Lifecycle Management – pharma specific?
I have been lucky enough to have some great discussions with some fantastic people in the USA and UK over the past couple of weeks.
One of my pet topics is the way that the concepts of lifecycle management (derived from pharma) can be applied to just about any technology or industry.
I think it can, and the creativity you need to bend the rules to apply it in new contexts only increases the value of the resulting strategy.
What do you think?
5 Comments on “Lifecycle Management – pharma specific?”
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Duncan;
You are right – product life-cycle management is applicable to any market, and so to any product/technology. Indeed, rather than originating with Pharma, it has its origins in consumer goods, the sector generally jargonised as “FMCG” (fast moving consumer goods). I was taught the principles as a freckly student in my university Marketing 101 course in 1972, and it was an old discipline even then.
Further to earlier posting Wikipedia has an excellent summary of product lifecycle management at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_Lifecycle_Management
AJM
Allan – thanks for joining the conversation.
That’s really interesting. Have you noticed a change in the emphasis on the intellectual property aspects of lifecycle management since 1972?
Thanks for the great link to the Wikipedia entry.
>>Have you noticed a change in the emphasis on the intellectual property aspects of lifecycle management since 1972?<<
I must be honest and say that as a student in 1972 I had no idea what IP was! Sadly times don’t change and in my opinion students are still under-taught on the nature and value of IP tools to deliver commercial goals.
To guess at the answer to your question, I surmise that since 1972 there has been a dawning awareness that IP is a business tool rather than the domain of the legal department. Further, I think that good performers today recognise that IP tools do not exist in isolation of each other in best-practice management, with the really astute business person realising that a truly effective IP play will associate the elements of trademark/brand, patent, trade secrecy, copyright etc, to an integrated proprietary market positioning. Propertly executed the ultimate goal is to transfer all the vallue these tools capture into the brand, where it is captured in perpetuity.
Other impressions?
AJM (MAINly Consulting, NZ)
Thanks Alan – I really agree with you that a lot has changed. I would put it so high as to say that I think there’s been an enormous revolution in the role of IP in business since 1972. Most of this has occurred in the last 10 or even 5 years.As for the role of IP in lifecycle management – there’s clearly been a comensurate change here too.When referring to lifecycle management, I’m also referring to the many many things that can be done as part of the overall strategy. This obviously goes well beyond marketing, and even IP, to include regulatory strategy (even outside pharma), corporate acquisitions, licensing programs, finance, litigation strategy, other exclusivities, etc