Customer Impact Story

Accelerating the Future of Oncology

A Bold Model for Early Development

The Challenge

Navigating Complexity, Accelerating Breakthroughs

The Oncology Early Development (ED) organization needed to accelerate the delivery of transformative medicines while navigating the ambiguity of early phase trials.  Traditional processes were too rigid, slow and siloed for the agility required. Key obstacles included:

  • A late-development mindset in ED with process-heavy approaches slowing the work.

  • Fragmented decision-making: Siloed functions, misalignment, inefficiencies and rework.

  • Bureaucratic churn with excessive reporting, unclear governance and overly complex protocols.

  • Lack of internal experimentation: no collective cross-functional space to test new ways of working and approaches.

We introduced a new way of working - The Early Development (ED) Unit - A cross- functional, dedicated team designed to optimize agility, execution and impact. Key innovations introduced:

  • “Jazz Band” ways of working - a more fluid and adaptive model, such as using “Think Tanks” to openly brainstorm with teams and leaders.

  • Trial execution “SWAT” teams - Small, cross-functional teams empowered to eliminate bottlenecks and accelerate decision making.

  • Empowered decision making - Shifted decision authority closer to the work via decision rights and decision sprints.

  • Instituted learning loops - Established a retrospective practice to reinforce continuous learning and improvement.

The Approach

Creating an Agile, Experiment-Driven ED Unit

The Outcome

A New Model Designed from the Inside Out

The impact of these changes has been transformational, setting a new benchmark for how early development trials are designed and executed.

  • Tripled the ED portfolio with 5+ FIH studies a year for 6 years in a row.

  • Faster development timelines – Decision making cycles were reduced from months to weeks, dramatically accelerating early trial execution.

  • Greater cross-functional collaboration by eliminating silos and establishing structures for cross-functional problem solving.

  • More focus, less churn by eliminating excessive reporting and redundant meetings.

  • A scalable blueprint used to influence operating models across the organization.