Medical Marketing Recruitment� Inbreeding not Hybrid Vigour? Jon Bown

Marketing as a philosophy and crucial function within commercial organisations was born in the 60�s, with classical consumer companies including Kellog�s, Proctor and Gamble, Unilever, and other leading consumer goods companies, who foresaw the importance of customer understanding, brand image and awareness as the crucial tool in developing and communicating their product and service benefits both nationally and internationally.

Since then, the marketing philosophy has been developed and taken up by new market sectors and industries, who initially �played� with the �fashionable� idea of marketing without fully committing to its cross functional understanding and commitment.

Retail banking, tourism, telecoms, car servicing, insurance and other industries have all gone through the painful surprise where a new player has revolutionised their market with a �disruptive� approach based on incisive customer understanding. Then on, all surviving competitors realise that marketing is an innovative strategic weapon, not a �gloss� or �status quo� item.

As numerous sectors now generate new approaches using a variety of techniques including direct marketing, e commerce, commercial television, integrated service support to name a few, there is an increase in cross sector marketing recruitment, at least in the Anglo Saxon world.

This urgent need to �market innovate� has been largely driven by the toughening environments that such companies have found themselves in, by �visionary senior executives� who see the need for customer orientated change, and as a result an understanding that marketing is a cross sector philosophy, not a technically departmentalised function! For this reason they often recruit from outside their own industry, from market sectors which are already well in advance of their own.

With this disruptive transfer of knowledge and technique, �marketers� become the drivers and shakers of the market place, and for this reason often end up in top executive positions.

Where are we in the medical industry, and particularly in Europe?

Let�s face it, inside many international organisations, marketing is still seen as a �communications gloss� as opposed to an integrated commercial approach. In addition, product development, management and services are often treated separately to market research and communications . Do not deny it, there is a lack of understanding, commitment and coordination.

The significant part of the problem comes from the unimaginative recruitment of senior general management and the entire medical marketing organisation.

How often in the Anglo Saxon world and outside the medical industry do recruiters specify industry expertise? Yes, it is nice to have, but the real objective is to recruit the most innovative and disruptive executive or marketer available. Let�s face it, a new recruitment is to make change, not maintain the status quo!

The problem in the medical industry as a whole, and particularly in continental Europe, is that medical organisations have been largely protected from real �market stress�. If you think the market is tough, what you see now is only the beginning!……. look at the continual transformations across consumer and service sectors over the past 40 years!!

Many medical companies often want �more of the same� because it worked OK in the past, and yet they do not understand that they need to transform into radically new approach to get past the pressures of the next 10 years.

A recruiting manager (often with the close attention of a personnel manager) and a recruitment �agency� come up with a job profile that is a reflection on previous experience, as opposed to the real marketing and �disruptive� proficiency of the individual.

A classic is an extensive shopping list, which includes previous experience in the �specific sector� itself ( e.g. defibrillators) as well as other technical details ( e.g. 4 specific languages, MBA,� etc). Often the specific sector experience is a �wish�, but with the large number of candidates to be �sifted� it becomes a �requirement�. The real commercial marketing capability to make change becomes a secondary, �difficult to measure� and therefore �forgotten� requirement.
Do recruiters not realise that they are looking for the best marketing management potential available, who possesses the strategic capability to go straight to the heart of the problem and have the tools to implement innovative long lasting solutions?? For such strategic marketers, the technical �niceties� of the sector are the �easy to learn� aspects to the business, and are rapidly picked up and sifted for false and out of date assumptions.

No,� the European medical recruiters approach is to play safe�..! Let us put a �clone� in�..someone who is already experienced in this �small world��..someone who is probably from a competitor,�..who has not been innovative�..who has the same ideas��.who does not have the lessons learnt, nor the innovative practices from other industries. Also why does a candidate want to leave one competitor for another��.because he does not feel safe?…..why?

In short,��..recruiters play safe to protect themselves from risk��but in doing so �they protect the status quo in a rapidly changing market place and over time, sign the corporate death warrant.

You would think that the biotech, pharmaceutical and medical appliance sectors would learn the lessons of inbreeding, hybrid vigour and Darwinism? Do most competitors wish to remain dinosaurs!

In summary, we all know that the best CEO�s, Human Resources Managers, Finance Controllers and Sales personnel can easily transfer their �best practice� skills across sectors.

Why do recruiters think that marketing executives are any different??? Unless they perceive that medical marketing executives should get lost in the technical aspects, rather than standing back and really understanding the customer?

And many medical recruitment consultants, do they really understand what marketing is? Probably as much as the products of the company they are recruiting for!

This article is deliberately provocative.

Click below to add your comments. Its time we had an open debate on this!