Only Novartis dares to dream

Uber just released a flying taxi.

Launched with Hyundai at last month’s CES, it features two tilt-rotors on the tail and 10 other further electric rotors around a cabin enabling vertical take-off, transition to wing-borne lift in cruise. A cruising speed of 180 mph (290 kph) at 2000ft (600m) above ground and a range of blah blah blah BLAAAAAH….

So what?

It doesn’t matter, because this car-plane will never actually see the light of day.

Just like Amazon’s drones: six years after they were announced by Jeff Bezos, have you ever received an Amazon package by drone?

Of course you haven’t.

But I bet that every person reading these words has heard the story that someday this is what delivery will look like.

So why does Uber release a flying car, and why does Amazon plan drone delivery? Is it because all tech companies want to be Buzz Lightyear?

No. It’s because they have the desire to be more than just technology companies, more than mere delivery solutions, because that way they are worth far more.

These little practical constructs are designed to do one thing and one thing only: be picked up by journalists looking for an interesting story, showcasing how wonderfully innovative and exciting the company is that worked up the prototype. Those ‘facts’, by the way, (speed, range, altitude, delivery date, paint finish etc.) are a mere illusion of credibility.

This is called branding: something these companies are very good at. They laugh inwardly as we ask serious questions about their latest brainfart as if it has some actual substance.

Blame Steve Jobs

We’ve always loved to simplify a complex case into a more easily digestible rags-to-riches tale. It makes for great headlines. We need heroes to idolise – and since we have all stopped going to church, our spiritual idols have been replaced with entrepreneurs or social activists.

Before his death in 2011, Steve Jobs became the poster-boy for our most recent rise in entrepreneur-worship, the first person to make technology cool. He was able to transcend the status of Apple beyond that of an IT company by pushing into new categories, but also by crafting a storyline (through advertising, interviews, styling etc) that Apple is about much more.

Last week, Tesla became the first ever car company to be valued at more than $100bn (now nudging $120bn) despite being written off only a few months ago. That’s more than GM and Ford combined, despite GM making more than 20 times as many cars in 2019.

We all know the reason for the huge valuation: Elon Musk. He’s another CEO who realises that telling stories about Mars travel, solar ecosystems and cybertrucks is exactly what is required to elevate a valuation beyond a simple automotive company. And despite new car competitors, he has succeeded for the time being - without ever having to build a marketing department.

According to LinkedIn, there are more corporate comms personnel working for Bezos at Amazon (969) than journalists working for Bezos at his newspaper, the Washington Post (798). The company has developed the ability to wipe billions off the stock value of entire industry sectors with just a few press releases. It can go too far, of course: Amazon has faced huge criticism for its HQ2 ‘contest’ (or con), cynically playing cities off one another when in reality the objective was to lower taxes in its favoured NY/DC locations. Meanwhile, Elon Musk has had to rein in his more cavalier use of Twitter. And some companies have suffered while going ‘full yogababble’ in attempt to boost their value.

Healthcare: devoid of personality and narrative

We have no Elon Musk in healthcare. Yet health is a very emotive subject, far more than cars or computers. Despite this head start, we’ve failed to articulate a compelling narrative.

Until recently, I thought there was just one health organisation which had managed to make us sit up and listen (ironically, its founder came from the world of software and was instrumental in setting up the Steve Jobs story).

Who am I talking about? Bill Gates. The Foundation he jointly runs with his wife is head and shoulders above the rest. It is really the only organisation in healthcare that has reached ‘untouchable’ status and worthy of any kind of worship. And if you’re looking for a reason why, simply compare the powerful headline on the Gates website to the generic hyperbole seen everywhere else.

Novartis to the rescue

In comparison, in spite of its core purpose, pharma is years behind. But recently we have seen a glimmer of hope from the northeast corner of Switzerland. Novartis CEO, Vas Narasimhan, has finally moved us onto a smarter tack, and has surrounded himself with the only truly imaginative communications team that I’ve encountered in this business.

Whilst there are many pharma leaders with a public profile, their output is still heavily focussed on the most elementary type of messaging: product announcements and meaningless memes, none of which build the external trust or relationships we require in our industry as we move into more sophisticated, stakeholder-dependent therapies.

As well as being very open with strategy and pipeline, Vas’ team is experimenting with different approaches that finally bring us closer to what I call my six H’s of impactful communication.

1.    Humanity – Vas regularly posts himself in conversation with those he looks up to, which shows us that he’s a fallible human being, on a journey. Going forward, I hope he can do more to provide access to real-life ‘fly on the wall’ situations where decisions are made or show how he and his team engage with patients on key company decisions access.

2.    Humility – many leaders go to Davos to talk about themselves or their plans. Vas instead moderated a panel of young leaders and gave them the spotlight. Or when Vas met Marc Boutin of the National Health Council, he became interviewer rather than interviewee. CEOs often talk about hiring more intelligent people than themselves, or of servant leadership, but rarely do we see examples of it.

3.    Holism – Vas has created a Linkedin newsletter with a good following. Smart use of both online and offline platforms has provided reach and transparency, extending the company’s internal philosophies (like ‘unbossed’) into the outside world. I’m not sure what proportion of Vas’ time is spent on external communication, but I imagine he’s the only pharma leader approaching the 33% that worked so well for Sir Martin Sorrell during his 33-year tenure at WPP.

4.    History – it’s not just about what’s happening today or tomorrow. The company has built a good thread around the profound wonder that medicines work in the body at all, helping the wider public to understand the amazing progress already made.

5.    Hubris – you still have to speak up when you’re doing well. Vas was never shy about expressing his ‘talent in management and leadership’. We don’t need another Donald Trump, but we do need to take the wins.

6.    Higher state – Vas’ very first post on ‘reimagining Novartis as a data and medicines company’ was enough to announce a departure from the previous trajectory and gain a new following – that the company is more than simply pharma.

It hasn’t all been plain sailing. I’m still not convinced that the company has satisfactorily explained its position on Zolgensma data manipulation (despite recent positive performance) where Vas has just decided to forego his bonus - clearly assuming some culpability. But the path is set, and I’m hopeful that communications will further develop into building a better picture of ‘what is possible’ in healthcare – such that we can all dream of a better future.

Of course, it helps that the company is doing well on other fronts, with 6 drug approvals in 2019 and more to follow. But while other leaders have the same ambition for 2020, it’s a shame their internal focus is not yet matched by a similarly committed, thoughtful and human-first communications effort. Yet.

Archived:

-      More weirdos please – Jan 2020

-      Into pharma’s roaring twenties – Jan 2020

-      A taste of your own medicine – April 2019

-      5 bold predictions – March 2019

-      Pharma: Dumb & Dumber? - May 2018