Case Study: Bristol-Myers Squibb

Executive Summary

Client Situation

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) is one of North America’s largest pharmaceutical companies with sales exceeding US $19 billion in 2001. In an environment of industry consolidation and widespread patent expiration for many blockbuster drugs, the company saw the need to increase sales and develop its product portfolio. BMS executives wanted to build a pipeline of revenue generating ideas to grow its pharmaceuticals and medical products businesses. That process would require collecting a large volume of input, of varying quality, and creating an evaluation method for reviewing ideas with minimum expense and staff time.

The Solution

After initial attempts to create an in-house solution, BMS selected Idea Central, the industry’s leading Idea Management software from Imaginatik. The system was quickly installed on the internal BMS network and used by thousands of employees worldwide. Offered first to brand teams supporting specific products, the application was then used for ideas generated around line extensions, marketing and communication tactics, and direct-to-consumer and doctor communications. The system, known as the Idea Bank, collected ideas using structured forms and allowed for rapid review.

The Results

By 2003, more than 5,000 ideas and concepts had been collected. BMS had implemented several employee suggestions in the market, particularly to support product launches. One project, the “War on Diabetes”, allowed BMS to introduce a range of diabetes products and management tools that help improve the quality of life for diabetes patients, achieving one of the fastest conversion rates for a patented drug in the history of the pharmaceutical industry. In this way BMS has been able to harness the enormous brainpower of their highly-skilled and educated work force to address critical business challenges.

Imaginatik CS-0803-1 Innovation at BMS.pdf (82kb)

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