Training Manager AstraZeneca Spain
Interviews/ Fernando Martínez Quintana

Fernando Martínez Quintana
Training Manager
AstraZeneca SPAIN

What do you think is the influence of the “new technologies” on the internal formation of the pharmaceutical industry?

The use of the new technologies in the training and formation of the Commercial Networks of any sector plays an absolutely crucial role. Thanks to these technologies, the proper training can reach each Delegate in a fast and effective manner, allowing for the implementation of ambitious plans for continuous training, which had represented in the past, a high cost, both in terms of time as well as financial resources.

Furthermore, the new technologies constitute a very powerful communications tool which makes it possible to rely on new graphic resources which were unthinkable before its development, and which will help to illustrate concepts which could otherwise only be developed in a course requiring physical attendance l.

In your opinion, what are the advantages furnished by Internet and the new technologies in the training of commercial delegates?

Specifically, in the pharmaceutical sector, the technical training of our Delegates who visit doctors is very important and on occasions, complex, both due to its content as well as the preparation of our clients. The new technologies and in particular the multimedia applications furnish us with a very visual, dynamic, interactive and simple way of explaining a whole series of concepts, which, with a “traditional” training could entail a high level of complexity and elevated costs, especially in terms of time. We could say that they facilitate the training both for the Delegates as well as for the Trainers.

In turn, Internet furnishes us with something as important as “global communications”. We have Delegates all over Spain and in order to maintain the right levels of “continuous training” the only alternative will have to be that of offering traditional training courses requiring attendance. These courses, on one hand, are on occasions unavoidable (for example in the training of sales skills), but they can prove to be an inconvenient interruption in the commercial activities of the Delegate. Thanks to Internet we can contact any Delegate wherever he is, in real time, if it is necessary and take advantage of all the benefits of using multimedia tools.

According to your experience, how is the implantation of this type of platform received by the users? How can the resistance to change be minimized?

In general, most of the users welcome the use of these platforms for it is logical that they perceive in the first person, directly, all the advantages to which I am referring. There is a standard cliché which describes the salesperson as a “man or woman of action”, and this means that the perspective of spending a few days “tied up in meetings”, attending a course, for example, on pathology, is not appealing to them. Another alternative could be the On-line training (from his own home with self-evaluations and “at his own pace”) is usually preferred and welcome.
It is true that there is always certain resistance to change in specific individuals who might see the computer (and anything related to it) as a “necessary evil”, as a tool which complicates their life more than facilitates it. In this sense, I believe that this type of problem, which can in fact arise, with the use of management programmes, can be totally minimized with three fundamental points:

1º Any Delegate is aware that as each day goes by, the quality of his work takes on extremely higher levels of training.

2º The contents of the training can prove interesting and be based on the “day to day” life of the Delegate.

3º The way of presenting the information based on multimedia technology is pleasant, easy to use and understand, and is often “spectacular” and at times, why not?, it can even be fun!.

AstraZeneca Spain is a pioneer in the use of Internet as an indispensable tool for the optimisation of the internal processes: Do you think that the sector in general is adapting well to the use of the new technologies?

In general I think this is the case. It is true, oddly enough, that despite the fact that it is clearly recognised that it is now necessary to adapt the multimedia tools to the internal training and formation of the pharmaceutical industry, it was initially difficult to progress in this sense. Perhaps this was because the new technologies were considered more as tools for the promotion of the products with the clients and most of the time and money were invested in the creation of these new technologies.

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