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EXCLUSIVE LIFE SCIENCE FEATURE leaders LIFESCIENCELEADER.COM MARCH 2015 24 GRÜNENTHAL BUILDS A NEW ENTREPRENEURIAL AND NETWORKED APPROACH TO R&D; By R. Wright How Do You Keep Com m itm ents Made To Collaborators? Klaus Langner, Grünenthal's chief scientific officer, says time is one of the most important metrics when working with a collaborative partner — specifically, delivering to your partners on time. "We were developing a product for a partner that uses INTAC, our crush-resistant technology," he explains. "We had to make a technology transfer to the U.S. involving the new technology, the new formulation, and all of the machines necessary to produce the product." Keep in mind, Grünenthal was not the maker of the manufacturing machines used in the INTAC manufacturing process. "Nonetheless," Langner says, "we said we'd deliver everything, and therefore, we were responsible." The initial time budgeted to complete the tech-transfer project was 18 months. "We had no previous experience conducting this size of a transfer, which included a completely new technology and completely new machines," he admits. Soon into the process, colleagues approached Langner to inform him they had seriously underestimated the time required, and shooting for 18 months was asking the impossible. Langner thought, "I am responsible. We have to deliver on time." The first thing he did was to meet with the team to discuss options for meeting the delivery time period they had committed to. After the meeting, Langner sat down to do some analysis of the project and realized he needed some help. "We decided to hire two expert external consultants who were experienced in what I call 'bottleneck project management,'" he states. At the next team meeting, Langner announced the decision to bring on the consultants, but was quick to clarify their role was not to take over the project's management. "Their job was to focus on analyzing the data to determine where backlogs could be eliminated," he states. "I reiterated that the responsibility for delivering the project on time remained with the Grünenthal internal project leads." The project team meetings became a routine, occurring early in the week and lasting an hour and a half. Although not necessary, Langner attended many of the meetings. "I made this project and these meetings my number-one priority," he says. "If I wanted people to take this project seriously and be committed, I needed to demonstrate the same level of commitment I was asking of them. It was visible." What wasn't visible was what Langner was doing outside of the meetings to help foster the project. When most people are told a project will not be able to meet a deadline, their first inclination is probably to pick up the phone and ask the customer or partner for more time. Langner did pick up the phone, but not to call Grünenthal's collaborative partner. "I thought to myself, 'There are other indus- tries with tough timelines; how do they do it?'" he shares. Having contacts at RWTH Aachen University, a prominent technical institution, who have done work with a number of industries external to pharma (e.g., automotive and aircraft), Langner set up several evening and dinner discussions to gain their insights on approaches to project management, cycle times, etc. "If companies in other industries are able to accomplish tasks just as difficult as the one facing Grünenthal and achieve success in even shorter time frames [than the typical 6-8 years for drug development], then so can we," he says. At the beginning of the project, the team was measuring progress in months, first reducing the backlog to being only four months behind, then three, and eventually two. "All of a sudden we were at zero," Langner states. "In the beginning, nobody believed this possible, but we really adopted a can-do mentality." The end result was successful completion of the project on the last day at 12 noon. "This was a very important lesson for our organization," he shares. How did they do it? First, the project was planned down to the last detail, and for each the critical path was analyzed. "We looked at literally everything: What is interconnected and in which way? Where are synergies, and how can these be used to speed up the timelines?" he shares. For each of these details, the time-critical steps were identified and intensely monitored. The progress of every detail was evaluated with a traffic-light system, and in the weekly meetings, everything – literally, everything – came to the table. "Sometimes these meetings were rough, of course; however, this approach created very high transparency, and we immediately saw if one activity was delayed, which other activities were affected. This was helpful also for prioritizing our actions," Langner explains. "It was also important that the team understood that this exercise was not meant as finger-pointing, but to ensure we can address delays quickly so the whole project was not in danger." Understandably, this process created a lot of emotions and pressure that needed to be managed. However, as the red traffic lights began to turn more to yellow and green, the team saw their commitment and personal engagement was paying off. If you face a similar prospect of having to make the impossible possible, Langner has some words of wisdom. "As early as possible, look for the most critical steps that could derail the project's timeline, and pay close attention to them. Next, test and train your people. While my colleagues and I were familiar with project management, we had never undertaken this complex of a task before." Another piece of advice from Langner is to have a good project monitoring system in place. However, his most important tip, "You need a project lead who is willing to step on people's toes and be outspoken when things are not getting done." While you can probably find people like this within any organization, you are setting them up for failure if you don't empower them. It is important that they feel comfortable telling you, your boss, or even your boss' boss when someone on the team isn't pulling their weight on the project. "If you involve the people in the process, if the process is transparent and solution-oriented, if you manage emotions, celebrate milestones and if you are visible and approachable to everyone on the team, you can make it," he concludes.