Thriving in volatility: pharma strategies for a VUCA world

The old model was clear: regulators defined the rules, and companies shaped their strategies accordingly. But that world is breaking apart. With thousands of FDA staff recently laid off, and uncertainty creeping into the most basic assumptions about review timelines, oversight, and even submission pathways, pharma is entering unfamiliar territory: a world without clear instructions.

In this new environment, agility isn’t enough. Why? Partly because we’ve gotten tangled up in more scrums and sprints than a Victorian schoolboy. And with a plethora of pilot programs, cross-functional squads and tribe retros, agility quickly became just another noisy catchphrase, religiously trotted out by management but rarely moving us forward. 

In this Virtual Workshop, you’ll learn:- 

• How a dynamic process can be ambitious without being chaotic. Drawing on lessons from other industries, including finance and tech, you’ll leave an understanding of how to operate in unpredictable environments.
• How to operate in unpredictable environments. We’ll see how commercial, medical, digital and marketing teams can operate when the map no longer matches the terrain. 
• What happens when your go-to-market strategy hinges on guidance that never comes? When AI adoption outpaces internal compliance structures? 

We’ll examine how forward-thinking pharma leaders are building resilience at the process level—so that knowledge flows, compliance holds, and brand momentum isn’t lost, even as external stability vanishes.

The rules are still changing. The winners will be those who can keep moving anyway.