Who Should Attend?
This conference is designed for VPs, Directors and Senior Managers of:
Ÿ Project Planning
Ÿ Product Development
Ÿ R&D
Ÿ Drug Development
Ÿ Strategic Planning
Ÿ Portfolio Management
Ÿ Project and Program Management

Why This Conference is Important to You.
This conference is designed to address the inherent difficulties (what some may call impossibilities) of transforming from a functional to cross-functional organization. Overcoming slowdowns that occur while transferring knowledge and technology between functions is one of the main issues for discussion. In addition to tackling the problem of building and maintaining cross-functional teams, strategies to link well-developed functional groups and equally strong cross-functionality are emphasized. There is no silver bullet. It's important to build on existing functional excellence.

One of the respondents to the advance letter explaining the idea behind this meeting noted that, "team is a term that is thrown around a lot…my sense is that groups of people seldom really function as a team." Furthering that notion in Developing Products In Half the Time, co-authors Reinertsten and Smith highlight that "teams and team building are overused terms in the current management lexicon, so they have lost their meaning". Different meanings applied to "team members" in various organizations make it important to distinguish the characteristics that set rapid development teams apart. On day two of the conference, Preston Smith will provide insight into improving speed to market through staffing teams to balance speed with budget, transferring knowledge swiftly and effectively across functions, and enhancing communication across dispersed teams through partial co-location and clear protocols.

Greater cross-functional coordination and communication result in clearer project prioritization and faster and better decision making. Some of the biggest opportunities for improvement lie in the processes for project selection, go/kill decisions and project prioritization & resource allocation. The keynote speech by Dr. Robert G. Cooper (author of Portfolio Management for New Products and pioneer of Stage Gate methodologies) focuses on new product portfolio management and Stage Gate processes. A cross-functional method for project prioritization is essential if all involved departments are to have the same development priorities and rankings. A cross-functional game plan for success - a Stage-GateTM roadmap that charts the way from idea through to launch and integrates the key functions in the innovation process is provided. (Cooper is developer of the Stage-Gate process, now employed by leading firms around the world to get new products to market quickly and effectively).

In addition to these special presentations you will have the opportunity to listen to four case studies presented by pharmaceutical companies. Each will point out, in practice, the issues we are working through in the featured and plenary sessions. The case studies will help you interpret and think about implementation.

The plenary sessions are designed to discuss the bricks and mortar of improving cross-functional performance. There are two plenary sessions.

Session I: Building and Maintaining Cross-Functional Teams
ŸOrganization structures
Ÿ Matrix Management
Ÿ Dealing with Conflict

Session II: Monitoring and Tracking Cross-Functional Performance
ŸResource Forecasting
Ÿ Budgeting
Ÿ Project Management Software

Overall, Improving Cross-Functional Performance in Pharmaceutical Development is an unprecedented opportunity to discuss and resolve the issues that have stood in the way of making smarter and swifter decisions across the product lifecycle. It provides clarity and direction on communication and management strategies to help free up resources, reduce wasteful activities and optimize efficiencies, create real value and dramatically improve profits.