The Third Question

Front End of Innovation 28-31 January 2008 Vienna

Dr Robin W. Spencer Senior Research Fellow Pfizer, Inc.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 1

Take Home Message

In a fast-paced, complex, uncertain world, you must be able to pull resources to problems with speed and efficiency. Idea management systems are well suited to this need.

But novel things must also be pushed on a resistant organization; it will not change on its own.
Therefore we push in many small different ways, achieving short-term real results, which can also drive a long-term culture change from push to pull.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

Many Thanks

Steve Street
Mark Turrell, Geoff Carss, & Cameron Snider

2008 Davos Technology Pioneer award winner

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 3

The First Question

Why do we need to drive innovation ?

Very large forces are accelerating change :
geopolitics
lower barriers to movement of people and goods, especially in Europe and Asia

demographics and resources

retirement of the Baby Boomers, end of plentiful oil, onset of climate change

internet
information and money now travel globally, essentially free

Make these enablers, not threats !

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 4

The Second Question

Why do we need to drive innovation ?

What do we need to do ?
We know this !
manage the details
Saving time, money, and squeezing out waste is good but not enough.

listen to the edges

Real change does not come by optimizing the status quo. The edges inside and outside your organization are where the new ideas are found.

have open and flexible systems

The last thing you need are risk-averse policies and systems that slow you down.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 5

What to do: Push vs. Pull

Push and Pull are different strategies for directing resources to achieve a goal or fix a problem.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 6

Push vs. Pull

Push is traditional: analysis, decisions, and planning are done before pushing resources at targeted goals or problems
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 7

Push vs. Pull

but if the world is too uncertain, complex, or fast-changing, then push is ineffective.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 8

Push vs. Pull

Pull is more dynamic: you ride the problem and pull resources as needed...
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 9

Push vs. Pull

which takes agility: rapid access to information, quick decision-making, and adaptive supply systems.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 10

The Third Question

Why do we need to drive innovation ?

What do we need to do ?
How do we do it ?
Someone has to take some risks and learn, out on the streets

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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How to innovate: Push vs. Pull

If what you offer is perceived as

known and valuable, then customers will PULL

novel and uncertain, then you must PUSH
if all you do is build it, they wont come !

This is just as true for innovation inside your organization, as it is for retail marketing.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 12

The Third Man* on

Innovation
In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly A love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce ?

The cuckoo clock.

* Graham Greene wrote the book and of Innovation, Vienna, January ad-libbed just one line -- this, the most memorable one of the film.13 Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End screenplay. Orson Welles 2008

How to innovate: One Step at a Time

How to change the world:

1. Have a vision of the future.

2. Act like its already true.

3. Repeat.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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How to innovate: One Step at a Time

Pushing a big innovation project can get bogged down in paralysis-by-analysis

...so instead weve been driving hundreds of mid-size initiatives, rapidly implemented.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 15

Case Studies from Pfizer Global Research & Development

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Summary
Since the Idea Farm began in PGRD in early 2006, weve run over a hundred campaigns of all scales and types. Of course they arent all gems but quite a few are ! These case studies highlight the diversity and value achieved in the past two years.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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The Structure of a Campaign:

Diverge, then Converge

This is the basic form of a problem-solving campaign. There are specific tools and advice for each step.

identify the problem & owner

details of challenge & audience

launch

capture ideas

build out ideas

review

conclusions and decisions

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Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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Case Studies by Scale and Type

long-shot technical challenges

social problem-solving
meeting and decision support outside supplier & partner challenges

Continuous Improvement
portfolios & priorities : Speed Dates portfolios & priorities : large challenges project management

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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long shot technical challenges

These are technical challenges sent to thousands of people. Truly useful responses are rare due to the difficulty and scale of the problems; however, payoffs are large.

ADAPTS: Substrate for Phase 3 Starts

Of the 100+ entries, most were detailed and serious ideas for secondary indications. Most did not fit the tight time requirements, but one was accepted and funded.

Formulation and Delivery for Vet Med

Pharm Sci and Discovery scientists offered significant advice and contact info for complex problems in how formulation for humans could be adapted for animals.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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social problem solving

These are social challenges sent to thousands of people. No single idea has great impact, but collectively they support engagement and empowerment, and shape leadership thinking.

Pfizer Communities
Hundreds of colleagues in Connecticut and Rhode Island offered personal recommendations and connections to Michigan colleagues, helping them to decide on relocation offers. Credited as a factor in our 70% acceptance rate.

Shape your Future Workspace

Beginning in Sandwich and then extended to all PGRD, colleagues contributed 345 ideas about space, light, sound, communications to help keep the workspace vibrant as occupancy nears capacity.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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meeting and decision support

Offsite meetings of 100+ leaders are complex and expensive. Secure events can capture ideas and drive decisions during such meetings. They are a vast improvement over flipcharts and sticky notes!

Global Operations Leadership Forum

This team had data-rich, difficult decisions about facility costs to manage. This campaign was coordinated with IMPACT methods for real-time problem solving over 3 days.

Research Management Committee in Boston

Very active flash sessions and speed dates resulted in over 500 ideas on how to refine and implement a new strategy, which were prioritized and presented in real time.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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outside suppliers and partners

Our outside-the-firewall system can be used to share information, collect ideas, route documents, etc., with partners, vendors, academics outside of Pfizer. It is completely secure and separate from our internal Idea Farm.

