FROM THE LTEN BOARD – Mani Chidambaram
New systems bring challenges & efficiencies
Several large manufacturers and industry partners have been investing in the establishment of global creative hubs to assist in everything from medical writing to workshop creation. Services can range from graphic and technical services to full content creation. These hubs are becoming very popular in cities like Hyderabad and Bangalore in India, as well as Colombia and Eastern Europe.
From a learning director’s perspective, these hubs can be a challenge to manage. On the manufacturer side, most of the top companies have invested to some level in the hub creation. Managing expectations on the home front around job security is always interesting, but there is no arguing about the budget savings.
The demands to use the hubs can range from “optional” to “mandatory” depending on who is driving the decisions in the respective organization.
The Hurdles
There are several challenges, however. Quality control rises to the top.
Resources in these hubs tend to be very temporary as the demand for talent in these markets is high. Once a resource is hired and trained, they very well may leave for a better opportunity across town in a few months. This has been common in these early years. This constant turnover leads to several continuity and quality issues.
Additionally, the time zone and primary language concerns have played a somewhat negative role in early hub adoption.
The Rewards
On the flipside, however, when a solid hub is established and running, the efficiencies are clear.
Medical teams have been the first major group to use hub resources for content creation to support conferences, poster presentations and other educational endeavors. The high level of education of the hub resources, as well as the “24-hour clock” can work into a positive situation, in terms of both quality and turnaround time.
Additionally, since hub resources are generally employees of the company, their access to sensitive materials and compliance review teams is transparent.
On the industry partner side of the business, larger companies have also begun to use these efficient resources to complete customer projects at a lower cost, while maintaining project management control on this side of the pond. This proves to be a great asset for customers who still deal with just one manager in their home country, while that project manager deals with the global resources.
Conclusion
As finance teams are the drivers behind these changes, the global hub seems here to stay. Managing the expectations of domestic employees is one immense key to success. Freeing up training managers from mundane tasks or creating collateral they are not appropriately equipped for can allow them to develop more strategic skills that will better serve them in both the short and long term.
On the hub side, the hiring of a full-time, qualified and loyal operations manager at the site has proven to be a major success factor in maintaining the quality and turnover at any given site. As this offshoring will almost certainly be permanent, it will be critical for all learning directors to pioneer success as opposed to being dictated to do so by a senior leader down the road.
Mani Chidambaram is head, commercial development and learning, U.S. Vaccines, for Sanofi. Email him at Mani.Chidambaram@Sanofi.com or connect through linkedin.com/in/mani-chidambaram-3058b81.
