Pradeep Patni: Mapping The Extremely Dynamic & Intensely Competitive Pharma & Lifesciences Industry
Pradeep Patni
CEO
Pradeep Patni started his career with ONGC and after working for five years he went on to do his MBA in Marketing from IIM-Bangalore before starting his career in the pharmaceutical industry. Having working experience of more than 25 years, Pradeep Patni has worked with reputed MNCs like Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, and Abbott in various leadership positions & currently, he is the CEO of Akumentis Healthcare.
Pradeep engages in an exclusive interaction with the CEO Insights Magazine.
Tell us about your professional back ground & experience. What inspired you to venture into the pharmaceutical domain and what drives you today as a leader?
I have a working experience of more than 25 years in the pharmaceutical industry and I have worked with companies like Pfizer, Abbott, Johnson and Johnson & Micro Labs. The reason why I moved into the healthcare industry is that it is an extremely important contributor to the growth of the economy and has a lot of potential where you can do innovative disruptive work for the betterment of society.
To stay up in this industry, you have to be a forward looking individual with high focus on execution. Doing
right things &doing things right, both are equally important especially when the competition is intense & differentiation at any level across the board is what will make you do better than the competition. Apart from that, the marketing and selling is people driven. Thus a compelling value proposition that can be effectively put forth that resonates with the customer as well as benefit the patient is what would make one a winner. This extremely dynamic & intensely competitive nature of the industry keeps me going day-in-day-out.
How would you define Akumentis Healthcare as an organization & its position in the market? Tell us about the latest technologies you have adopted in your organization and how you keep yourself updated with the latest technologies.
Now we have grown to become a top 60 pharmaceutical company in the country & we intend to continue to move forward aggressively. In the last year we completed our go-to-market strategy where we let go off some brands and also created a leaner structure. Akumentis is a learning and forward looking organization, it provides innovative formulation and a value proposition that makes it stand out in the market.
As far as technology is concerned, we do extensive data mining and we also have GPS based reporting system. We deep dive to understand the unmet needs of the patients create innovative approaches and by proper segmenting and positioning our brands we have built an agile organization with a strong supportive ecosystem.
Tell us about some key challenges that you have faced in your journey & how you overcome them.
Since the time I started in the pharma industry, I have worked in the sales & marketing departments of various multinational companies. Each company has a different working model& different approach to customer. It is important to understand the strengths of the each organization its people prioritize properly and have simple, highly executable approach then you will add value wherever you work. But there were times when we faced
As a leader my role is to unleash the competency, capability & talent which my team has
How would you define Akumentis Healthcare as an organization & its position in the market? Tell us about the latest technologies you have adopted in your organization and how you keep yourself updated with the latest technologies.
Now we have grown to become a top 60 pharmaceutical company in the country & we intend to continue to move forward aggressively. In the last year we completed our go-to-market strategy where we let go off some brands and also created a leaner structure. Akumentis is a learning and forward looking organization, it provides innovative formulation and a value proposition that makes it stand out in the market.
As far as technology is concerned, we do extensive data mining and we also have GPS based reporting system. We deep dive to understand the unmet needs of the patients create innovative approaches and by proper segmenting and positioning our brands we have built an agile organization with a strong supportive ecosystem.
Tell us about some key challenges that you have faced in your journey & how you overcome them.
Since the time I started in the pharma industry, I have worked in the sales & marketing departments of various multinational companies. Each company has a different working model& different approach to customer. It is important to understand the strengths of the each organization its people prioritize properly and have simple, highly executable approach then you will add value wherever you work. But there were times when we faced
regulatory changes & these had to be factored continuously into our day-to-day operations which we did very smoothly.
Tell us about your leadership approach and what methodologies you follow as a leader to lead your team.
As a leader, my role is to unleash the competency, capability, and talent which my team has. I strongly believe that most people are inherently having their strengths, so the ability to identify their strengths & craft an ecosystem that allows me to stretch them but also unleashes their possibilities is the approach that I have adopted. I also continuously take feedback from our customers & my team down the line so that we can create an ecosystem where everyone is developing themselves & ensuring that we can service our customers much better.
What are the changes & opportunities in market behavior that you foresee & what advice would you give to the budding leaders in the pharmaceutical sector?
The market today is becoming more regulated and more competitive and the value which you need to add to your customers as well as to your products is also changing. E-commerce platforms have become extremely active, there are frequent regulations from the government put in place, and the disruption of the supplychain from China during the pandemic is going to bring lots of changes in terms of sourcing, marketing & regulations. Therefore, going forward we need to continuously evolve and adapt ourselves to the changing times & we expect government also to play an important role as a facilitator so that the Indian pharmaceutical industry can continue to dominate the world as it always did.
The first and foremost advice to all budding leaders is that you should keep learning. Apart from that be very sure to differentiate yourself, by being innovative as well as disruptive.
Pradeep Patni, CEO, Akumentis Healthcare
Pradeep is an experienced leader with a career spanning more than 25 years in the healthcare industry. He has worked with various MNCs like Pfizer Johnson and Johnson & Abbott and currently he is the CEO of Akumentis Healthcare.
Tell us about your leadership approach and what methodologies you follow as a leader to lead your team.
As a leader, my role is to unleash the competency, capability, and talent which my team has. I strongly believe that most people are inherently having their strengths, so the ability to identify their strengths & craft an ecosystem that allows me to stretch them but also unleashes their possibilities is the approach that I have adopted. I also continuously take feedback from our customers & my team down the line so that we can create an ecosystem where everyone is developing themselves & ensuring that we can service our customers much better.
What are the changes & opportunities in market behavior that you foresee & what advice would you give to the budding leaders in the pharmaceutical sector?
The market today is becoming more regulated and more competitive and the value which you need to add to your customers as well as to your products is also changing. E-commerce platforms have become extremely active, there are frequent regulations from the government put in place, and the disruption of the supplychain from China during the pandemic is going to bring lots of changes in terms of sourcing, marketing & regulations. Therefore, going forward we need to continuously evolve and adapt ourselves to the changing times & we expect government also to play an important role as a facilitator so that the Indian pharmaceutical industry can continue to dominate the world as it always did.
The first and foremost advice to all budding leaders is that you should keep learning. Apart from that be very sure to differentiate yourself, by being innovative as well as disruptive.
Pradeep Patni, CEO, Akumentis Healthcare
Pradeep is an experienced leader with a career spanning more than 25 years in the healthcare industry. He has worked with various MNCs like Pfizer Johnson and Johnson & Abbott and currently he is the CEO of Akumentis Healthcare.