More with less through new global commercial operating model

The why

The client faced a clear commercial pressure. Its pipeline was expanding, launches were increasing, and affiliates needed to support more brands, more channels, and more promotional activity across more markets. But the organisation had to do so with tighter budgets, fewer people, and greater pressure on SG&A efficiency. Leadership needed a global commercial operating model that could enable affiliates more effectively through stronger centralisation, standardisation, and clearer global-to-local support.

The challenge

The commercial model was highly decentralised, with significant affiliate autonomy and limited global brand leadership. Brand planning, campaign execution, and local activation were often managed in parallel rather than through a shared model.

At the same time, budgets were too heavy relative to current revenue, portfolio maturity, and pipeline, despite more launches expected in the near term. Functional silos added to the challenge, with global, regional, franchise, and affiliate teams often working independently.

Outcome

Affiliate archetypes that made the model practical

Rather than designing one model for all markets, affiliates were grouped into archetypes with differentiated capability expectations, service levels, and operating requirements. That gave leadership a more realistic basis for scaling support globally while controlling complexity.

Clearer global-to-local ways of working

The model defined how global and local teams should work together across planning, localisation, and execution, creating more standardised processes and clearer handoffs.

Stronger brand processes and commercial consistency

By clarifying how brand planning, customer engagement, and execution should work across levels of the organisation, the model created a more consistent commercial engine for launches and in-market brands.

A stronger basis for centralisation and cost discipline

The project gave leadership a clearer view of which capabilities to centralise, how to support affiliates more efficiently, and where cost savings could realistically come from.

What moved the needle

Designing from strategic objectives, not only structure The work started from the business imperative itself: support more launches and stronger customer engagement with a leaner commercial setup. This helped to anchor the operating model in real business needs.

Using archetypes to balance scale and flexibility Affiliate archetyping made it possible to standardise more aggressively without pretending all markets had the same needs. This was critical in a mid-sized pharma context, where value depends on creating leverage across markets without overdesigning for local complexity.

Making the transformation decision-ready Throughout the project, we facilitated leadership choices by clarifying implications for service delivery, operating costs, governance, and transition. That gave management a more practical foundation for deciding how far to centralise and how to sequence the move to a new commercial model, while also ensuring strong leadership buy-in throughout the process.

Partner

Jonas T. Karlsen, Ph.D.

Jonas is a life science strategist supporting executives drive progress across the value chain. He is an expert in bridging strategy and execution via global operating model design and transformation rooted in strategic objectives. He engages with structured top-down thinking and a pragmatic and collaborative approach to mobilise organizations and make things happen.

Jonas holds a Ph.D. in biophysics from the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, and further studied at California Institute of Technology. Recipient of the Ministry of Sciences Elite Research Award.

Selected experience

Ecosystem integration and external innovation pipeline
Lab of the future capability building and operating model design
Global clinical operating model design and transformation
Pre-launch strategy for cardiometabolic TA development

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