Main Subject - Business

Think back over all the team building sessions that you have attended over the years. There is a very good chance that at each and every one of them the facilitators organised your group

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

into teams. Any that weren't were probably small groups. Sound familiar? Why do they do that?

Well, one answer is to encourage maximum involvement from the participants. Small team sizes

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

elp ensure that everyone joins in. Quieter people will be less likely to fade into the background the smaller the team they are in. But that's not the only - or even main - reason.

Most

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

eam building events are run as competitions. Teams are usually given identical goals and are awarded points as they move towards them. Points mean prizes and the winning team members get t

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

take them away. Why?

There are a few answers to that one:

* Competitive events are relatively straightforward to run.

* Put a group of people into teams and it is easier to justify usi

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

g the training budget.

* Competition generates a buzz.

* Many conferences are for sales people, who are naturally competitive.

If all of these factors are relevant to your conference, t

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

hen a competitive event is probably a good decision for you. However, two factors might make it a less good decision. Organisations are increasingly looking to arrange events for non-sales

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

functions and many of these see competition as a bad thing. Secondly, senior managers often prefer to stress the "one big team" approach as important to a large department or the organisat

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

on as a whole. If either or both of these are relevant to your group, then a competitive event is not the best choice.

The opposite of a competitive event is a collaborative one. The whol

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

group is given a common goal to work on together rather than multiple, identical ones to work on in isolation. They may still be organised into teams or not, but the key characteristic is

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

that everyone is collaborating with everyone else to achieve something as a whole group.

Options designed to be collaborative not only exist - they are among the most enjoyable conference

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

or away day events for the participants themselves. They can deliver a superb mix of camaraderie, corporate message, learning and fun.

Isn't that combination a great outcome from a team

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

uilding event? Indeed, isn't that an outcome that you want from your teams at work - day in, day out? Sure, you want your individual teams to aim to be the best - but not at the expense of

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

the corporate goal or goals. You want the natural motivation that the best teams feel to be productive for the organisation - not detrimental to other teams and, thereby, detrimental to th

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

organisation.

So what does a collaborative team building activity look like? I have written a number of other articles that describe the characteristics that you can expect to find in go

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

d options generally. Rather than duplicate them here, I shall concentrate on those elements that can focus on the collaborative aspect specifically. They are:

* There is a single, common

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

goal that all individuals and / or teams have to work towards.

* There is a genuine possibility - indeed probability - of the group achieving it.

* Not all individuals and teams are doin

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

the same thing - multiple, different functions is a feature of the workplace and needs to be a feature of a team activity if the learning is to be relevant.

* As at work, the participant

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

need to exert some form of overall co-ordination to maintain the focus on the common goal.

So at your next team building event, don't send your people away bragging about how they manage

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

to outdo their colleagues - send them away thinking at least in part how well they worked with them. Then maybe back at work something might just rub off.

Copyright 2006 Sandstone Limite

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

HTTP = HTML link (for blogs, profiles,phorums):
<a href="http://www.mainsubjects.org.ua/article/45727/mainsubjects-Team-Building--Collaborative-vs-Competitive.html">Team Building - Collaborative vs. Competitive</a>

BB link (for phorums):
[url=http://www.mainsubjects.org.ua/article/45727/mainsubjects-Team-Building--Collaborative-vs-Competitive.html]Team Building - Collaborative vs. Competitive[/url]

If you are the type of person that can combine your artistic skills with your writing abilities, then the job of a graphic designer may be the position that is most suitable for you.

Discover why are business software helpful and effective for a business. Different types of business software explained.

Why multi-tasking can actually interfer with productivity, and what to do instead.

Tags

Links

Main Subject - Team Building - Collaborative vs. Competitive

Related Articles: