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pharmafile | March 9, 2007 | Feature | Business Services, Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | AstraZeneca, Athena, public relations, recruitment
Athena Medical PR and AstraZeneca UK have joined forces to undertake a ground-breaking secondment initiative to help build broader expertise in their personnel and greater understanding of each other's roles.
The novel job-swap sees one of Athena's longest standing employees Michelle Cammack, taking a sixth-month position as Brand Communications Manager for AstraZeneca's breast cancer portfolio.
Meanwhile, Kate Jefferson is taking a break from her role as Seroquel brand manager at AstraZeneca and filling Cammack's shoes at Athena as an account director.
The initiative, which started in November 2006 and will finish in April this year, coincides with Athena's 10th anniversary celebrations, and aims to build the skill base of both participants by giving them a range of experiences which ordinarily they are unable to access in their permanent positions.
Athena's Managing Director, Cherry Wood has a long association with AstraZeneca having created and developed the public relations function at the then Zeneca prior to setting up her own company Athena in 1997.
"Ideally, well-rounded communications experts need to gain experience both in-house and in agencies. It helps to develop a far broader understanding of the needs of both teams and provides a depth and perspective that is difficult to find when people only have one or other experience.
"In my opinion, some of the best healthcare PR professionals have both in-house and agency experience, and at AZ and Athena we are keen to foster this."
Wood added: "To gain this experience, people have traditionally had to change jobs – but personally, I'm not keen to encourage the loss of our brightest stars."
AstraZeneca shared a similar view, wanting to be able to provide its most valued team members with a broader experience without them being lost from the organisation for good. The initiative was seen as a way of helping both Kate and Michelle to build on their skill bases and later take their knowledge back to their respective employers in the longer-term.
AstraZeneca's view
"At AZ, we are very keen to develop talen," said Sam Pearce, Sales and Marketing Leader, Breast Oncology from AstraZeneca. "The idea of a secondment came from an informal conversation between me and Cherry, and we both felt it was a great idea. When I took the proposal to our board of directors they agreed that it was a novel and inspirational way to move forward with our approach to learning and development. We were delighted to give Kate this opportunity and we are equally delighted to welcome Michelle to our breast cancer team."
But before undertaking such a partnership, a number of considerations had to be made, such as issues of confidentiality and conflicts of interest.
Michelle leads several PR programmes for Athena and is the current Communique Young Achiever of the Year and one of Athena's brightest talents. She is held in extremely high regard by her clients and as such, the move might have been viewed as detrimental to the success of their campaigns in her absence.
Michelle's transfer to AZ was discussed with all her clients, who were all extremely positive about the move, appreciating that Michelle's increased levels of knowledge and understanding would yield benefits to their public relations programmes in the long term.
Commenting on the initiative, Athena's Managing Director, Cherry Wood said: "Michelle has been at Athena for more than five years, and gaining industry experience is something she has shown an interest in fulfilling. We are delighted she has a chance to undertake this opportunity. AstraZeneca embraced the concept as it was intended.
"Rather than either party seeing it as an exercise to recruit a new brand communications manager or a new account director, we both saw it was an incredibly exciting opportunity to give our people something different. It has given them the chance to learn first-hand about working in a completely different environment, which has benefited them personally and professionally."
Issues of confidentiality
The issue of confidentiality was an important one to address during the secondment, as both Kate and Michelle would be exposed to extensive corporate, client, therapeutic and strategic information in their new positions, with both being treated as own company personnel. A two-way confidentiality agreement was put in place to protect all parties involved, including Athena's clients, who were notified of the agreement.
Ensuring there would be no conflicts of interest was essential in terms of the therapy areas in which Kate and Michelle would be involved.
Having been with AstraZeneca for nine years with over seven of those as a brand manager for several AZ blockbusters, Kate has a wealth of experience in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, asthma, COPD, hypertension and anti-coagulation. Kate currently holds the position of brand manager for Seroquel, so it was important that Athena was not providing strategic counsel to another schizophrenia stakeholder.
Equally, Michelle's move to AZ needed to take her into a therapeutic area that did not conflict with one in which Athena was involved.
Throughout the period of secondment, Michelle and Kate have remained as employees of Athena Medical PR and AstraZeneca respectively, with contracts in place to ensure that they return to their permanent positions in April.
"Kate has settled into Athena extremely well and has already had a huge impact on the accounts on which she is working. She has embraced the challenge with hard work and enthusiasm, bringing valuable brand development experience to her clients. Kate is enormously popular with her peers and clients, and I'm sure she will continue to impress for the duration of her time with us," said Cherry.
The job-swap is proving to be a mutually beneficial experience not only providing excellent opportunities for Michelle and Kate, but for Athena and AZ as well. Michelle takes eight years of invaluable healthcare public relations experience to AZ, providing strategic communications input across their breast cancer offering, while Kate adds to Athena's client communications programmes with her strong sales-driven marketing background.
This is the first time that either company has undertaken a secondment initiative of this kind. Depending on the success of the pilot, it may pave the way for more moves of this kind in the future – possibly even starting a trend that other companies may follow.
The in-house brands comms manager takes on the account director role
Kate Jefferson is the brand manager for schizophrenia/bipolar disorder treatment Seroquel at AstraZeneca, and has been with the company for nine years.
Kate has experience across a number of therapy areas, including mental health asthma, COPD, hypertension and anti-coagulation. She has taken the lead on some of Michelle's clients since she started her six- month secondment at Athena. Her responsibilities include heading up the communications programme for Protelos, Serviers osteoporosis treatment. In addition, she is working closely with one of Athena's longest standing client, IDIS, which specialises in named-patient supply and discontinued medicines.
As well as her involvement on the client side, Kate has also taken on Michelle's role as part of Athena's senior team and has become the lead on Athena's own corporate PR strategy for 2007.
"This a fantastic opportunity for me; I have nearly seven years experience in marketing and felt ready to take on a new challenge.
"Communications is an area in which I have always been interested, though it isn't a move that is easy to make, so when the partnership was suggested, I jumped at the chance," explained Kate.
The agency account director takes on the in-house role
Michelle Cammack has eight years experience in PR, five of which have been spent with Athena, and she is the current Communique Young Achiever of the Year.
Potential conflicts of interest meant Michelle could not take on Kate's role as Seroquel brand manager, so Michelle was given another very important secondment post – UK Brand Communications Manager for AstraZeneca's breast cancer portfolio, including Arimidex and Faslodex. The role involves working with AstraZeneca's incumbent PR agency on national media plans, and liaising with patient advocacy groups. Another aspect of the job is to ensure the field force and broader cross-functional team is kept up-to-date on new data publications and any potential issues or environmental changes which may affect them.
With another three months to go, Michelle reported on her experience so far: "My first three months at AZ have been challenging, yet enjoyable. Like many people in agencies, I have never worked in an organisation the size of AstraZeneca – a bit of a culture shock in itself.
"I'm delighted to have had the opportunity of a six-month secondment, as I feel this is long enough to allow me to gain real insight into the inner workings on the industry side of the business.
"As well as developing personally from this opportunity, I am sure I will be better placed to advise my clients on my return to Athena in April."
Cherry Wood is Managing Director of Athena Medical Public Relations..Contact her by email at cherry@athenamedicalpr.com
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