Introduction
They say that the only thing that is constant in this planet is change. This old phrase can indeed be true in a lot of ways. It can also be applied not only in life but also in the process of managing a business. To innovate is to embrace change and improvement.
Innovation refers to any process that may lead to better solutions to problems, higher efficiency and effectiveness in doing work, higher productivity, and in general, increased capability to meet and fulfill the market needs. Any business has the right and the ability to innovate. Innovation can be done by offering new and more effective processes, products, services, ideas, and technologies.
Businesses who often strive for innovation can either choose one of the things that we have mentioned from the existing ones in the industry and apply it to the company, create a new one from scratch through a steady process of research and development as well as trial and error, or do both. “An innovation is something original, new, and important in whatever field, that breaks in to or obtains a foothold in a market or society” .
Research suggest that companies and or businesses who fail, either intentionally or non-intentionally, to embrace change and hop in to the innovation bandwagon are bound to suffer from a steep decline in performance and profitability as market preferences and consumer tastes have always been proven to change from time to time, which when left unmitigated, may even lead to bankruptcy . While one of the major reasons why for profit organizations continuously devote themselves to making innovations is to realize bigger profits, innovation may also be motivated by a desire to bring together a collection of various novel and brilliant ideas in order to come up with a product, a service, or basically anything that may have an impact on society .
Nonetheless, it has been proven countless of times in various literatures that continuous innovation is an essential mechanism in securing high levels of business performance and profitability . The objective of this paper is to discuss the different innovative aspects of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation by means of randomly selecting five regular employees from the company and having them answer a questionnaire containing a series of questions, all of which are aimed at determining the employees’ collective perception on the company’s innovative qualities.
Company Background, Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation
The organization that will be the focus of the evaluation and discussion in this paper would be the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation. The Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation is a Fortune 500 company (it got the 114th place in the 2009 deliberations) that has been established in 1989 following the official and successful merger of its parent companies, Bristol Myers and Squibb Corporations. Both parent companies have been in the industry for more than a hundred years already and are continuing to make a name. The merger that happened in 1989 was actually a part of these two companies’ plan to make a dominant and renowned name in the pharmaceutical industry.
The result of the merger was the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation. It currently has its headquarters in Park Avenue New York City, United States. It mainly operates in the pharmaceutical industry as a drug manufacturer. It has also ventured into the biotechnological industry, also as a manufacturer of biotechnological and biochemical products. However, in the company’s most recent press releases and briefings, it has shown its intention to focus more of its time and resources in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly in researching and developing more and more drugs that doctors may prescribe for patients who have been diagnosed with serious medical disorders, often life-threatening ones, and in the manufacture and distribution of those drugs.
Currently, it manufacturers prescription pharmaceutical products for the treatment of cancer, HIV, AIDS, diabetes mellitus and other metabolic diseases, hepatitis, cardiovascular diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and even psychiatric disorders. The company’s mission is “to discover, develop, and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases” .
The company commits to its patients, employees, customers, shareholders, the global communities and to the environment, “to act on our belief that the priceless ingredient of every product is the integrity of its maker; we operate with effective governance and high standards of ethical behavior; we seek transparency and dialogue without stakeholders to improve our understanding of their needs; we take our commitment to economic, social, and environmental sustainability seriously, and extend this expectation to our partners and suppliers”. Based on their mission and vision statements, it can be assumed that all known stakeholders of this pharmaceutical manufacturer and distributing company can consider it to be a complete package, both in terms of being an innovative, environment friendly, and profitable one.
The company’s mission that it proudly professes says it all, even the purpose of its existence. Based on the company mission, it can be argued that one of the main, if not the main, purpose of its existence is to help the people prevail over serious diseases such as the ones we have given as examples above.
