I had the opportunity to interview Ted Lai, the Chief Digital Officer at Sanofi Greater China. And this was a pretty fantastic opportunity.

Not only is Sanofi an important pharma and healthcare company. It is also a great example of how to do digital transformation at an advanced and complicated multinational. This is something Ted has been doing for most of his career.

This article is what I learned.

First, Some Background on Ted Lai

Ted Lai grew up in New Jersey and later went to Stanford in electrical engineering. With an emphasis on computer science. And with an emphasis on the business applications of technology. Which is really quite close to what he has spent his entire career doing.

After Stanford, he began his career at Disney, which included planning the transformation of theme parks into new experiences with technology, including VR.

Then it was off to Harvard for an MBA, where he was inspired by courses on the digital transformation of traditional industries.

So, you can already see the pattern that defines much of Ted’s career. He was always (mostly) driving digital transformation. Both at digital startups trying to transform industries from the outside in and at large multinational companies going the other direction.

And this is really the most advanced level of digital transformation.

At a large corporation, you do have dramatically more resources. But these organizations are, by definition, far more complicated operationally and organizationally. And they come with a host of challenges, such as engrained (some might say entrenched) legacy technology systems, organizational structures and bureaucratic interests.

This is playing the digital transformation game on hard mode.

Ted’s One Way Ticket to China

After business school, Ted worked at some dot com startups trying to transform (disrupt?) traditional industries, including one that IPO’d on the NASDAQ for +$1 billion market cap right as the bubble burst.

He later joined AOL Time Warner, which was recently formed from the merger of digital giant AOL and traditional media giant Time Warner. Ted was again at the epicenter of big digital transformation, this time in traditional media.

That is a particularly interesting problem.

Media is often the first business to be completely disrupted by new technologies. It is a digital good by definition. And media technologies, content formats and consumer behavior are continually in flux. Digital transformation in media seems to be a never-ending process. Did anyone see TikTok coming? Or podcasts?

This is playing the digital transformation game at 2x speed.

Then, days after Sept 11, 2001, Ted flew on an empty 747 jet to China to take up the role of Head of Television at Warner Bros (now part of Warner Bros Discovery), where he established content licensing business to TV and online platforms.

His role at Warner Bros later expanded to include all of Asia, where he would launch a TV channel and accompanying online “catch up” services He also initiated the digital transformation of the Warner Bros TV business.

And that empty plane flight ended up being a one-way ticket. He has now spent the bulk of his career in Greater China/Asia.

And that was pretty good timing.

These past two decades have been an exhilarating time to build a career in China. He is one of the earliest cohorts of Western business leaders to enter China, just shortly after China’s entry into the World Trade Organization.

Ted Specializes in Advanced Digital Transformation

Around 2010, Ted (in my outsider’s view) really started specializing in the digital transformations of advanced and complicated businesses.

He joined as Head of Asia for BBC Worldwide, another media company facing digital disruption. In this case, his mission was to drive growth across the business units, using digital transformation. At the time, the BBCW had an interesting portfolio of legacy media assets, including TV, film, home video, CPG, live events, magazines, and the Lonely Planet travel guide. Plus, there was a lot of focus on launching on-demand services, mobile apps, and games.

This is an important point.

You can get a lot of benefits from digital transformation. It can save costs. It can improve and/or standardize quality. It can protect you against disruption.

But the big goal is growth. You want to use new digital tools and processes to:

• Grow the customer base
• Improve customer experiences
• Increase convenience and remove pain points
• Increase engagement and retention
• Launch new services

The main bottom line for these types of digital initiatives is usually growth.

After the BBC, Ted joined as President/CEO of Zoodles, a digital startup delivering personalized digital education using machine learning (AI) to kids (3-8 years old). Again, Ted sought to digital transform a traditional industry—in this case, pre-school education.

He was later recruited to HSBC as Head of Digital China.

Here the goal was to create new and improved digital banking experiences. At the time, HSBC was struggling to keep pace with the China tech giants in digital banking services. HSBC’s mobile app was fairly low ranked in reviews. And it was seldom used.

Ted and his team drastically improved the app and created a suite of services within WeChat. The goal was to simplify banking transactions for HSBC customers.

