In the ever-evolving landscape of biopharma and biotech, competitive intelligence (CI) plays a crucial role in driving strategic decisions and maintaining a competitive edge. At the recent Pharma CI conference in Newark, I had the pleasure of presenting to an audience of CI leaders to discuss ways of optimising the strategic value of cross-functional CI.

Competitive intelligence can be a tough discipline to pin down in terms of scope. Depending on the size of the organisation, the make-up of its pipeline and myriad other factors, the demands on CI professionals can be quite varied. CI leaders support a multitude of cross-functional intelligence needs, striving to balance comprehensive coverage with brand goals and budget constraints.

That said, there a few common challenges that I highlighted in my presentation and which may sound all too familiar:

1. Diverse Stakeholder Needs: Juggling requests from various stakeholders, each with unique priorities and timelines is very common. This requires a flexible approach to ensure timely and relevant information delivery.
2. Dynamic Market Landscapes: The biopharma market is constantly changing, with new competitors and shifting priorities. CI programmes must be adaptable to stay relevant and provide actionable insights.
3. Balancing Priorities and Budgets: CI leaders must navigate changing priorities and budget constraints, ensuring that resources are allocated effectively to support strategic goals.

Overcoming these challenges is never straightforward and approaches will vary depending on the specific company culture, but there are a few best practices that I believe give CI teams the opportunity to optimise the strategic value of CI across the business. The key thing to remember here is that CI teams should continuously strive to align (and re-align) research and workflows to optimally target the underlying business needs.

1. Engage cross-functional stakeholders: Regularly involve stakeholders from different functions to ensure CI outputs align with strategic priorities. Small group discussions can help gather valuable feedback and foster collaboration.
2. Avoid static programme design: Continuously evolve CI programmes to reflect the dynamic nature of the market. This includes updating reports, adjusting the frequency of updates, and reprioritising competitors based on current market conditions.
3. Proactive communication: Maintain frequent and proactive communication with stakeholders to ensure CI efforts are aligned with their needs. This helps in demonstrating the value of CI and securing necessary resources.

Much of the above can be summarised as enhancing strategic focus. It’s easy for CI teams to be pulled in multiple directions at once by different stakeholders, all vying for their demands to be met. A strategic CI team must deliver the business value that the wider organisation demands. This means identifying the business need, developing a holistic approach, and implementing iterative refinements based on feedback and changes to market conditions.

This is just a snippet of what I discussed at Pharma CI. If you weren’t at the event, the good news is that I shared more detail about how to implement these best practices in our recent webinar which you can access on demand here.