Successful New Industry Expansion
July 7, 2010
by Andy Mangano
Client Situation:
A tier one automotive supplier was looking to diversify their revenue stream and product offerings by expanding into the fulfillment of sample medications and literature for the pharmaceutical industry. Their expansion was enabled by partnership with a third company. 
The challenge was to maintain the company’s preferred supplier status within the automotive industry while cost effectively setting up the processes and procedures to support their expanded business plan. Res Partner’s led the identification and implementation of the new business process and associated regulatory filings needed. This included the initial filing within the controlling state along with supporting the filing of licenses within all 50 states.
What We Did:
In order to establish a base understanding of what tasks needed to be implemented an audit of the facility was conducted along with their existing procedures (the organization is ISO certified). In conjunction with the senior management team a project plan with key deliverables was drawn up and agreed upon. The Res Partner’s Consulting Principal then conducted a training program in order to educate the organization on:
- the new business process for fulfilling pharmaceutical samples and literature
- what the regulatory agencies would require; and
- a perspective on pharmaceutical clients would expect.
The next step was a detailed physical audit of the location, which resulted in recommendations to corrected noted deficiencies in the facility. These recommendations were approved and implemented within the building. In addition, the current organization and its competencies were reviewed and subsequent recommendations were made for required organizational changes. Once this was accomplished the organizations current process flows were reviewed to ensure the organization continues to maintain their ISO certification. We then established a base of required process a flows and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) that had to be written and approved. The Res Partner’s Consulting Principal generated these necessary documents to maintain the ISO certification. Once completed these documents were reviewed and approved by the company’s management team, they were communicated and implemented throughout the organization. Our last set of steps was to submit the proper paper work with the state, which was coordinated by the Res Partner’s Consulting Principal, and the actual audit scheduled for the organization.
Results:
The organization successfully passed the audit conducted by the state and they were granted their pharmaceutical distribution license, at the end of audit, by the inspector. The state inspector made a strong recommendation that other organizations should follow this company’s lead on how to operate. A Res Partner’s Consulting Principal coordinated the filings for the other state licenses’ and the company is in final negotiations for their first supply agreement.