Why Pharma commercial innovations often fail? (& how to fix execution)

“Strategy” is everywhere in pharma and medtech—but execution is where most organizations fail. or fall short.
In this episode of the Amplifiz Pharma & MedTech Innovations Podcast, host Guillaume Villard sits down with commercial leader Andrés von der Walde to challenge conventional thinking around strategy, organizational change management and commercial innovation in Pharma.
This is not another high-level conversation. It’s a practical, sometimes controversial deep dive into why transformation initiatives fail—and what leaders & professionals must do differently to actually deliver results.

🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why organizational change management is broken (and how to rethink it)
- The dangerous gap between strategy and real-world execution
- Why most Pilots end up in a “museum of innovation” instead of scaling & delivering tangible impact at scale
- How to balance innovation vs. day-to-day business pressure
- The concept of “obsession with what can go wrong”—and why it’s critical
- Why AI, omnichannel, and data strategies fail at scale in Pharma
- The truth about Next Best Action (NBA) and why it can backfire
- How leaders can build real ownership (not black-box innovation)

💡 Key Takeaway
There is no such thing as a “plug-and-play” transformation.

If you want innovation to work in Pharma or MedTech, you must:
- Engineer it for real-world complexity
- Align it with daily operations
- And most importantly, own the process—not outsource it

🧠 Who Should Watch This?
This episode is a must-watch for:
- Pharma & MedTech executives
- Commercial, Medical Affairs, and Omnichannel leaders
- Digital & AI transformation teams
- Anyone working on customer engagement, data strategy, or innovation at scale
- Consultants & Tech providers

📌 𝙂𝙪𝙚𝙨𝙩: 𝘼𝙣𝙙𝙧é𝙨 𝙫𝙤𝙣 𝙙𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙖𝙡𝙙𝙚 (𝙎𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝘿𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧 - 𝘾𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙧 𝙀𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩 & 𝘾𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨 - 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝘼𝙨𝙞𝙖 𝙋𝙖𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘 𝙖𝙩 𝙉𝙤𝙫𝙤 𝙉𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙠)
📌 𝙃𝙤𝙨𝙩: 𝙂𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙪𝙢𝙚 𝙑𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙧𝙙, 𝙁𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 & 𝘾𝙀𝙊 𝙤𝙛 𝘼𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙯 𝙋𝙤𝙙𝙘𝙖𝙨𝙩

🔗 Follow Andrés von der Walde on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vonderwalde/
🔗 Follow Guillaume Villard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalgloballeader/
🔗 Visit Amplifiz website: https://amplifiz.com
🔗 Follow Amplifiz on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amplifiz

🕓Timestamps:
0:00 Intro, objectives & disclaimer
1:23 What is wrong with Change Management? 
5:13 Being obsessed with what can go wrong
9:31 Why do people get cynical and how to create synergies?
15:22 Working with proximate objectives to engineer change
18:53: Why Tech sovereignty is key for Leaders?
25:53: State of Commercial Pharma innovation today
28:34 What gets you excited in Pharma and your take on Next Best Action 
33:20 Wrap-up and conclusion

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Pharma strategy execution, medtech transformation, pharmaceutical commercial excellence, omnichannel pharma, AI in pharma, next best action pharma, change management healthcare, pharma digital transformation, HCP engagement strategy, data-driven pharma, innovation in healthcare, commercial pharma leadership
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