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To ensure that you get value from the time and money invested in team building sessions and corporate retreats, there are several pitfalls that your company should avoid.

Team Building Pitfalls

Allocate sufficient time for planning

There is no way that you can expect to pull off an effective team building

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

session or corporate retreat if 1 - 2 weeks prior to the session you are just contacting vendors

Don't schedule your session to end on a Friday.

Like it or not, focus will become a challenge as the day wears on.

Do allocate more time for your session if your group is highly analytical.

Analytica

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

l learners need more time to debrief and apply the session to your specific business challenges or they will leave feeling frustrated and that the session was a waste of time. "What was that?" will be a frequent comment on your feedback forms.

Don't splurge on food and accommodation and scrimp on facilitation fees.

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ou need an experienced facilitator to execute a session successfully. I remember a company that contacted us in a panic. They had blown most of their budget for a top of the line conference facility with all the bells and whistles. They had little left to pay a facilitator. We suggested a couple of cost affective facilities for ac

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

commodation and meetings but eventually had to pass on that booking too as they insisted on the high end facility and could not afford a facilitator.

Don't just go through the motions of team building.

Team recreation is important. If your goal is a day off work, then schedule a picnic or recreational activity.

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

Get your priorities straight.

We thought we had heard it all when we were asked "Can you cut your simulation down to half a day so that we can have more time to go shopping?" Another time, a prospective client selected a venue that was less than optimal for their activity as they did not feel their staff could forego

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

alcohol for one day and the ideal location was not licensed for alcohol.

Alcohol: Don't Let it Flow Freely

There is no way to address this topic without just coming out and saying it. "Watch the booze." Again it comes down to priorities and liability. I remember doing some location scouting with a prospective

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

lient. I should have known we were in trouble when one of the first questions they asked was "Will there be a fridge where we can store our beer?" It was downhill from there. Late night drinking binges, a director passing around a bottle of hard liquor before a physically challenging outdoor event and the CEO having to be confined

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

to his bed on the last day of the session for overdoing it.

Certainly there is nothing wrong with a glass of wine with dinner. Many companies are not aware of the fact that if they allow the liquor to flow freely before an activity that involves physical exertion, your company could be held liable if someone gets injured.

There i

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

another area of potential liability. If participants will be driving after your corporate event, hire a smart serve bartender who is trained to detect potential problems and turn off the tap when appropriate. You might also want to have a backup plan and provide a taxi or hotel accommodation for any participants who do become ineb

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

riated. The bottom line is that courts throughout the USA are rendering judgements that hold companies liable when employees consume too much alcohol at company-sponsored functions and then cause accident after leaving the event.

Put a Leash on the Libido

During some corporate retreats, excessive consumption of alcohol can

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

lead to poor judgement and sexual indiscretions. Many companies don't realize that they are skating on thin ice when they turn a blind eye to dirty jokes, sexual innuendo and employees skinny dipping in the pool on a corporate retreat or at a sales rally. We heard of one sales rally to which the Director brought along a pornograph

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

c video. In the evening, the director, the CEO and several members of the sales team returned to the meeting room at the conference centre and watched it. The next day, a lot of snickering was going on. We are also aware of two unrelated incidents at two different companies during corporate retreats in which employees becam

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

e so intoxicated that they jumped on the table and started doing a strip tease

If even one employee had decided to file a sexual harassment suit (US) or human rights complaint (Canada) due to any of these incidents, the negative publicity alone could have done a lot of damage to a company's reputation. As Astra USA, the American s

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

bsidiary of Astra AB, a Swedish pharmaceutical company discovered, it could also hit you in your pocketbook.

Astra USA agreed to pay nearly US$9.85 million to approximately 80 former employees complaining of sexual harassment and retaliation on the job, at corporate retreats and during sales rallies. They admitted to foste

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ring a hostile work environment, including requests for sexual favors in exchange for favorable treatment on the job. Business Week Magazine covered this story in detail and you can still access it on their web site.

To avoid similar difficulties, have a clear code of conduct for ALL company related meetings, activities, an

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

events. Cover it in your orientation, diversity training and management development programmes. Have every employee sign-off and agree to adhere to this code. When incidents occur that are clearly inappropriate, deal with them and send a clear message that certain behaviour will not be tolerated in the workplace or at company ev

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ents.

Team Building: The Bottom Line

Team building sessions and corporate retreats can be enjoyable and produce a myriad of benefits for your company. To get the most bang from your team building buck, ensure that there is bottom line results in what you offer. Remember, people don't have to get wasted or tell off-colour j

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

kes in order to have a good time. There is something to be said for brainstorming with co-workers to come up with solutions to some vexing business problems or flow charting to improve a process that isn't working. There is something to be said for relaxing around a bonfire, getting to know your co-workers while you pitch a tent or

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

start a fire, cooking your meals outdoors, learning a new sport like polo, and the many other activities that can add the "fun factor" to your events. From where we see it, there is far more value in activities like that than boozing it up or frolicking nude in a hot tub with co-workers.

© 2006 Executive Oasis International

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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