It’s been a tough time for the Life Sciences (and other) sectors in 2024.  Uncertainty around the future and a slowdown in investment has meant that the sector has stuttered in its growth, and we are in a period of consolidation awaiting (and hoping for) better times.  Organizations are downsizing and the job market is not as buoyant as it was.  The Leading for Change questionnaire* indicates that we are not employing key success factors in leading change like “involve people” and “have a facilitator’ as often as we did three years ago.

Recently, Dianne Lee, Jonathan Betts, Elisabeth Mortimer-Cassen, and Jackie MacRitchie shared their experiences and views on how to manage through tough times and discussed why strategy is important.  How can we effectively manage through tough times?

Word cloud with we change in the middle

  1. Use your strategy as a basis for your short-term decisions. If you make decisions based on the short term, it’s going to be harder when the environment changes to accelerate to your long-term goals. You may even make decisions that are detrimental for long term success.  For example, sometimes we need to invest in revenue generating initiatives so that we can quickly take advantage of changing circumstances rather than reduce.  We may need to refocus and make tough decisions about our product or service lines so that our core business can remain strong.
  2. Focus on the measures that drive the business. Have a balanced scorecard that is strategic and looks at all aspects of your business.  Financial measures like revenue and profitability are lagging indicators, whereas looking at the quality of your delivery, the composition of your offering and the number of customer touchpoints together with people development measures can indicate your future financial success.
  3. Identify if you were distracted during times of growth. In good times we often focus on growth for its own sake.  This can lead to activities that are not core to the strategy for the long term.  Take a hard look at the growth that has happened and examine if this is core to your business.  This may be an opportunity to cut back without harming your main business
  4. Actively monitor your environment. Look for triggers that you need to respond to. Engage the organization in a balanced way  in doing this.  What is keeping everyone up at night?  What is getting everyone up in the morning?
  5. Choose how to change. In growth phases you can engage people easily, however there is more sensitivity when you are downsizing. An approach that involves open and honest communication of the reasons for change and describing the principles that are being adopted are key components.  Most critical is listening to emotional reactions so that people still feel like their voice is being heard. As we shared in a previous post people managers capability to do this is important.
  6. Consider where you are cutting back. Typically, external spend is one of the first areas to be looked at. Permanent employees are protected vs contract staff or consultants.  This is often both appropriate and challenging. For example, if you need to make change on a one-off basis then a neutral external resource may be critical.
  7. Look at where people are spending their time. Is this aligned with your day to day needs and your future strategy?  Consider the value of timesheets.  A post on this is coming next!

*The Leading for Change questionnaire complements my book “Leading for Change – how to thrive during uncertain times” People in my network have been using it since 2021 to reflect on which success factors they use to increase their chances of leading change effectively.