Scripps Collaboration
A continuous high-traffic campaign routes scientific Scripps-generated documents for specific review by Pfizer scientists, conclusions by the steering committee, with contract-compliant reply to Scripps.

Consulting Collaboration Conference

As prelude to an all-day meeting in New York, partner firms were asked for anonymous, candid feedback on how we could get more value from their services.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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Continuous Improvement
Idea Farm events can support CI in many ways: by open brainstorming for ideas, by front-loading Agile Workshops, by providing review-andconclusion tracking for portfolios of dozens of small improvements, by paving the way for future communications.

CAN Smoothing
Over 200 ideas from all levels of Discovery were substrate for this initiative to smooth out a chronic scheduling problem.

CAN-to-FIH Acceleration
Scientists and managers ideas fed into multiple workshops, and then a two day senior cross-line meeting, resulting in specific decisions that could cut a critical pathway to half the current time.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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portfolios & priorities : Speed Dates

Speed Dates are intense meetings of rotating 5 minute What do you need? What do you have? conversations. A custom campaign is very useful for capturing the players and topics at speed.

New Product Opportunities

A one-day three-stage (speed date, deep date, peer review) meeting in New York resulted in 73 previously undocumented ideas that could enter our product pipeline.

Research Centers of Emphasis Roadshows

The Research CoEs are small, diverse, specialized units offering technical and outsourcing support to all Worldwide Research. In 2 hour sessions, these refined speed date sessions are eliciting many urgent, specific needs from the Therapeutic Areas at the research sites.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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portfolios & priorities : challenges

Large challenges are very useful for identifying and prioritizing tasks or resources in portfolios. Here are two good examples :

Effective Use of Chemistry

We have major synthetic chemistry outsourcing contracts in Asia. Despite all good tracking, there can be delays resulting in idle time. This challenge identified dozens of high value but non-urgent tasks to keep the docket full.

What Belongs in the Computing Toolbox?

After two in-house scientific computing teams reorganized, they cosponsored a single challenge to all Research, to identify and develop needs without regard to line divisions.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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project management
The Idea Farms ability to do situational email alerting and tracking makes it useful in long-duration project management situations.

Ask the Research CoEs

In addition to being the home page for the Research CoEs (with all the usual links and background information), this site solicits and autoroutes requests for information and services.

One Hundred SOPs

With 100 documents to review and track in a complex matrix of people, this campaign uses all of the review-and-conclusion tools to manage comments, changes, and workflow.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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Take Home Lessons

There is no best among these campaigns and types of use. Every one was quick to implement and provided real value to the business. Only in hindsight can we say which campaigns have had the greatest value. Thus the key to success is to be fast, be inexpensive, give the best advice, and dont be too judgemental. The most successful initiatives always used multiple approaches electronic media, face-to-face meetings, workshops, etc. in a coordinated way.

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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references
John Seely Brown & John Hagel III, Push Pull -- The Next Frontier of Innovation, McKinsey Quarterly 2005 no 3, 82-91. John Hagel & John Seely Brown, From Push to Pull - Emerging Models for Mobilizing Resources, working paper, Oct 2005. Gary Pisano, Science Business, 2006, HBR Press Gary Hamel, The Future of Management, 2007 Thomas Friedman, The World is Flat, 2006 Managing Uncertainty, Harvard Business Review Strategy Under Uncertainty, HBR OnPoint reprint Herbert Simon, The Sciences of the Artificial

Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline

Contact information
Dr. Robin W. Spencer Senior Research Fellow Pfizer Global Research & Development Eastern Point Road, Groton, CT 06340 tel 860-441-3946 robin.w.spencer@pfizer.com

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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Questions ?

Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008

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new concepts
not yet incorporated into the flow of the talk, but may fit somewhere !

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Outside Innovation
what
supplies capital equipment hiring alliances mergers &
acquisitions

how much

101

103

106

109 ,$,

We have how often 101 always

Leader

gone outside103 days our 102 organizations for Dept things new VP Team by whom anyone CEO
Head level of relationship
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 32

Outside Innovation
what
supplies capital equipment problemsolvers hiring minialliances alliances mergers &
acquisitions

Whats New
how much how often
101 101
anyone

103 102
Team Leader Dept Head

106

109 ,$, 103 days

VP CEO

by whom

level of relationship
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 33

Outside Innovation
supplies capital equipment problemsolvers
anyone

hiring minialliances
Dept Head

alliances

mergers &
acquisitions

Team Leader

VP

CEO

level of relationship

Working faster and cheaper means empowering people lower in our organizations, and making decisions based more on written details, and less on personal relationships and trust.
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 34

abstract
16:00 Idea Management as an Enabler of the Pull Business Model
When the business environment is known, predictable, controllable, it is appropriate to push resources at problems. However, when the environment uncertain, complex, and not fully controllable, it is better to pull resources to problems in a just-in-time fashion. The difficulties lie in the details of such a rapid, flexible, unstructured approach, and there is little practical advice in the literature of just how to implement pull. Fortunately the processes and tools of Idea Management are ideally suited to this type of problem solving. In the past two years, Pfizer Global Research & Development has run over 100 structured and documented problem-solving challenges, both inside and outside the firewall. Via multiple examples, we will illustrate a number of best worst!) practices, and offer projections for extensions these processes into an even-more fluid future. Dr. Robin W. Spencer, Senior Research Fellow, Idea Management and Innovation, Pfizer Global Research & Development
Robin W. Spencer, Pfizer, Front End of Innovation, Vienna, January 2008 35