(What Danny said)
Normally, I start each post with a single question that I ask myself. This time, I’m starting with a whole list of great questions that Danny Halperin from UCLA asked in response to my first post. Thanks, Danny!
So, I’m curious what kinds of responsibilities do you have in your job? Your background seems to be in computers and engineering so how did you get into market analysis? Are you considering doing an MBA? Where do you see your career going? Do you interact with the business development group at Amgen?
Switching from consulting to market research wasn’t quite as big of a shift as the one from research to consulting, at least in terms of mindset. Our group, Business Analysis and Information, acts much like an in-house marketing consulting firm. In fact, the running joke in the hallways is that BAI acts as a retirement home for ex-consultants. Our clients are the Amgen brands that have yet to launch (for example, denosumab) as well as brands that have already launched (for example, Aranesp and Enbrel). Each staff member is aligned to one or more brands, forming cross-functional brand service teams that include primary and secondary market research, as well as forecasting.
The advantages to consolidating these functions into one group are:
- Best practices within a functional area spread more quickly across brands and can become standard practice within the company.
- Results from different research methods, such as primary and secondary market research, can be triangulated and sanity-checked against each other more easily.
- Working in cross-functional teams teaches us a lot about functions that we don’t work in ourselves all the time. We frequently see staff move around and gain experience in each function to become more well-rounded.
Working in secondary market research, it’s my job to translate the immense volumes of secondary data that Amgen owns into actionable answers to important business questions. The most commonly used data are account purchases and physician prescriptions. Studying trends in these data help our marketing teams measure the impact of market events, whether externally-driven (such as the ESA black box warning) or internally-driven (such as a specific promotional activity). We also work on more sophisticated projects that measure patient outcomes as a consequence of particular treatment regimens.
As for my own career, I am interested in pursuing an MBA, although I haven’t decided on the most appropriate timing. I’d also like to join Amgen’s field sales force at some point. I was truly inspired by my ride-along with one of our reps this spring. For all the flak that reps get, I believe that they serve a critical purpose in helping overworked physicians understand how to get their patients the best available care. I think that’s a great mission, and one that I’d like to share in. Plus, going after the business in an entire territory would tap into my competitive nature.
I don’t formally work with our business development team, although my peers who work on in-line forecasting are often asked to assess prospective product acquisitions, including the recently completed acquisitions of Alantos and Ilypsa. Still, I have met a few people in business development through informal networking, and I could see myself ending up there in a post-MBA role.