The team also created a new dynamic website, staff tablets, chatbots for customer service and even innovative education and health solutions. He later led a newly formed team to create partnerships with tech giants such as Alibaba and ByteDance.

This was an interesting career move.

Media, while dynamic, is a much simpler business. Banking and financial services is a far more advanced and specialized industry. With lots of complexity operationally and technologically. Plus, lots of regulations.

Which is similar to his current role at Sanofi, the digital transformation of an advanced and complicated business.

And the point of this article. I’ve given you his background, which is really hard to match. But here are the lessons you can (should) learn.

Lessons in Digital Transformation from Sanofi China

Sanofi is a French pharmaceutical giant. It’s a +$45B revenue company with +80,000 employees. It makes most of its money in prescribed pharmaceutical products and vaccines.

It’s product line up is big, including:

• Immunology, led by blockbuster drug Dupixent.
• Diabetes, including Lantus, Toujeo.
• Cardiovascular diseases, including Plavix.
• Vaccines, such as for flu, RSV, and 5 in 1 for infants.
• Multiple sclerosis
• Rare diseases
• Lots of other stuff

And China is now the 2^nd largest market for pharma. But business is highly dependent on your portfolio of drugs. Especially any blockbusters. Business is also highly dependent on the regulations and pricing situation in your categories.

So it is like HSBC, an advanced and complicated industry. But arguably much more so.

Yes, we are talking about government regulations (like banking). But we are also dealing with the complexities of fundamental science, which is a lot more difficult.

Ted is part of Sanofi’s global digital organization. But he has been the architect of digital transformation at Sanofi China. So, his China team is empowered to decide solutions aligned with the global architecture but also with the China digital ecosystem.

As a result, he has built a separate China tech stack including an alternate data and AI foundation. And hosted on Tencent Cloud (allowing Sanofi China to be compliant to the China data laws including cross-border data transfer restrictions).

And from our discussion, I summarize his approach this way. These are the key lessons.

Step 1: Get the foundation right

You need to build the data and tech infrastructure right. This can take years. It includes fixing the data assets (getting it cleaned and in one place, etc.) and getting the IT architecture in place. This is huge undertaking at a complicated MNC.

Step 2: Get the talent right

Hire the right people. And train and organize them appropriately. And extensively.

This includes the entire cross functional team. It includes the product owners, the CX designers and the software developers. It includes the data engineers, analysts and data scientists.

Step 3: Capture “quick win” use cases as you build

Use early use cases to win over business leaders and early adopters. This will lead the way for broader adoption across the organization. And it will buy time to work on the harder solutions that take much longer to deliver.

Step 4: Tackle and deliver high impact use cases

To have a significant impact, you really need the business leaders aligned on the needed changes. The digital transformation can only create the tools. You need the business leader to adopt them.

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That’s my impression of the approach.

Note that Ted’s role is as a cross-functional leader across all aspects of digital, technology and data/AI. This allows him to make rapid resource reallocations and break silos so that the team can solve problems holistically. His team is in the range of 150 FTEs with hundreds of additional contractors and vendors supporting.

Within this approach, they are basically at step 4 now. Which means focusing on their first major high impact use cases. I’ll get into those in Part 2.

Cheers, Jeff

• 3 Big Use Cases in Pharma Digital Transformation from Sanofi Greater China (2 of 2) (Tech Strategy)

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From the Concept Library, concepts for this article are:

• Pharmaceutical

From the Company Library, companies for this article are:

• Sanofi China

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I am a consultant and keynote speaker on how to accelerate growth with improving customer experiences (CX) and digital moats.

I am a partner at TechMoat Consulting, a consulting firm specialized in how to increase growth with improved customer experiences (CX), personalization and other types of customer value. Get in touch here.

I am also author of the Moats and Marathons book series, a framework for building and measuring competitive advantages in digital businesses.

This content (articles, podcasts, website info) is not investment, legal or tax advice. The information and opinions from me and any guests may be incorrect. The numbers and information may be wrong. The views expressed may no longer be relevant or accurate. This is not investment advice. Investing is risky. Do your own research.