connecting leading industry talent in healthcare communications
with market leaders through executive search
A highly successful Executive dies, and goes to Hell…
She finds herself on a beautiful golf course and in the distance is an Exclusive Country Club. Many of her old friends are there, smartly dressed and having a wonderful time. She runs towards them and they all cheer and welcome her with open arms.
Early on in my Healthcare Communications career (I was on the agency side for nine years before moving into search), I was lucky enough for my first role to join Medical Action Communications (MAC) as a medical writer. MAC were extremely well thought of and definitely one of the market shapers at that time.
What I remember well was the amount of work we picked up through projects being delivered badly by incumbent suppliers. A number of companies freelanced out their medical writing to lower their costs but often the quality was poor; data was reported incorrectly and key messages were missed – to give only a few examples! By not investing in working with the best Healthcare Communications agencies in the first place clients were faced with the situation where the quality of their deliverables was compromised. Compromised so much that it would often have to be totally re written and they paid twice! Oh how heads rolled!
From time to time I have found myself in a very frustrating situation…… HR departments who insist that all candidates have a science degree.
We are not talking graduate intake here. We are talking extremely well seasoned Healthcare Communications superstars, proven and unbelievably successful for an extremely senior position, but there’s a problem ….. one particular candidate who stands out a mile from the rest… doesn’t have a science degree!
And it’s a real shame, because not answering this question is probably costing you thousands in lost business revenue and profits, and it could also mean that you end up with second rate candidates for your critical roles…
Hiring Managers who don’t answer this question will often end up hiring the best from a mediocre pool of candidates that will go on to underperform at best.Hiring Managers who can answer it, have the power to attract the best in the industry, which gives them a competitive advantage.
The thing that makes answering this question so difficult is that often, it’s never actually asked out loud…
I was making my way through my emails this morning and there was one in particular that caught my eye…
It was from Ben Settle, a Copywriter and Direct Response Marketer based in the States…
Anyway … this particular email was about spotting the difference between a winner and a loser…
His argument was … ‘losers are always looking for a magic pill’ and I agree with him 100%...
Losers are always looking for that quick fix, but aren’t willing to put the work in to get results…
