Organisational Processes in Watson Pharmaceuticals - Case Study Example

Critical Thinking - Decisions in Paradise Part 1 1. Introduction This is decision-making assignment regarding organisational processes in Watson pharmaceuticals situated in a coastal country south pacific. The country is suffering with tsunamis, volcanoes, earthquakes, HIV/Aids etc. The company founder Chris Morales insist on morale that finally ends with economic consequences. Nik found that everything was in a mess due to a disaster in that country. The problem that can be considered by a pharmaceutical company is the medicines that can treat viral infections and diseases that are caused due to bacteria. These diseases will be caused in an atmosphere of a mess that was created due to a natural disaster. To develop those drugs the company requires some organisational processes to be completed. In completing the organisational processes the company has to taken into consideration that the 50 percent of the population is less than 15 years of age. As there are number of languages and religions, English can be used as the language that can be printed on the products of the company. 2. Organisational processes Watson pharmaceutical company has to work in multi project and multi product environment. The company has to decide the projects that have potential strong value proposition. The company has to establish different business units and should allot investments for each unit. This requires an efficient and clear portfolio management. That should meet the challenges in operations of multi project/product environment. After the portfolio management Nik can develop strategic management report that provides expert analysis on budget and resource allocation. This should affect the decision making and can enable Nik to convert the product portfolios into highly profitable revenue streams. This result requires increased spending for R&D. The productivity levels should not fall.1 Portfolio Management: The company has to decide the multi products it has to produce and the projects required for it. As the Kava region contains 50 percent of the population as children, the company should concentrate on the products that address the children‘s diseases. The majority part of the portfolio allocation must be regarding the products that cure diseases in children. As the major population is children, the need of developing vaccines for the tropical diseases in children can be a wiser decision. The amount that can be allocated for the products that treat children can be 40 percent. The reasons is that slowly in every area, the as the time goes on, the average age increases up to some extent. At that juncture the company has to divest its investments towards other products if it is concentrating more on the present need. So instead of 50 percent allocation (though the children population is 50 percent), it is better to allocate 40 percent of portfolio on products treating children and for vaccines they need. After that the company can allocate major amount to develop the products that treat viral fevers. As the Kava region is coastal area and more people eat frequently the sea food, they are vulnerable to viral fevers. Not only due to this reason, frequent natural disasters spoil the cleanliness in the atmosphere and this may lead to the problems like diarrhoea and cholera. The company has to give 2nd preference to allocate portfolio to produce the products that viral fevers, diarrhoea and cholera. Without the health there will be no paradise. The first step in making a paradise is a healthy atmosphere. The next major allocation is to produce retroviral drugs to treat HIV patients. The allocation can be as follows Forty percent of the portfolio and infrastructure can be allocated to produce products that treat children diseases, vaccines and tropical diseases. The list of the tropical diseases that are prevalent in the Kava region must be noted and the R&D and production design can be made in that manner. The thirty percent of the portfolio and investment can be allocated to products that cure viral fevers, diarrhoea, cholera and malaria type diseases. The third allocation may be concentrated on the retroviral drugs that treat or help the HIV/Aids patients to coop up with life. Without addressing this problem the paradise business scenario cannot be achieved. The allocations can be at 20 percent. The remaining 10 percent portfolio and infrastructure can be concentrated for training and welfare of the parents. Part II The potential in growth for Watson pharmaceutical company in the present environment can be understood by economic and product development challenges that are to be faced. One technique or a tool that can be used is the knowledge management. The decisions that are to be taken should be taken faster. As a result systematic Knowledge management approach is necessary to make better decisions quickly. The approach through knowledge management needs R&D’s alignment. The corporate strategic initiatives and improved decision making processes with leveraging of intellectual capital is needed. 2 As Alex is stressing on the fact that the happenings in Kava will effect life in US also, the way they affect the life in US must be explored by Nik. First of all, the development of infrastructure for a pharmaceutical company in a region like Kava needs man power and money. As forty percent of the allocation should be on children related diseases along with vaccines and tropical diseases, the recruitment must be regarding them. The topics that are to be deal with are the IT investments, improving physician outreach, complex managed care approval, sales and marketing efforts. For this purpose there is a need to collect the details of physicians and druggists in the region. The marketing staff must be able to reach them while marketing the products. The IT portfolio can help in establishing the contact between the manufacturing and R&D department and in turn with the marketing department. This communication approach between the three departments will make easy to decide the products to be sent out. The quantity and the nature of the products that are to be manufactured can be decided by the communication between the above mentioned departments. The marketing department must give inputs about the products that are having demand in the market. For this purpose, though Alex have an idea about the Kava region, a separate department that undertakes survey and marketing can be instilled under him. This will give him the information required to take decision about R&D and product portfolio. The IT portfolio need not be considered separately. As the allocation of the financial portfolio was mentioned in part I, that