BMS’ use of Innovation in Obtaining Competitive Advantage
In terms of business strategies, it certainly appears that this company takes innovation, particularly the research and development aspect of its business, as well as all of its other commitments, very seriously. It certainly looks so as this company has received a lot of awards and has been a part of numerous programs that show how innovative it is and how proactive it is when it comes to fulfilling its commitments. Around the world, it has helped a lot of people with serious diseases have a better quality of life by developing medicines and other bio-pharmaceutical products that all aim to increase patient outcomes. They focus their innovations on the needs of their customers. Its core business strategies include an accelerated pipeline development, continuous delivery of growth and innovation, and continuous search for ways to manage and not necessarily cut costs without compromising the quality.
As evidence to its successful commitment to research and development and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, the company proudly declares that it has been able to successfully develop at least 14 new drugs that are guaranteed safe for public consumption. Unlike in other industries (e.g. computer, mobile computing, and etc.) that rely on research and development and innovation to grow and be more profitable, innovation in the pharmaceutical industry can take a significantly longer process. This is because drugs that are being developed often have to undergo a series of tests and studies to ensure that once released, they would not cause any harm to the people who would consume them.
One of the most popular strategies in the industry that is actually unique to the Bristol Myers Squibb is the String of Pearls Strategy. The aim of the String of Pearls Strategy is to improve the development and discovery of new product and therapy options by enhancing the company’s internal capabilities which it plans to do by engaging in more strategic and innovative partnerships, acquisitions, and joint ventures and partnerships with relevant companies, regardless of their size. The ideal end result of this strategy would be an environment where patients with serious medical diseases could choose from a series of options on how they can meet their medical needs.
In 1999, United States president Bill Clinton gave the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation the National Medal of Technology, one of the highest leveled special awards that the nation gives to companies in recognition for their technological achievements, “for extending and enhancing human life through innovative pharmaceutical research and development and for redefining the science of clinical study through groundbreaking and hugely complex clinical trials that are recognized models in the industry” .
The company reports that as a result of their String of Pearls strategy, they have been able to form strategic alliances and partnerships with numerous third parties, majority of which are companies operating in the same industry, the pharmaceutical industry, which allegedly led to pipeline expansions and productivity expansions, which according to the company would greatly benefit their end-users, their customers and patients. The company went as far as quantifying the outcomes of their String of Pearls strategy. According to their analysis, the implementation of the String of Pearls strategy led to some 40 percent expansion of pipelines and some 50 percent revenue increase.
Elements to Measure in the Survey
In order to accurately get a qualitative description of how the target company, which in this case is the Bristol Myers Squibb, values and makes effort in product and or service innovation, it would be important to have a clearly defined set of elements to be measured. The author of this paper will attempt to evaluate such value and commitment by preparing a survey questionnaire that contains questions targeting the core components that this paper is trying to get a picture of. The resulting survey questionnaire will then be given to at least five persons who have to be full time employees of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation.
The core elements that will be assessed are as follows:
- The impact or impacts that the management is trying to create, whether long term or short term
- Whether the management continues to strive and make efforts to research for and develop new products
- Whether the management has a high or low level of tolerance to risks that may be associated with investing in research and development, and innovation.
- Whether the management has an open attitude regarding external alliances, partnerships, and acquisitions.
- Whether the management encourages the people to support and be devoted to the development of the corporation
- Whether there are a lot of resources available for new ventures
- Whether innovation budget is on similar levels, greater, or lower than that of the competition
- Whether the management has successfully balanced its choices between global and local priorities
- Whether the management has a clear vision of the role and focus of innovation in achieving its objectives
- Whether past project failures are systematically reviewed, analyzed, and rationalized for future lessons and applications.
- Whether high value ideas are plentiful
- Whether the management sets reasonable amounts of resources for new projects
The evaluation and discussion with the five Bristol Myers employees focused on their answers in these twelve questions. The answer to the questionnaire will be graded using a five point scale with five being the highest (which means the answerer affirms the statement inside the question), one being the lowest (which means that the answerer does not affirm the statement inside the question) and three being the answer for people who are undecided about their answers for a particular question.
The table below shows the summary of the responses that the researchers have got from the participants’ responses to the 12 question.
