When Conflict Arises With Your CDMO
By Shawn Eisenberg, Board Member, Outsourced Pharma Editorial Advisory Board
Although much of what is related in this article is common sense, common sense can run in short supply during conflict. I know. I’ve spent much of my career working closely with CDMOs on pharma/biotech projects, and I’ve taken my share of both right and wrong turns.
In this first part, I’ll focus on some typical causes and exacerbating factors in CDMO-customer conflict, and some high-level considerations for conflict resolution. Part two will include some representative examples.
It is no secret that ideally, conflicts should be avoided before they start. How a project begins can either reduce or magnify the risk of conflicts. It is critical to carefully review and align the Project Plan to the detailed requirements in the Request for Proposal (RFP). Combining these with a transparent CDMO selection process and a well negotiated contract can help avert many sources of misunderstanding and conflict from the beginning.
Situations like these are common and will drive conflict. Once conflicts develop, however, the goal should be to avoid things turning more toxic, and the focus on productive avenues of resolution that can end up strengthening long-term relationships.
What Not To Do
When individuals or entire teams are frustrated and distrust sets in, resolving conflicts become exponentially more difficult. Here are a few examples of behaviors that can raise emotions, undermine credibility, and generally exacerbate conflicts.
Going native
It is not that uncommon to feel like your own team is being unreasonable. Let your colleagues know that you have their interests at heart; sharing perspectives on what is motivating the other party in conflict can be helpful to move your team towards a solution-oriented mindset.
However, taking a stance that can be perceived as against your own team and in favor of the other party can still erode your credibility and breed resentment. Candor behind closed doors (often one-on-one) can be a catalyst for internal resolution; doing so publicly or at the wrong time can render you ineffective.
Having a sense of entitlement
The belief that once business has been awarded, the CDMO must agree to every customer demand can frustrate relationships and work against both parties during conflicts.
A well-crafted proposal and RFP alignment validated by the customer against their requirements is a solid tool to help combat this. Also, preemptive education of those less familiar with shared responsibilities and external relationships—e.g. your Clinical Development team or leadership outside of CMC-Operations—can also go a long way towards cultivating a shared understanding of corresponding limitations, and in fact lead to better risk and supply planning.
On the flip side, when CDMO’s are dismissive of customer ideas or imperatives, it not only frustrates the customer, but often erodes the CDMO’s credibility (e.g., when legitimate technical or operational requests made by seasoned professionals are not take seriously. “None of our other customers ask us to do it that way,” holds no water, and is generally disbelieved and detracts from the relationship.)
Broadening this out a bit, developing awareness of any behaviors that are raising the collective blood pressure is invaluable. It helps both sides dial down the intensity and encourages a more constructive mindset.
Tools To Resolve Conflict
There may be countless ways to resolve conflicts, and there is no shortage of advice on the topic. (My example of great advice is in Steve Erb's Maintaining Harmony With Your CDMO Using 'The Middle Way'.)
From my own experience, I know resolving conflict is rarely a linear process; it requires on-the-fly adjustments. I’ve heard it said if a wrench is not working, then reach for a crowbar; and when that is not working, you have to reach for something else. The point is to avoid getting locked into any one strategy to try to resolve challenges. Take stock of insights from failed approaches and adjust.
When it does become clear a conflict is developing, here are a few grounding principles I try to keep in mind.
Practice Patience
Often to me, the solution to a given conflict seems obvious: “We should be able to resolve this in one meeting or a well-worded email.” But as you might guess, my hit rate is pretty low.
Most often, several engagements and perhaps different approaches are needed to make progress on hurdles that arise. It does nobodyany favors by trying to short-circuit an iterative process. Accept that some (most) challenges take time, and a practiced patience.
What’s Your Motivation?
What is it that’s motivating the other party!? Is it unreasonable time constraints, other customers, financial pressures, personal success or failures, etc.?
If you have cultivated relationships at multiple levels with the other party, often determining motivations is a heart-to-heart discussion away. And more often than not sponsors and providers can work together on a solution that alleviates the pain points on both sides.
Don’t Win, Compromise
Yes, I am referring to the magical “everyone walks way happy having achieved a ‘win-win.’”
Hard to achieve. Worth working at arduously. That’s because, when one side perceives a ‘win-lose’ outcome, any short-term gains of the winner are filed away and never forgotten by the ‘loser.’ This haunts a relationship, and in my experience, follows individuals and companies even years later. Most conflict, if it is driven by legitimate business or technical challenges well articulated or mutually discovered, is resolved with each party flexing enough to satisfy both parties. True in other parts of our lives, this is critical in outsourcing relationships in our industry.
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With these concepts in mind, we’ll look at some specific approaches and examples in Part 2.