Interactive Breakouts

Interactive Breakout Discussions

Concurrent breakout discussion groups are interactive, guided discussions hosted by a facilitator or set of co-facilitators to discuss some of the key issues presented earlier in the day’s sessions. Delegates will join a table of interest and become an active part of the discussion at hand. To get the most out of this interactive session and format please come prepared to share examples from your work, vet some ideas with your peers, be a part of group interrogation and problem solving, and, most importantly, participate in active idea sharing.

The Breakout Discussion session will be run two times, on Monday afternoon just before the reception and Tuesday afternoon at the end of the day.

TABLE 1: Making Decisions in the Presence of Growing Information and Complexity

Moderators:
Gill Eapen, Managing Director, Predictive Economics, Stout Risius Ross (SRR)
Elayne Ko, Director, Portfolio & Decision Analysis, Pfizer
Charles Dormer, Principal, APEX STP

• How does “gut feel” decisions fare in the modern world, dominated by exponentially growing information?
• How could information technology and analytics help make better and faster decisions?
• How does one measure decision quality? How do decisions relate to Value and Risk?

TABLE 2: What Are Some Best Practices Around Using (Imperfect) Planning Assumptions and Presenting the Assumptions Used in Our Analyses?

Moderators:
Josh Kaminetz, Director, Resource Management, Global Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Safety, Merck & Co.
Keith Gardner, Senior Director, Decision Science, AstraZeneca
Sultan Aziz, Senior Director, Product Supply Strategy Deployment, Johnson & Johnson

• What happens when we don’t have all of the inputs required to conduct a thorough analysis?
• How do we use assumptions cascaded to us that we believe to be inaccurate? How many scenarios should be conducted/presented to bracket the uncertainty of the inputs?
• How do we fairly present the (in)accuracies of our analyses while maintaining confidence that the analysis itself is valuable? How do we keep the caveats (footnotes, assumptions, etc.) from clouding the key messages?

TABLE 3: How to Leverage the PMO To Best Enable Project/Portfolio Delivery

Moderators:
Amy Hargis Peltz, Senior Director, Pharmaceutical Project Management, Medicines Development Unit, Eli Lilly and Company
Jared Fantasia, Head, Global NPD Portfolio Operations, Johnson & Johnson
Pik Leng Wong, Director, Biologics Project Management Office (PMO), Sanofi Genzyme

• Why is there such variability in how pharma companies leverage Project Management Offices (PMOs)?
• What are some ways we, in various organization, leverage our PMO? Where do we fail and where do we succeed?
• What are some key insights we can consider for our own PMO?

TABLE 4: Portfolio Management Process Implementation: Success Factors

Moderators:
Richard Bayney, Ph.D., President & Founder, Project & Portfolio Value Creation (PPVC)
Matthew Pazdernik, Director, Submission Planning and Portfolio Management Lead, Regulatory Affairs, Merck & Co
Greg Bayer, Head of Strategy & Operations, R&D Business Insights & Analytics, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Heather Gaylord, Associate Director & Lead, Program and Change Management, Shire  

• What are the key success factors in implementing Portfolio Management Processes and ensuring sustainability?
• Who are the key personal that contribute to the success in implementing Portfolio Management Processes and ensuring sustainability?
• How do you identify and engage stakeholders?

TABLE 5: Portfolio Management within TA’s and Across the Pan-Company Portfolio

Moderators:
Nathan Lewis, Sr. Advisor, LRL Project Management, Eli Lilly and Company
Ian Popoff, Senior Director, Strategic Portfolio Management, Pfizer
Yong (Sean) Xue, Ph.D., CFA, Director, Portfolio Management, Takeda Pharmaceuticals

• How do companies do portfolio management within TA’s and across the pan-company portfolio?
• What systems and metrics are they using to enable the portfolio management?
• Do other companies define core TA areas and manage to this or do they remain opportunistic?
• Concentration of TA?

TABLE 6: How Do You Achieve Workforce Agility in a Large R&D Organization?

Moderators:
Delfi Krishna, Ph.D., Director of Operations, Planning and Strategy, Cell and Gene Therapy Platform, GlaxoSmithKline
Jo James, Associate Director, Resource & Performance Management, R&D Business Operations, Biogen

• What is workforce agility?
• Why is it important and how do you drive it?
• What are some concrete actions that can be taken to achieve workforce agility?

TABLE 7: Developing and Leveraging Integrated Analytics for R&D

Moderators:
Steve Galatis, Director, Strategic Options and Assessment, Specialty, Bristol-Myers Squibb
Sam Mathew, MBA, R&D Analytics Leader, Project Portfolio Management, Janssen, Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson
Kathrin Schoenborn-Sobolewski, Ph.D., Vice President, Integrated Planning, Analytics & Partnering, Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany
Richard Sonnenblick, Ph.D., CEO; Dan Smith, Vice President, Enrich Consulting

• How are companies advancing analytics to boost R&D productivity?
• Where are the greatest opportunities inside of biopharmaceutical organizations for business operations optimization and improved decision making?
• What are pragmatic examples of implementation of predictive and prescriptive modeling analytics for risk management, forecast error, portfolio simulation & modeling?
• What are challenges and lessons learned for a successful adoption in an organization?