Lessons in market disruption from the natural and virtual world!
Here at Accession, we are passionate about making a difference. When it comes to market access, we make it our business to question traditional thinking, to challenge convention and to disrupt the status quo. This has led us to develop game-changing market access solutions that really work.
But our approach to disruption did not happen overnight, it has accumulated over many years of collaborating with our clients to embrace change. Most importantly, we continue to be inspired by the many stories of successful disruption from business leaders and industries from across the world.
The global disruption movement is gaining significant momentum, and there are numerous success stories which highlight what can be achieved by doing things differently. Whilst Pharma has its own way of doing business, a unique industry in its own right, it faces the same strategic challenges as many others, and so much can be gained by seeing what’s working in other industries.
Here are a couple of my favourite examples of global disruption to motivate and inspire:
Run, and Save the Planet!
At a recent disruptors event hosted by Virgin, I had the pleasure of hearing from Cyrill Gutsch, Founder of Parley for the Oceans. Nothing has highlighted the devastating effect of plastic in our oceans and the urgency of protecting our seas more than the work of Parley for the Oceans. Parley’s work is drawing urgent attention to plastic pollution and its devastating consequences for seabirds, marine life and the human food chain.
By using high profile cultural influencers like Pharrell Williams and with long-term strategic partnerships with the likes of G-Star denim and Adidas, Parley have created Parley Ocean Plastic. A material made from waste plastic from the sea and other recycled materials. Its first collaboration has led to the Addidas UltraBOOST Uncaged Parley running shoes – a high performance running shoe made from repurposed ocean plastic (95% of which came from clean-up operations in the Maldives).
Disruptive, and environmentally friendly – next time you go for a run, you could be literally helping to save the planet!
Climb Everest, and be back for lunch!
In the mid-1980’s, a small band of programmers from Silicon Valley began work on the concept of virtual reality. At the time, despite the mass media interest, the technology wasn’t quite there, it was too expensive and the audience was considered too niche.
Fast forward 30 years, and with the launch of the likes of PlayStation’s Virtual Reality headset as well as Google Cardboard and Oculus Rift, we are clearly entering a brave new world of virtual reality. But it is certainly not just the gaming world that is facing disruption. Some experts have predicted that we will see virtual reality become a part of our day-to-day lives, with more and more people preferring to spend a majority of their time in virtual spaces and environments. Whilst the reality is that we are many years away from mainstream adoption, both virtual reality and augmented reality are two clear areas of technological design and engineering that are in the midst of a boom.
There are in fact many examples in which virtual and augmented reality are shaking up existing markets, the most exciting are in the areas of education and training. Instead of showing a class of pupils what it may be like to climb Everest by reading about it in a textbook, get them to ‘feel’ it by putting their VR headsets on and taking a hike. Or like the Army who have been using VR for years to recreate conflict situations without putting soldiers at risk, organisations could use VR as a training aid for people who undertake complex, difficult or even dangerous tasks.
Both these examples highlight what can be achieved when passionate people anticipate the need for and bring about change – today more than ever, businesses are striving to disrupt traditional ways of working to make their mark.
The results can be truly transformative.
What part will you play?
