The team’s focus on innovation

This company is a global, science-lead biopharmaceutical organisation. They deliver strategic priorities sustainably, while supporting continued scientific innovation and commercial success. Their digital marketing team is, in turn, focused on growth through innovation. That includes being more patient-centric, doing more with technology, and harnessing digital and data.

The sudden need to adapt

The company’s digital marketing team, along with Avado, started a programme called the Digital Leadership Workshop in 2019. When Covid-19 restrictions hit in 2020, we had to quickly transition to a virtual learning environment, as the programme was so necessary to the digital marketing team.

That’s because it:

• Creates a common language for digital
• Allows for the understanding of design thinking principles to ensure they can enhance the patient experience for better health outcomes
• Embeds a test, learn, iterate approach for agile ways of working
• Creates competence in fostering a digital culture
• Brings value to patients, health care practitioners (HCPs) and payers faster through a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

In light of this, we at Avado and the team had to move quickly, restructuring the Workshop for a full virtual delivery.

Working towards digital transformation and a common digital language

The Digital Leadership Workshop Avado was already offering the company was designed to do two things: develop the confidence of business leaders and support their companies’ overall digital  transformations. The Workshop enables leaders to learn from how others approach transformation and define the actions they (and their teams) need to take for their own transformation.

Through careful logistical planning, we were able to move the Workshop from face-to-face delivery to a virtual learning environment. Different pieces of technology, including Zoom’s breakout sessions and SharePoint for workbooks, were all implemented. Mentimenter for polls and Forms for surveys both pre- and post-event to measure the increase in knowledge were also used.

The Digital Leadership Workshop came to life, not for the sake for innovation, but to solve for specific challenges within the organisation. It allowed the company’s digital marketing team to start small, scaling and broadening to bigger audiences using the “Think Big. Start Small. Scale Fast.” mindset to be customer-centric.

Along with the Workshop, the company also has more than 500 graduates from the Google Squared online digital strategic course. That resulted in the support that was needed from senior leaders to ensure they reached their goal of digital transformation. The Digital Leadership Bootcamp supported those graduates who champion digital across the organisation. Now, there’s a common language on every level of marketing at across the company.

A new mindset for the digital marketing team

After shifting to a virtual learning environment, the company’s Net Promoter Scores (NPS) increased. What’s even more important, arguably, is that they did not see the pandemic as a disruption to their learning. Rather, it was a welcome lesson that the use of technology brings teams together and allows for increased knowledge sharing across more teams.

Through the fast virtual learning environment roll out, the digital marketing team has been able to perform with more confidence. It also allowed them to fail fast instead of spending millions testing with small markets then scaling to ensure they are solving the challenge in an equally scalable way. The team was able to gather insights to ensure they were delivering value faster to their patients.

How the new virtual environment impacted the company

Shifting to virtual, the company increased their already outstanding NPS, and they were able to deliver the programme to more than 700 senior leaders. Current work in progress shows that the digital marketing team mantra of “Think Big. Start Small. Scale Fast.” has been embedded throughout the organisation.

More than 170 students participated in the 2020 cohort through the internal digital academy. To date, there have been more than 500 graduates, which includes 350 managers.

More than two thirds of the academy graduates said their learning increased the likelihood of their continuing a career at the company, and a quarter of the managers involved said the programme helped them positively impact the business.

86% of graduates said they were more confident in Digital Trends, 82% were more confident in Programmatic, and 68% were more confident in Display.

Digital Leadership Bootcamp

Digital Academy

Testimonials from the company’s employees

About Avado

At Avado, we believe that true transformation isn’t digital, it’s human. We build professional future skills to help diverse talent access and accelerate careers through award-winning learning experiences that deliver tangible and measurable impact. We upskill people, uplift culture and future-proof organisations in a fast-moving world.

Avado is proud to be a people-transformation partner to some of the largest and most innovative organisations in the UK including: Google, BT, NHS, British Airways, UK Civil Service, Legal & General and AstraZeneca.

To find out more, visit www.avadolearning.com