By Jon Buckley, Experience Director and Kesha Tansey, Client Partnership at Inizio Evoke Europe
“Change before you have to” – an opening line that did more than just set the tone. It captured the urgency running through every session at this year’s NEXT Pharma Summit in Dubrovnik.
This was not a meeting for comfort zones. It was about challenging the status quo, confronting persistent silos, and imagining what real transformation might look like in customer experience, omnichannel delivery and capability development.
Day 1: the blueprint for transformation
From cross-functional agility to unlocking value with emerging tech, Day 1 delivered unmissable insights with a mix of clarity, provocation and practical momentum:
Customers and patients do not care about your functions
And why should they? While we obsess over structure, processes and ownership, patients and HCPs are trying to get support, knowledge, or answers.
Patients don’t care about cross-functionality. But without it, the industry cannot move forward. Bridging the internal gap is no longer optional - it is foundational to trust.Customer experience cannot exist in a vacuum
While customers don’t care how we are structured, they do feel the fragmentation when we are not joined up. That’s why it’s no longer enough to have a good CX plan sitting with one team. For customer centricity to work, it needs to be cross-functional by design and fully embedded across commercial, medical, digital and ops.
The message is clear: “Break away from siloed KPIs. Align commercial strategies around outcomes, not call volume.”‘Flexperts’ are the future – agility matters more than specialism alone
Throughout the meeting, a new term emerged: the ‘flexpert.’ Not someone who knows everything about one thing, but someone who can move across teams, connect ideas, and make decisions in ambiguity.
Now more than ever, flexperts are essential. In a world that needs joined-up thinking and rapid adaptation, cross-functional fluency is as valuable as deep subject matter expertise.Value propositions must be simple, human, and heard
One key theme came up time and again: clarity. The ability to communicate your brand’s value proposition in a way that feels relevant, human, and emotionally engaging is more important than ever. This is not just about storytelling. It’s about speaking in a voice your customer actually wants to listen to and designing experiences that reflect that promise.The digital HCP is not coming – they’re already here
This stat grounded the room:
- 70% of HCPs are digital natives
- 50% are already using AI tools
Digital engagement is not an emerging trend; it’s the expectation. The opportunity is not to build something new, but to deliver smarter, more integrated experiences using the tools HCPs already use.You can’t just buy transformation
Tech investment alone is not enough. Many organisations have bought platforms but failed to unlock value because the culture, mindset and capability did not evolve. Remember, “AI is not your strategy. It is your co-pilot.”
Capability building is what separates overperformers from underperformers. 63% of high performers are investing in this area compared to just 39% of underperformers.Transformation needs C-Suite commitment – and permission to fail
Leaders must do more than sponsor change. They need to own it, protect it, and give teams space to test, learn and recover from setbacks.
“There will be failures along the way. That’s life. Deal with it.” It was a welcome dose of honesty. The organisations making the most progress are the ones who are learning in motion.
“AI isn’t going to take your job. People who use AI will.”
The day closed with a message as powerful as it is repeatable: AI is not to be feared. It is a tool for insight, relevance and scale – but only if teams know how to use it. Meaningfully embedding AI across organisations has never been more critical, so either get on board, or face being left behind.
Day 1 showcased the need for transformation – now more than ever. These ideas are not new, but the willingness to face them with urgency and openness feels like a shift.
The task ahead is clear: move from talk to execution. From structure to experience. From ‘launch and leave’ to ‘launch and live.’
Day 2: from capability to creativity, the real work begins
While Day 1 focused on dismantling structural barriers and reframing experience as a strategic asset, Day 2 was all about application.
From real-world CX deployments to unpicking the meaning behind industry buzzwords, the energy in the room shifted from why to how, with 4 key takeaways:
Optichannel, another buzzword?
There is a new buzzword on the scene: optichannel. Less about broadcasting across more platforms, and more about selecting the right channels, in the right order, with the right message. As one speaker put it: "The only reason we're talking about optichannel is that omnichannel is too hard in pharma."
Grünenthal brought this to life with practical use cases:
- Behaviour-triggered email journeys based on specialty and content history
- AI-curated pre-call summaries to support field teams
- Always-on engagement flows to bring back dormant HCPs
The takeaway? Precision matters more than presence. It’s not about adding more noise, it’s about intelligent orchestration and showing up meaningfully.CX requires both models and mindsets
Florian Gäng – Bayer’s Director of Global Customer Experience Strategy – delivered a session that stood out for its clarity. His team have embedded CX-thinking into brand and engagement planning; not as a bolt-on, but as a fundamental lens.
And there was an honest truth throughout: "You can’t be half pregnant – if you're going to transform, you have to go all in." Success isn't just about adopting new technologies. It’s about transforming the way teams think, how decisions are made, and what gets measured. Or, put another way: "Mindset first. Tech second."Storytelling still wins – even in a data-driven world
Graham Addison – Senior Director of Global Marketing & Launch Excellence at AZ –reminded us not to lose sight of creative craft in the pursuit of efficiency. As he said: "Data is a story with no soul."
In an age of dashboards, scoring models and predictive targeting, the brands that win will still be the ones that connect emotionally. The job of marketing is not just to optimise messages, it’s move people. Stories still matter – not just for awareness, but for trust, meaning and long-term brand equity.Redesigning the role of the marketer
The modern pharma marketer is no longer just a campaign manager. They are commercial architects, translators of insight into action, and connectors of content, channels, data, and outcomes.
At AZ, the OneAZ initiative showcases how strategic alignment across content, tech, UX and analytics can turn digital platforms into real business engines. With one unified experience covering over twenty indications, the programme is designed not just to deliver scale, but to remove friction from the customer journey.
Elsewhere, Lilly presented their blueprint for delivering innovation at speed, without compromising trust. Their agile principles included:
- Radical cross-functional collaboration
- Simple governance and fast decision loops
- Purposeful partnerships with third parties
- A design system to scale assets consistently
The unmissable mantras: "Done is better than perfect,” and "Speed begets speed, success begets success."
Final thoughts: experience is the direction, not just a department
If Day 1 asked us to launch and live, Day 2 asked us to lead and evolve. The sessions showed that change is not about the next campaign or another tech stack. It’s about designing systems, teams and cultures that put people at the centre.
As this summit comes to a close, one thing is clear: the future of pharma will be shaped not by louder messaging, but by better listening, braver collaboration, and more meaningful experiences.
We do not need to do more. We need to do what matters. Better. Together.
To find out more about how these insights are shaping the way we engage audiences in pharma, get in touch here.