Meet our Practice Leaders | Join Veeva R&D Services Europe

This video, featuring practice leaders from Veeva R&D Services Europe, offers an internal perspective on the company’s culture, operational philosophy, and approach to innovation within the life sciences technology sector. The primary purpose of the discussion is to articulate the unique value proposition of working at Veeva, emphasizing a fast-paced, customer-centric, and intellectually challenging environment. The leaders stress that Veeva is fundamentally a "different company," driven by a commitment to rapid product evolution and deep customer partnership, which allows them to bring significant innovation to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries.

A central theme explored is the symbiotic relationship between Veeva and its customers. The practice leaders highlight that innovation is driven not just by internal development, but by building "trusted relationships" to truly understand customer challenges. This understanding is then used to directly inform and drive product development, ensuring customers receive solutions for what they are "really asking for." Furthermore, Veeva aims not only to meet customer needs but also to "reshape the customer's perspectives" on how processes can be executed, helping them "break new ground" and change operating models. This proactive stance positions Veeva as a strategic partner, not just a software vendor, particularly as customers in the industry are increasingly seeking to innovate and accelerate their pace of change.

The discussion also heavily emphasizes the operational intensity and learning culture required to succeed within the organization. A critical operational detail mentioned is the speed at which Veeva’s products evolve, changing three times per year. This rapid release cycle necessitates a culture of constant learning, ensuring employees are always mastering new functionalities and innovations. The leaders stress the importance of critical thinking, taking responsibility, and pushing boundaries as core work ethics. They foster an environment where making mistakes is accepted as long as the organization learns from them, promoting continuous improvement and resilience. This intense focus on execution, speed, and continuous professional growth is presented as the engine driving both internal development and customer success.

Key Takeaways: • Rapid Product Evolution Requires Consulting Agility: Veeva products undergo significant changes and updates three times per year, demanding that consulting partners maintain an extremely high pace of internal learning and certification to effectively implement, integrate, and customize solutions for clients. • Innovation is Customer-Driven: Veeva’s product roadmap is heavily influenced by deep, trusted relationships with customers, using direct feedback on operational challenges to drive innovation, suggesting that consulting firms should focus on translating client pain points into actionable feature requests or integration needs. • Strategic Partnership Focus: Veeva aims to be more than a vendor; its goal is to "reshape the customer's perspectives" and help them "break new ground," indicating that successful consulting engagements must involve strategic change management and process optimization, not just technical implementation. • High Pace of Internal Operations: The company maintains a "really fast" internal pace, requiring consultants working with Veeva platforms to match this intensity, focusing on execution, critical thinking, and pushing boundaries to deliver timely results. • Value of Integrity and Leadership: Practice leaders emphasize the importance of acting with integrity, being bold and honest, and leading the customer, suggesting that successful engagements require consultants to confidently guide clients toward optimal, compliant solutions. • Learning Culture is Mandatory: Due to the constant introduction of new functionalities and innovations, continuous learning is not optional; consulting teams must proactively dedicate resources to mastering new Veeva releases immediately upon deployment. • Embracing Failure for Growth: The culture encourages making mistakes as long as the organization learns from them, highlighting the importance of post-mortems and iterative improvement cycles in complex software development and implementation projects. • Focus on Execution and Intensity: Success within the Veeva ecosystem requires putting in significant effort, working with intensity, staying focused, and prioritizing execution, which is a key expectation for any partner firm engaging in complex system integrations. • Challenging the Status Quo: Veeva actively helps customers change the way they are operating and innovate, confirming that the life sciences industry is currently undergoing a significant shift toward digital transformation and requiring external expertise to facilitate this change.

Key Concepts:

• Customer-Led Innovation: The methodology of using deep customer relationships and direct feedback loops to inform and accelerate product development cycles.
• Perspective Reshaping: Veeva’s strategic goal of not just providing software but influencing and changing the customer's traditional operating models and views on what is technologically possible.
• Three-Times-a-Year Release Cycle: A specific operational detail indicating the high frequency of product updates and the resulting requirement for continuous professional development among users and consulting partners.