By Emily Stephens (Global’s Founder and CEO)
#NoKnowledgeBaiting
After being in the industry for almost two decades (not to age myself), there’s one thing that has always bothered me about conferences, free webinars, training offerings, CRO white papers and marketing: everyone holds back. Indeed, knowledge is power, experience can save time, money, but generally in industry, nobody talks openly about valuable information. It seems our lessons-learned, our highly successful processes, our unique approaches are held closer to the chest than a winning deck of cards.
I remember debriefing with a colleague/client after an important European conference in 2019 (back in the days when we got to travel and see each other in person). I insisted she come all the way out to Belgium for the experience and was disappointed to hear that the whole thing was “a complete waste of time.” She’d learned nothing of value during the expensive, week-long trip. I felt bad for having oversold the value of the conference, but, in hindsight, I had to agree.
The presentations and breakout sessions were “pretty lame.” I couldn’t think of a single speaker who shared valuable lessons learned, actionable details of successes or failures, patterns of responses from regulatory agencies, practical advice, processes or system improvement. If there were any tips or tricks they were only of minor consequence, just enough to convince the audience that the speaker knew what they were talking about. Generally, speakers would only share enough information to get attention and (hopefully) gain new clients. The whole ordeal felt more like a week of “knowledge bait.”
The common theme: “Here’s just a tickle of information, my dear audience. Now, wouldn’t you like to know more?”
This was quickly followed by, “Here’s my card. If you want the good stuff, I’m $400/hr.”
In building this company, I wanted us to be fundamentally different in our approach to sharing knowledge. We’re in the business of providing service, be it consulting, running trials, preparing submissions, training the next generation of consultants, specialists, and writers. We believe there is so much need or demand in industry, that we don’t have to withhold our knowledge and experience and bait clients. We want to share what we learn. We choose to share what we know. We’re in a unique position to see how many different companies do many different things. This gives us unique insight into industry best practices. If we can take the best of what we see and make it even better, why wouldn’t we share that?
This approach is illustrated in one of my favorite old movies about corporations and business: The Miracle on 34th Street. (Bet you weren’t expecting that reference.) In the movie, the real Santa Claus decides to take the place of a drunken man hired to play Santa during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. The crowd goes crazy over the real Santa, so the execs of Macy’s give him the job of being the official Santa of Macy’s.
Children are delighted to sit upon his lap and list their top requests for holiday presents. Parents seem equally happy until one girl is promised an impossible-to-find Betsie Wetsie doll that has sold out. Without missing a beat, Santa directs the mother to the department store across the street, the arch nemesis competitor to Macy’s. The mother explains to one of the executives how impressive it is that Macy’s would recommend their competitor so her daughter can have the perfect Christmas present.
At first, Macy’s considers firing Santa, but quickly realizes the value in sharing knowledge that benefits the customer even if it isn’t in the store’s best interest.
I love this philosophy! Freely imparting valuable knowledge to better our industry is the purpose of our Global “Knowledge Center”, and in particular, the entire point of the blog we are launching. We’re not doing this to knowledge bait. We’re not doing this to bring in customers or look better than competitors. We are doing this because it is the right thing to do. We all work in this field so we can better the lives of people around us, sick or injured. Could there be any better reason to share everything we can to improve processes, hasten research, save biotech, med-tech, and patients time and money?
If you’re willing to give us your time, we promise to make your experience worthwhile! Our mission—and yes, we choose to accept it—is to approach every blog post, podcast, white paper, webinar—the whole shebang, by asking ourselves first, “what is the most valuable information I can share with the community?”
We’re here to show you our winning hand. I truly hope you enjoy our blog!
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