Skills Needed to Thrive in the Evolving Industry Landscape

In a video interview with Pharma Commerce, Gaurav Gupta, managing director and head of R&D at Kotter, discusses the regulatory pressures and rising R&D costs impacting the pharmaceutical industry as it looks toward 2025. Gupta highlighted that many regulatory challenges, such as drug pricing pressures from the Inflation Reduction Act, will persist in the coming years. Additionally, he pointed out the growing integration of real-world evidence into clinical trials and the need for regulators to keep pace with emerging technologies like AI. Gupta believes that these trends will continue to shape the industry without major new disruptions expected in the short term.

He also comments on the steps pharmaceutical leaders should take to better prepare their teams and organizations for supply chain disruptions; specific technical and "soft" skills that will be critical for pharmaceutical leaders and frontline employees to thrive in the evolving industry landscape, and how this can help when it comes to proactivity in handling talent shortages.

A transcript of Gupta’s conversation with PC can be found below.

PC: What specific technical and "soft" skills will be critical in order for pharma leaders and frontline employees to thrive in the evolving industry landscape of 2025, and how can these help when it comes to being proactive in handling talent shortages?

Gupta: We can take two portions to that. I think on the technical side of it, a lot of it [revolves] the skills that you've always needed, but what's probably different now is really more of a focus on how to utilize technology effectively. And that's not just AI, although AI is obviously a big portion of that. Skills around how to use that more effectively [is important], which involves doing that from two perspectives: how do you develop those skills in existing talent, but then how do you recruit for that?

That's not only good from a business standpoint of being able to find those skillsets, but also, frankly, it helps you tap into a broader talent pool. With all of the conversation around technology and AI right now, I think a lot of people are actually looking for jobs where that is a component and requirement. I think that it does help on that front.

The other part, and probably where we have a lot more research around this, is what we were talking about earlier, the skill sets around adaptability. What is increasingly clear is that uncertainty in the environment is not going down, but rather the uncertainty in the environment is only going to go up. What that means is whether it's leaders or folks on the frontline, the skill sets that are going to make us successful is the ability to be flexible, the ability to be agile, the ability to pivot.

What does that mean from a skills perspective? Well, a lot of it is traditional leadership skills, being able to actually paint a picture of where you want to go, but then being able to question when assumptions have changed, being able to question when what we thought was true may not be true anymore. It's skills like change skills, both for yourself as an individual, so how can I myself be more willing to be able to change, and then also, how can I get my team to appreciate when change is necessary? I think that skills around change, adaptability, flexibility, are on the softer side, and then on the on the technical side, it’s really around, how you utilize technology more effectively in whatever aspect of your job where it makes the most sense.