WWOC — Where Oncology Marketing Careers Thrive and Grow Fast

Neo Miyashita is the Head of Commercial Excellence, serving on the BMS Japan Leadership Team. Before joining WWOC, he was a Brand Lead and Franchise Lead within the BMS Japanese local market, overseeing the successful launch of hepatitis drugs and establishment of the GI cancer drug franchise. Taking on a global role was a career aspiration of his, requiring a different leadership approach in order to anticipate future marketing needs while looking strategically at the entire life cycle of the oncology drugs his team was managing.

“Rather than applying vertical or hierarchical leadership skills that I had used previously to manage my local commercial team, I instead had to develop a more horizontal leadership style. This meant learning how to influence and partner with my peers in other functions such as medical access, regulatory and clinical, to achieve our shared goals,” he explained. “So, in order to develop market insights and analyze data gathered from various sources in a global context to evaluate the drug’s commercial viability, I had to learn how to lead cross-functionally.”

Sachin Gholap, Director, US Oncology Marketing, who started as Immuno-Oncology Marketing Lead in the United Kingdom, feels WWOC experience prepared him well for his current US leadership role.

“I am more equipped now having worked in WWOC,” said Sachin. “It empowered me to accelerate as a professional and as a leader. When you go into the Worldwide team, the number of stakeholders goes up tenfold. Speaking up is encouraged as you’re working with core groups covering a broad range of expertise such as medical, access and business analytic teams. But the scale of the potential impact is much larger.”

From a career development perspective, going from a local market in the UK to WWOC, then continuing to progress within US Marketing has given Sachin a comprehensive understanding of working within different markets with a diverse group of people. “In a global role, having to work with so many different nationalities, cultures, individuals, who have different ways of doing things, made me a lot more holistic as a leader. I became more aware of what was happening in different markets across the globe and therefore better equipped to support and adapt accordingly to what was needed at a centralized level in Worldwide.”