Participants
This study made use of a total of five respondents. These five respondents were carefully but conveniently selected by the authors of this study based on a strict set of inclusion criteria. Firstly, all respondents must be a bonafide, fulltime, and regular employee of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation, regardless of which department. Secondly, all respondents must voluntarily participate in the study as evidenced by their signature on the informed consent forms that they will have to sign prior to being oriented about the procedures they would have to undergo in the study. Each participant would undergo a series of one on one interview and group discussion sessions. The goal of such interview and discussion sessions is to determine, qualitatively, their overall perceptions about the innovative qualities of the company, more specifically, its commitment to the implementation of an innovative culture. Aside from the interview and group discussions, the respondents would also be required to answer a short questionnaire containing 12 questions aimed at analyzing, quantitatively, the employees’ perceptions on the innovative qualities of the company and its commitment to the implementation of an innovative culture. The questionnaire is answered using a five point scale.
Analysis and Evaluation of Results
Based on the table above, it can be asserted that the employees from the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation have a more positive than negative perception on their company’s commitment to innovation. This can mean two things. Firstly, it can mean that the company has indeed a strong and serious commitment to research and development and innovation as evidenced by the perception of its own employees. Secondly, it can mean that the company is indeed doing what it says it is doing in press releases and briefings, which is actually a good sign because it will be able to garner the trust of its customers, patients, investors, and other shareholders. Majority of the five respondents selected to be a part of the innovation commitment study scored five in most of the questions.
It can be noticed that all the statements in the questions were positive traits of a highly innovative company. A score of five coming from one, or best from all five persons, would only mean that all the respondents agree that the particular element being assessed in the question is embodied in or exhibited by the company, at least as far as they know. Notice that in question number 11, one of the five participants said that he is unsure whether high value ideas are plentiful in the company, as evidenced by him or her putting a score of three in the five point scale.
Only three people scored a perfect score of five and one scored a non-perfect score but still a positive score of four in that question. This is so far the only slightly problematic area that the authors of this paper think can affect the innovative qualities of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation at least based in the conducted evaluation. Also, it is worth mentioning that the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation did not get a perfect score and frequency of five in all questions. In general however, the respondents’ response to all the positive question was more positive than negative, except again for question number 10 wherein one of the five respondents scored 3 which meant that he was undecided whether the positive quality stated in the question indeed applies to the innovative practices and or qualities being done and present, respectively, in the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Based on the analysis of the results and findings gathered from all five respondents, whose reliability cannot be questioned because they are bonafide, fulltime, and regular employees of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation, we concluded that the innovative culture of the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation is not perfectly positive but rather more positive than negative, as evidenced by the employees perception on its commitment to research and development and innovation. These variables were assessed using the twelve core elements described earlier.
One particular issue that the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation may want to address is the number or the presence of high quality ideas in the organization because one out of the five respondents’ answer (3/5) suggested that he or she was uncertain whether the positive innovative quality stated in the 11th question indeed applies to the innovative culture that the company has. In that same question, one respondent gave the company a score of four while only three gave it a score of five for that category. Despite the variation in answers in some of the questions, the overall respondents’ perception on the innovative culture inside the Bristol Myers Squibb Corporation can still be seen as more positive as negative. This means that it is not yet in a perfect state and that making improvements and enhancements far greater than what its current strategy, the String of Pearls strategy can do, may still be possible. The authors of this research on the other hand recommend that future researchers conduct a larger scale study using the same methodology and design involving a larger population of participants.
References
Bristol Myers Squibb. (2014). Our Mission. Bristol Myers Squibb Corporate Website.
D'Angour, D. (2013). The Greeks snd the New. Cambridge University Press.
Drinkard, J. (2005). Donors get good seats, great access this week. USA Today, 01.
Frankelius, B. (2009). Questioning two myths in innovation literature. Journal of High Technology Management Reseaerch, 40-51.
Heyne, P., Boettke, P., & Prychitko, D. (2010). The Economic Way of Thinking. Prentice Hall, 317.
Tuomi, I. (2002). Networks of Innovation. Oxford University Press.
