Response - Case: Orion Pharma

Part of Orion Group, Orion Pharma is the largest pharmaceutical company in Finland. Its turnover in 2003 was 479.8 million euro, and the company employed over 2,700 people. Orion Pharma covers the whole lifecycle of a medicine. The company develops, produces, markets and sells its products.

Orion Pharma is divided into four divisions; core therapies that produce new medical innovations, special products, veterinary products and medicines. Over one third of our turnover comes from innovative original products and selected special products that are built on our own research.

The focus in our core therapies is in three main areas; diseases of the central nervous system, cardiac diseases and intensive care; and hormone treatments and urology.

Our own sales organisation focuses on the European market. World wide coverage is established together with international medical companies. Approximately 35 per cent of sales income comes from the domestic market, 45 per cent from Europe and 20 per cent from the USA and the rest of the world.

We have successfully used the Response feedback system in our internal events. A very good example was the Information management strategy meeting. Usually, there would be 80 people listening while one speaks. But we wanted to activate the audience and decided to rent the polling system and build the whole event on it from the ground up. We went through the strategy by polling and discussing. Everyone was actively involved, and the new way of working brought us very positive feedback.

After this positive experience, we decided to buy the Response system. We have used it in process development and other training occasions. The latest version has yet new useful features, for example setting priorities. The system enables each participant to vote anonymously, which speeds up decision-making and agreeing on operations. For example, there was a chain development meeting where all suggested tasks were prioritised and scheduled together, and a key person was chosen for each task. The decisions were made openly, and commitment was high because each participant had directly effected on the results.

Riitta Palonen,
Concept Owner,
Orion Competence Center