The Challenge: Meet the challenges of growth, sales force expansions, and realignments.

The Solution: Find a leadership model that is simple, practical, and enduring.

The Results: Use Situational Leadership® II as the common leadership methodology for the sales organization. Provide repeated exposure throughout a person’s career. Tailor the application for each audience.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc. (TPNA) is dedicated to helping patients by providing innovative products that improve their lives with better health care. With a rapidly growing U.S. sales force, Takeda sought to develop its leadership ranks and establish a common language for all levels of its sales organization.

In its quest to find a partner with similar values, Takeda chose to team with The Ken Blanchard Companies^® The result: a customized design of Situational Leadership^® II (SLII^®) that is used for a variety of programs that are tailored for Takeda’s sales representatives, sales managers, and sales directors.

In addition, Takeda has worked with Blanchard to design and implement workshops for numerous sales leadership meetings. These include “Leading Effective Teams,” “Running Effective Meetings,” and, most recently, a customized SLII course for Takeda’s Leadership Development Initiative.

The involvement of Takeda’s sales leadership team in the planning process and their ongoing sponsorship has been a crucial success factor in the effective execution of these initiatives. Randy Lott, the former Director of Sales Training and Development and current Regional Sales Director, says that it is vital to achieve senior leadership buy in. “We gave our senior sales leadership team a role in needs analysis, requirements definition, and in emphasizing the importance of the training to the participants,” says Lott.

Lott also emphasizes the value of attaining participant input before launching an initiative. Lott says that gathering role-specific, real-world scenarios ensures relevance and increases buy in.

Results

This partnership-in-development has contributed to impressive leadership training results and strong, collaborative working relationships. Effective teamwork was fostered during expansion, teams are functioning well, and Takeda has found these simple, practical, enduring principles and approaches helpful in its continued growth!

Randy Lott has served in the pharmaceutical industry for the past 18 years. He is currently a Regional Sales Director for Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America, Inc.