siliconindia | | July - August 20178The more things change, the more they remain the same. You could arguably apply this theory to the life sciences industry, whose core problems have remained pretty much the same over the last decade.For those in low growth mode, containing costs­both fixed and variable­remains the principal challenge, not to mention boosting productivity across various dimensions of the value chain. Companies expanding at a moderate pace, meanwhile, are grappling with the issue of reducing cycle time for clinical trials, apart from enhancing sales force efficiency. And, the rapidly growing pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms keep focusing on competitive pricing, market access, shorter time to market for increased business agility, and superior customer centricity.Time for rethinkI firmly believe we, as an industry, have got to fundamentally rethink our approach to solve these deep-rooted problems. For long, companies across the spectrum have relied on human expert-driven, technical templates for addressing key bottlenecks across the growth cycle.The imperative in today's digital era, where end user experience is emerging as a core driver of business value proposition across industries, is to embrace creative thinking.Discover, design, and deliverLike the "three arrows" that underpin the ongoing "Abenomics" economic reforms in Japan, the new creative thinking paradigm for life sciences should have three core elements­discover, design, and deliver.First, discover problems by placing different types of persona at the front and the center. Second, configure solutions using design thinking and other creative ways of problem resolution. And finally, develop turnkey technology platforms that facilitate increased employee productivity through enhanced user experience. Let me elaborate.Personas matterMany of you have traditionally designed your value chains around business processes, to maximize efficiency and throughput, as well as to increase responsiveness. However, that approach has not quite delivered when it comes to identifying the root cause of some of the persisting problems.By Abhishek Shankar, Vice President, Industry Head Life Sciences Americas, HCL TechnologiesPERSONA-BASED VALUE CHAINS AND DESIGN THINKING TO HELP SOLVE HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY PROBLEMSIn My OpinionAbhishek Shankar
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