Viatris is a leading global pharmaceutical company headquartered in the US and currently operating in 145 countries. They have experienced dramatic growth over recent years, enhanced by a number of acquisitions.
Viatris
Global Sales Manager Bootcamp
Challenges
- Responsiveness to constantly changing market conditions
- Sales Managers requiring behavioural development as a key population in driving change forward
- Immersive and engaging virtual development experience that would get people talking
Outcomes
- Group-level insights into strengths and weaknesses among the Sales Manager population on a global scale
- Positive candidate experience and reflections on performance
- Significant observed behavioural change after a development initiative
Project background
Sales Managers are extremely important to Viatris’s success around the world. They have far-reaching responsibilities, which include steep individual targets as well as being accountable for the Sales Reps they manage.
To ensure that this critical population reach their full potential, Viatris initially partnered with us in 2015 to scope out an ‘assessment for development’ process. The aim was to establish the current bench strength of Sales Managers across the globe. This formed the initial stage of their year-long Sales Manager development programme.
It was clear from the beginning that Viatris had high expectations of their Sales Managers. They required an intense and challenging experience that pushed them outside of their comfort zone while ensuring relevance and realism, as well as a fully immersive experience.
Of paramount importance to Viatris was ensuring that Sales Managers left the experience with the beginnings of a detailed development plan that would be further enhanced and then addressed during the development programme that followed.
Solution
A number of bespoke simulations were designed to form a set of day-in-the-life materials. All scenarios were designed to measure Viatris’s leadership behaviours. They were based in the pharmaceutical industry, utilising real-life Viatris products and market data. Parallel versions were designed to cover differing business units where adaptations were made to localise content to ensure appropriateness in each country.
This event, known as the ‘Sales Manager Bootcamp’ utilises our online business simulation technology, VirtualAC™. By using this platform, we could design methods to introduce information via various formats, such as emails, video messages, voicemails, calendar items, documents and organisation charts.
The output for individuals, following bootcamp attendance, was a rich and comprehensive feedback report. They also received a follow-up training event where each of the bootcamp simulations were unpicked and explored, in a safe, facilitated group environment.
Viatris has experienced dramatic growth over recent years, and our Sales Managers need to be responsive and adaptable to our ever-changing environment. Using Talogy’s VirtualAC™, we were able to put each candidate through an immersive and intense day-long behavioural simulation to aid their ongoing development planning.
Results
As of the end of 2017, the bootcamp experience had been rolled out to seven markets across three different continents. With 84 Sales Managers globally having participated in the bootcamp process so far, we’ve gathered important trend data concerning key areas of strength and key skills gaps / opportunities. These organisational insights have been used to inform development activities beyond the bootcamp experience at each local market, and are being used by Viatris’s Global Sales Training teams to inform strategy.
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