One of my all time favorite articles, “The Innovator’s DNA” was in the December 2009 Harvard Business Review .  The authors reported on a study where they looked at the habits of 25 innovative entrepreneurs and surveyed 3500 other innovators to determine what habits make them stand apart from the rest of us that struggle in this area.  The results came down to five consistent habits that I would like to briefly let you think about in terms of pharmaceutical marketing.  Even if you don’t think you have a single innovative bone in your body, I bet you can do the following five things.

Innovators have a remarkable ability to associate, that is they can look at a situation in a very different environment and figure out how certain things they see there could help in their business.  Perhaps an immediate example of this is seen on a video clip that is well worth watching, on Richard Vanderveer’s Wednesday blog.  Watch the surgeon discuss how looking at the checklists used by the airlines improved surgical outcomes dramatically.  Unbelievable statistics.  Could the use of simple checklists or even the pit crew mentality, also discussed in the video, improve the way we work in marketing? Continue reading →