This Risky Business course provides an engaging team experience with the challenge of taking the roles of an executive team. The course focuses on the essential mechanics of R&D, BD&L and provides insights into the impact of different strategies.

This version runs 3 to 5 hours, including short presentations on such topics as:

• How does pharma R&D really work?
• How are R&D projects and deals evaluated?
• What are industry benchmarks of key R&D parameters like success rates, costs and duration per development phase?

Fees: € 5.000 + VAT per group of 12 to 24 participants.

In this version, the game is played in a morning session.

The afternoon session offers an in depth workshop and presentation on how to use the insights of the game to review or develop a strategy.

It is particularly suited to prepare a team to develop, review or adapt an R&D or BD&L strategy. Specific aspects of a company’s strategy can be deepened through workshops, simulations or breakout groups addressing such topics as:

• Portfolio Simulation
  What are the odds of success vs total failure under different R&D or BD&L strategies?
• Pipeline Simulation
  What are quantitative requirements to meet growth and launch objectives?

Further details upon request.

Fees: start at € 8.000 + VAT per group of 12 to 24 participants, depending on the level of customisation.

Each participant takes the role of a pharmaceutical executive. The game gives them the experience of a multi−year drug development process, the design of corporate strategies, management of the R&D pipeline, and the execution of partnering strategies (from searches for partners to negotiations).

• 12 to 24 participants form at least four groups, each representing the executive team of a pharmaceutical company. Larger groups can be accommodated upon request.
• During the game, nine turns are played. The team with the highest company value wins. Different objectives can be set.
• In each turn, teams receive funds and Phase I projects and invest in their projects or infrastructure. They can negotiate and arrange deals with other teams.
• Each team completes its turn by paying for R&D projects, infrastructure investments and deals, where applicable. Rolling the dice determines the success or failure of each R&D project.

Each game lasts three to five hours. Participants experience project successes and failures, and watch licensing deals produce value or write−offs. They therefore see the benefits and risks of going for it alone vs. partnering in development, manufacturing, and marketing and sales.

Risky Business can be played by professionals from inside and outside the pharmaceutical industry who want to gain strategic insight into the financial decisions of R&D and BD&L.

The game can be played by all levels, from the executive board to operational functions.

Companies typically play Risky Business at departmental retreats, strategic planning processes, and human resource programmes, as well as global company meetings.

Outsiders to the pharmaceutical industry can also benefit from playing Risky Business. The game has been played by patient advocacy groups and patients, the press, politicians and other stakeholders in the healthcare system. The game helps all these groups better understand the complexities of bringing promising new drugs to market.

Risky Business is simultaneously a fun experience and a challenging team exercise, one that deepens strategic thinking and understanding across all functions and levels in pharmaceutical companies.

The game is an effective way for pharmaceutical professionals to become more knowledgeable about their roles in the two core processes of their company: R&D and BD&L

For people outside the industry, Risky Business provides deep insights into the mechanics of pharmaceutical R&D, progress, risk and failure – areas that are not always fully understood.

Risky Business helps managers get to know each other in critical ways. It provides a safe environment for highlighting problems, staging productive conflicts and, more importantly, learning how to resolve them to produce the best outcome for a pharmaceutical company.

Research on motivation has found that playing games is far more engaging than listening to lectures. Studies suggest that inspiring people to learn new things requires challenge, curiosity, fantasy and control. Risky Business is built on these principles.

"Risky Business Game is an exciting, hands–on way of teaching how the pharmaceutical industry operates. Participants quickly arrive at life–like situations that they have to handle immediately. Playing the game puts their job function in a larger perspective, whether they come from R&D, Business Development, Regulatory Affairs, Production or Marketing. It supports the understanding of top−level strategic decisions and improves the participants’ ability to participate in corporate business processes."

Mogens Qvist Frandsen
Education Manager
LIF – The Danish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry

"The Risky Business board game is fantastic. As a professional working in pharmaceutical portfolio management, the most valuable aspect of the game for me was experiencing through play the discomfort arising from the high risk inherent in the industry. In the short–term you become biased in favour of certain ’good’; projects and in the long–term you experience ’good’ projects that fail and ’bad’ ones that succeed in becoming your ’bread & butter’.

Whether you are a seasoned portfolio professional or not – once this appreciation of risk takes hold, I see that people make better decisions in the game. I strongly believe these learnings translate into the real world, better equipping the participants to make and/or understand strategic decisions when back on the job."

Claus Due Ponsaing
Senior Portfolio Manager
Strategic Marketing
H. Lundbeck A/S