Case study · Pharmaceuticals · organisation
Three projects for the year, agreed by everyone
Stakeholder interviews, a leadership alignment workshop, a project and talent assessment, and an innovation board that outlived the engagement.
What they asked
Servier was transforming — into oncology and into digital — and its China challenge was internal: a clear strategy, teams aligned behind it, and a way of managing digital and innovation initiatives that did not depend on individual enthusiasm.
What we did
- Stakeholder investigation through questionnaires and interviews
- Leadership alignment workshop facilitation
- Project and talent assessment
- Design and launch of an innovation board
How it ran
Ask everyone first
In-depth questionnaires and interviews across the relevant teams, to understand current initiatives and where interests genuinely diverged — before putting anyone in a room together.
Align in the room
A leadership workshop, facilitated to a specific outcome: agreement on a limited focus of three strategic projects for the year. The limit is the point; alignment on ten projects is not alignment.
Assess what exists
We supported the assessment of current projects and of the talent available to run them, and built a roadmap for decision-making so prioritisation had a mechanism behind it.
Leave the governance behind
We helped establish an innovation board as the standing platform for managing current projects and developing future ones — so the process survived the consultants leaving.
Outcome
- Leadership aligned on oncology, digitalisation and innovation as the year’s priorities.
- A clear roadmap for project prioritisation and resource allocation.
- An innovation board established and running.
- Stronger recognition of Servier as an innovator in digital pharmaceuticals.
What it taught us
Strategy that has not been argued out loud with the people who must execute it is a document. The workshop is not the soft part of the engagement — it is where the decision actually happens.
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