includes all the other infrastructures needed for that product. So, the investment needed for instilling the marketing and survey department and IT infrastructure must be drawn from the portfolio allotment mentioned in part I. As Alex noticed the terrorism also as one of the events that happen in Kava, the company can take a favourable decision about recruiting the local people. This reduces the unemployment and in turn can check terrorism if reasonable development happens due to the presence of the company. The IT infrastructure must make use of Internet tools to keep contact with physicians and druggists to know the effect of the products on the patients. The input from them can be useful in manufacturing and marketing processes. This can be made possible if the marketing department further divided into survey and marketing wings. The survey wing of the department can take inputs from physicians and druggists through online and by personal contacts and the marketing department can act as a mediator between the company and the customer. The process of delivering the goods making the physicians and druggists aware about the company’s products can be undertaken by marketing wing of the department. In the region like Kava, the biomedicine usage can be explored. The introduction of biomedicine may attract physicians and druggists to be interested to do business with the company. To make research and development regarding the development of biomedicine needs a separate wing. This is because the biomedicine cannot be introduced as an opening product. The introductory products must be as mentioned above and a reasonable R&D on the biomedicine needed by the area can result in producing biomedicine in the near future. The manufacture of biomedicine as soon as possible can fill up the ethics part in the role of the company. As the bio medicine is said to have less side or negative effects on the users, the production and marketing will be useful for a new company and for the people in the region like Kava. Part III Factors affecting decision implementation The decisions taken regarding the development of Watson Pharmaceuticals to make the firm and the area it located a paradise were mentioned in above parts. It was decided to establish Research and development, production, IT, Survey and Marketing departments. To monitor all these departments Human resource department is required. This will work on the factors that affect the decision implementation negatively. The factor that the childhood vaccines have had their negative impacts in US, the company can take care about this factor. The experience of various companies in US can be taken into consideration to avoid negative affects of the vaccines as it is decided to concentrate more on child health. For this purpose regulatory burden, high costs due to the delay in returns, higher costs of newer technologies should be taken into consideration. To avoid this factor that affects the decision implementation, the company must concentrate on new technologies to advance their ability to create quality vaccines. The reason is that the stable vaccines are essential for meeting current and future public health immunization goals. This requires more attention in Kava as the public health is at stake due to frequent natural disasters. After assuring the production of quality vaccines that cause no or minimum effects, the company can concentrate on assurance of supply of those vaccines with out scarcity. Generally the vaccines, which are good in working, will be scarce in the regions like Kava. 3 The perceptions and views of physicians, druggists and other medical practitioners must be taken into consideration to avoid negative affects of the products. Resources and actions required for decision implementation It can be recommended that a plan regarding above measures can be carried through public consultations. The participation of all actors, particularly from both pharma and technical sectors is required. The participation of the education sector can be termed as required to make the children vaccinated in time. The company should have a policy regarding the products manufacturing and marketing. The policy must avail the exemptions and soft loans facilities extended by the government. This will help to eliminate any financial hindrances in the course of work. While taking into consideration the needs of the people of Kava, the policies of the local administration also should be considered while implementing the decisions of the company. The planning and the decisions of the company must also consider the policies of the local administration to make them selves comfortable in pharmaceutical business in the region. The company should constitute and follow some good manufacturing practices that are framed according to the ethics of the company and the policies of the government. If the policies of the government are not viable for a pharmaceutical company to implement its ethical practices, there should be an arrangement in the company in the form of PR department to lobby for the change in policies to favour the company’s ethics. 4 Ethical implications from stakeholders’ perspectives According to the Alex’s brief to Nik, HIV/Aids is one of the problems prevalent in Kava. The tackling of Aids and HIV by policymakers, pharmaceutical companies and other stake holders is a very complex one. The pharmaceutical company must make it a part of the policy in manufacturing the products. As there is no vaccine in place, the production of retroviral drugs must be a part of the policy of the company. Beyond the present understanding the further research in this field must make stakeholders and policymakers to be part of the practices that are constituted by ethical attitudes of the company. The company should allot funds for the research regarding the vaccine for the Aids and HIV. The reason for the emphasis is till now the majority pharmaceutical companies did not concentrate the research on Aids vaccine as some small companies did not earn more than 1.6 percent of their revenues from vaccines. So generally the companies do not prefer to concentrate on Aids vaccine. As Watson pharmaceuticals is concentrating on vaccines also, it can allot enough funds for research on Aids vaccine as part of ethical practices of company and stake holders. It is estimated that global Aids fund requires between $10 to $15 bn to fight against it. So to be a part of it, the company can concentrate to partner the aids research on vaccine with other international organisations. This is possible by allotting funds and it can pay in future, when the vaccine comes out for it and then the company will be a part of the network that markets the vaccine globally. Read More