During my career in the pharmaceutical industry in different companies I faced the issue of finding good product managers.
So, as you see, it is a very multidisciplinary task. Very few people are strong in all the capabilities I mentioned. What happens in reality is that the candidates for the job own some of the capabilities and need support for the other.
There are several training courses hired by pharmaceutical companies. I attended some of them. Some are very good, but they all lack one thing. Practice.
I developed several young product managers. Some of them were very talented.
How long does it take and what is needed to have an effective product manager?
The question again is so how we develop them? Since some need support in the skills they are week in, who in the company is supporting them? The boss (the marketing director or the business unit manager) are usually very busy with managing the department and representing it in front of the management and the costumers.
In these cases, I think that after some basic course, coaching (internal or external) are good solutions. I experienced young product managers after attending basic marketing courses are totally lost. Guiding them toward strategic thinking takes time, because the day to day work is also very demanding.
Let us ask first what do we expect from a product manager in the pharmaceutical industry?
In my opinion, what is needed is analytical thinking, creativeness, capability of learning life science material, financial skills, well organized in his work, good personal skills, capability of team working, hard worker and ambitious.So, as you see, it is a very multidisciplinary task. Very few people are strong in all the capabilities I mentioned. What happens in reality is that the candidates for the job own some of the capabilities and need support for the other.
There are several training courses hired by pharmaceutical companies. I attended some of them. Some are very good, but they all lack one thing. Practice.
I developed several young product managers. Some of them were very talented.
How long does it take and what is needed to have an effective product manager?
The question again is so how we develop them? Since some need support in the skills they are week in, who in the company is supporting them? The boss (the marketing director or the business unit manager) are usually very busy with managing the department and representing it in front of the management and the costumers.
In these cases, I think that after some basic course, coaching (internal or external) are good solutions. I experienced young product managers after attending basic marketing courses are totally lost. Guiding them toward strategic thinking takes time, because the day to day work is also very demanding.
Strengthening the product manager in the fields he is week are crucious for his success.
Whom I would personally hire? Smart, good personal relations, hardworker, creative. Graduated of life science and MBA who worked as sales representatives can be very successful. 
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