Unifying the Possibilities

The Challenge: The rapidly growing generic pharmaceutical industry found that its advocacy efforts were being diluted by the existence of three separate trade associations, each with its own approach and legislative agenda. What should have been a period of rapid progress in forwarding an overall advocacy agenda was being hampered by a lack of a unified strategy. Two previous efforts at organizational consolidation resulted in failure, largely due to turf battles and disagreement over control and structure. Coulter Strategy & Innovation was retained by the three Boards of Directors to develop, facilitate and manage a process that would result in a single, powerful industry trade association.

The Challenge: The rapidly growing generic pharmaceutical industry found that its advocacy efforts were being diluted by the existence of three separate trade associations, each with its own approach and legislative agenda. What should have been a period of rapid progress in forwarding an overall advocacy agenda was being hampered by a lack of a unified strategy. Two previous efforts at organizational consolidation resulted in failure, largely due to turf battles and disagreement over control and structure. Coulter Strategy & Innovation was retained by the three Boards of Directors to develop, facilitate and manage a process that would result in a single, powerful industry trade association.

Coulter Strategy & Innovation Response: Coulter Strategy & Innovation developed a phased approach that was focused on “unifying,” not consolidating, the individual organizations. We created a special committee composed of key influence leaders from respective Boards of Directors. A separate budget was created, managed by Coulter Strategy & Innovation, to fund the design of a new governance, staffing and operational structure that could expertly represent the ambitions of an entirely new organization. Each of the project phases represented milestones that ensured leadership “buy-in.” The completion of each project phase represented a new opportunity for building trust and confidence in the end result. Importantly, the Coulter Strategy & Innovation approach removed the key impediments to successful unification, and focused the respective Boards on the potential of a truly unified industry.

The Result: A new “unified” industry association was born, and its predecessor organizations terminated operations. Importantly, the launch of the unified association provided a unique opportunity for branding and relationship-building with key policymakers. The generic pharmaceutical industry has never been stronger or more capable of speaking with a unified voice.