Agility:

Everything changes, everything stays the same.

Does this old adage still ring true? So much has already been said about the state of flux in our industry, both for pharmaceutical companies themselves, and for associated agencies. Between budget cuts, post-COVID discontent, a generational shift in the workforce and the rapid advance of technology, the current environment certainly feels uncertain and unpredictable. Even if your day-to-day is not dissimilar to a few years ago, it probably feels different.

For me personally, it certainly has been a period of change; I moved out of an established corporate environment and made the leap to setting up a start-up agency – Camino. Just over a year in, I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learnt so far, and what I would tell my former self about navigating change.

But first, spoiler alert: best (professional) decision ever.

More on that later. First, my reflections on how the environment in which I work has changed and the best way to achieve success and have fun. Unusually for me, I’ve boiled it down to something really quite simple:

Get on with it.

Now, I realise that’s not exactly profound, but it neatly sums up my thinking about the common factor that links my best achievements in delivering client work, running a business and my own personal development. So, why is that?

In the past, I was always aiming for big achievements and perfection from the outset. My focus was on making a big impact at launch and getting positive feedback. If I did spend time thinking about how to collect that feedback, it was largely to prove how good the project or deliverable was, not to improve it. As a result, the temptation was to spend an age planning grand, complex projects and refining everything to be as good as it could be before releasing it into public view. Whilst I’m very proud of many things that I achieved and contributed to using this approach, I now recognise that it wasn’t the smartest way to get the best results, certainly in the long run, but even short term.

My new approach prioritises finding opportunities to create and launch new ideas quickly, with clearly defined metrics to track their success, then iterate to improve and scale up. And the results speak for themselves. Better feedback, bigger impact, more fun.

On a day-to-day basis, here are the key tips that help me embrace this:

Get excited!

Lean into what you know to find your idea and make sure you believe in it. If you’re not motivated, it’s always going to be a hard slog to find the energy to push it through to completion, so make sure you zone in on WHY you want to do it and what benefits it will bring.

Start smart

Use a variety of tools and your connections to gain additional insight and pressure test your theory/concept.

Keep it simple

It’s natural to want to develop a really detailed comprehensive plan that maps out every step and (supposedly) reduces the risk of failure. In reality, bumps are going to happen and you’ll need to learn and adapt along the way, so of course create an action plan, but don’t get lost in the detail. Make sure the first few steps are well thought through, but keep later steps top-line.

Build in measures

As you create your idea, spend a large proportion of your planning time thinking about how you will know if your idea is working and how it could be even better. Make sure you have a mixture of quantitate and qualitative measures, including some that will respond quickly to minimise the lag.

Launch fast

Find the simplest, quickest way to get something off the ground and out to your audience. Not the fully fledged concept, but the first crucial pieces that will allow you to get out there, engage and learn. Create something that represents the power and potential of your idea, but don’t wait until it’s perfect.

Learn fast and iterate

Launch is a major milestone, but really it’s just the beginning. Listen to feedback and all the measures you have put in place so you can enhance and build on your initial concept as you grow and scale up. Make sure your processes are agile so you can respond quickly to data, insight and new opportunities.

I think that sums up nicely as ‘get on with it’, but in more technical terms, we’re talking about agility. It’s a term that is often bandied around as a buzzword and there are some useful tools and concepts that you might want to apply, such as minimum viable products (MVPs) and sprint methodology. These can be really useful, especially if you want to develop common language and ways of working in your team. However, for me, the true power of agility is about embracing it as a mindset. It allows you to stay calm in the face of hiccups and curveballs. It allows you to achieve quick wins and feel a sense of progress on an almost daily basis. It allows you to see opportunity in a sea of change.