Only The Creative Survive
By Ben Comer, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
December is the time when journalists and editors reflect on the issues, trends, and topics they’ve covered or learned about during the previous year, and use that information to make educated guesses about the future opportunities and challenges most deserving of special attention from readers.
In looking back through my own coverage areas during 2022, and in reading through the outlook articles contributed by my editorial colleagues at Life Science Connect, what was most compelling to me were not necessarily the specific issues raised, but how leadership approached those issues to create solutions. Despite the very real economic, policy, cultural, and operational challenges discussed across this month’s collection of outlook content, a key ingredient for success, whatever that success might be in each scenario, often hinges on a willingness to be creative, despite the increased risk that inevitably comes with it. Creative individuals, and the workplace conditions that foster and celebrate them, are more important than ever.
Two topic areas from the many included in our December issue can help to illustrate this point: the growing importance of computational biology, and the evolving sophistication of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) programs. In computational biology, a combination of rapidly improving digital technology and biological models is leading to an explosion in creative applications that can help to solve the fundamental business issues of time and cost. From speeding up drug discovery through vast data analyses to identifying new patient segments within a single disease area — such as those predicted to respond, or not respond, to a specific intervention — the creative uses of computational biology seem almost limitless. Regulators are even expressing an openness to running placebo trial arms in silico, especially if it means avoiding potential patient harm.
ESG strategies, which are expanding to incorporate separate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at large biopharma companies, are rising in importance to both employees and a company’s potential investors. As a result, creative new ways to walk the line between business objectives and social/cultural goals are emerging. In one of our outlook interviews, Jamie Eden, SVP, HR and communications at Boehringer Ingelheim, described the company’s Diversify Veterinarian Medicine Coalition and recent partnership with Tuskegee University, the only HBCU (historically black college and university) in the U.S. that offers a doctoral degree in veterinary medicine. The partnership gives BI access to a diverse pool of future veterinarians, while also helping to diversify the 90% white veterinarian population in the U.S.
Difficult economic conditions do of course require financial and operational belt-tightening, but organizations should be careful not to starve out their creative capabilities. Those creative individuals willing to take risks and think about problems differently are the same people most likely to come up with the solutions for future success.