Bristol-Myers Squibb
Transforming expert clinicians into effective managers
Headquartered in New York, Bristol-Myers Squibb is a global biopharma company firmly focused on a mission to discover, develop and deliver innovative medicines that help patients prevail over serious diseases. A significant portion of the company’s workforce includes physicians, clinicians and researchprofessionals, many of whom are moving beyond the technical roles for which they have been trained and into positions that carry management responsibilities.
When Bristol-Myers Squibb required a special program to help these individuals bridge the gap of management knowledge, the company turned to Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt’s Custom Solution for Bristol-Myers Squibb
In a new twist on executive education programs the Owen School and Bristol-Myers Squibb worked together to create a customized program for clinical research professionals employed by the pharmaceutical giant. The initiative, developed in concert with the Biomedical Informatics and Clinical Investigations programs at Vanderbilt University Medical School, aimed to foster business skills among highly trained researchers in order to empower them to help drive Bristol-Myers’s growth.
The program consisted of three one-week sessions, spaced over several months, in which the entire group of Bristol-Myers Squibb researchers participated. Some sessions focused on traditional business principles such as managerial economics, negotiations, organizational behavior and operations. The heart of the curriculum dealt with how these managerial disciplines are applied within the pharmaceutical industry and within Bristol-Myers Squibb’s matrix organization; this knowledge was brought to life through valuable simulation exercises. These topics included the following:
- Ethics and the pharmaceutical industry
- Innovation strategy
- Process excellence
- Finance and accounting for non-financial managers
- New product development and commercialization
- Fundamentals of intellectual property
Participant Feedback
Course content offers a different perspective on the actions and decisions of the corporation; a better understanding of the activities of upper-level management.
Bird’s-eye view of everything important to provide a non-business person working in corporate America the skills needed to appreciate/understand their business.
