years, there in 5 years and we want to start now to figure out what the therapeutic area may look like, as well as the patient population, treatment paradigm and formulary status.” Obviously I can’t get into too much detail but it’s these clients who will have a well thought out launch – not just of one molecule but of the entire arm of their portfolio. The words ‘Blue Ocean’ comes back to me with this idea – not “Where are we scrambling to?” but “Where do we want to be? And why do we want that? How will we get it?” All great questions and ones we need to answer to be successful in the long run.