Digital Business Transformation at Pfizer Improves Patients’ Lives

ARC has been tracking the digital transformation initiatives of companies by conducting surveys and analyses for the last 5-7 years. All this information has been collated and the Top 25 global industrial digital transformation leaders, across multiple industries and geographies, have been identified. ARC’s Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 report highlights companies that are successfully integrating digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing the way they operate and deliver value to their customers.

The tidal wave of digital transformation has restructured global industrial operations. In a pandemic-affected world, digital transformation has moved beyond the “nice to have” boardroom jargon to a “must-have” imperative. Organizations were forced to adapt with agility and flexibility to this new normal and accelerate industrial innovation. Established practices and business models were disrupted and destroyed, but destruction led to reconstruction and new ways to resolve challenges. 

Defining “digital transformation” is complex as it encompasses the gamut from technologies, processes, and collaboration across teams and geographies. ARC Advisory Group defines digital transformation as: “The integration of digital technology into all areas of business, fundamentally changing the way companies operate and deliver value to customers. The organization is typically charged to innovate and improve across multiple dimensions such as digital/disruptive technologies, culture and leadership, operational agility, workforce engagement, customer experience, environmental, social and governance, and competitive performance.”

This is the eleventh in a series of blogs on the leaders in the digital transformation space.

Pfizer

Pfizer’s CEO defines the company’s mission as driving breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. As part of that mission, they have embraced digital business transformation to become a leaner, more science-driven patient-focused organization. Three strategic initiatives include the application of digital technologies to speed up discovery and development of medicines and vaccines, enhance patient customer experience and outcomes, and make work faster and easier through the application of automation. Pfizer understands that the age and size of the company tends to foster a mentality of people stuck in the old way of doing things.

To address resistance, the leadership keeps employees engaged throughout the process, solicits their feedback, and provides support along the way. They highlight tangible outcomes during the transition, often gaining proponents of a new way of working. Pfizer, despite being in a highly regulated industry with strict compliance requirements, is an early adopter of cloud technology, and focuses on making sure cloud deployments are as secure, if not more so, than their traditional datacenter environments. The company states this early investment in cloud played a key role in enabling Pfizer to move at the speed required in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Going Forward

The prevailing philosophy behind digital transformation has been that this transformation naturally translates to success. ARC will continue its research in all areas related to digital transformation to learn more about what is working – and what isn’t – as companies pursue their unique digital transformation activities. The Industrial Digital Transformation Top 25 report will be published annually. With this being the first issue, your feedback is very important to investigate new approaches and measures to adjust our methodology, identify successful digital transformation initiatives, and help the industry as a whole digitally transform. To download the final report, please click here.