Across the BioPharma industry, far more quantitative attention is paid to investments made in the late portfolio than in its early counterpart. The nature of the size of investments aside, why isn’t the same scrutiny applied across the length and breadth of the portfolio? While many of the downsides of not managing the early portfolio effectively are self-evident, a critical question often emerges: How do you manage investments in the late development of an asset when investments in its early development lack transparency and defensibility? This presentation addresses the following topics: When should Portfolio Management begin and why? Are you managing your early portfolio, or is it managing you? Do you have a business case for every early investment and if not, why not? How are constrained resources allocated across the early portfolio? A winning strategy: ensuring there is an effective push-pull mechanism between the early and late portfolio, while minimizing the number of sacred cows that need to be fed.

Decisions are vital to any organization, especially in the VUCA world of drug development where effective decision-making can become a company’s competitive advantage over larger or more resourced rivals. Project and portfolio managers are particularly important to the decision-making process because of their broad perspective of the project and portfolio environment. Thus, the best project and portfolio managers are especially adept at driving an efficient decision-making process. This session will equip project and portfolio managers with three essential tools for decision-making: governance, frameworks, and information. The objectives of this session are to define what is a decision? and when a decision is needed in the project lifecycle?; to propose various types of governance that fit different sizes of organizations; to describe the value of having a clearly defined decision-making framework, and survey the various frameworks that can be deployed in an organization; and to identify the types of information needed to support the type of decision that needs to be made.

Like many business processes, portfolio governance must evolve in a post-COVID world. This presentation will reflect on the challenges and opportunities for standing up a new portfolio governance process within an environment that has the classic constraints of balancing conflicting priorities, budgets, available resources, etc., as well as the new workplace dynamic where key stakeholders and decision-makers are rarely in the same physical place at the same time.

Does the thought of conducting an after-action review trigger cold sweats? Is your organization at the high end of adopting best practices and solving nagging issues? Are you making enough time to document your experiences leading up to triggering a project, during the conduct of the project, or only at the end of a failed project?

• Consequences of prioritizing short-term gains over long-term innovation
• Role of collaboration and partnerships in optimizing resource allocation for R&D activities
• Models and approaches to resource allocation given lengthy development timelines and high failure rates

• Defining specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) CSFs
• Tracking and monitoring CSF and KPIs​

It is common for Program Management to be seen from a narrow lens, especially by senior executives who have had little previous experience with the discipline. This presentation seeks to identify how PMs can contribute in every season (phase!) of drug development, and perhaps to motivate you to think more broadly about who we are and what we offer.

There are many approaches to valuation, from high-level to granular, cheap and cheerful, to rock solid data foundation and many in between.  It is not a 1-size fits all space.  Different organizations have different appetites and needs, which drive what valuation skills are important in an individual organization. In having a view of the landscape of approaches to valuation and the needs and appetites that drive them, you, as a leader of strategy and valuation in your organization can better understand where you are today and why, where you have been in the past and why, as well as what needs and appetites may drive future needs, and what valuation capabilities you may be called on to deliver on those needs.

The presentation discusses strategies for identifying generic entry opportunities at an early stage, discovering opportunities that avoid litigation, using packaging as a competitive edge, and adding value through partnering with brands.

• How do you gain support by getting to the source of the organizations pain (e.g., too many projects / not enough people)?
• Strategies to navigate saying “no” or “not now” to all of the great ideas and proposed projects
• Differences between project management and change management, and how do you integrate them to deliver positive outcomes to the organization
  

• Leveraging data analytics and technology for risk assessment and informed decision-making
• Strategies to foster agility and flexibility in resource and capacity management to accommodate unexpected events and market shifts
• Lessons from managing through the pandemic