Improving Outsourcing Relationships

Any good market researcher (or therapist) will tell you that you shouldn’t ask about problems without also asking for solutions to those problems. At ISR, we don’t focus specifically on problems; instead we like to dig into what is working in various outsourcing situations and environments. This probing has a tendency to unearth outsourcing problems in the process. Without presenting any specific problems — because we knew at least one would be top-of-mind — or aspects of the sponsor-CMO relationship that need to be improved, we asked drug innovators about six different scenarios and their likelihood of improving outsourcing relationships. Each of the six ideas received a positive response from the group. Three of the scenarios have one key element in common — communication.