Nick Petschek, managing director EMEA, Kotter International discusses why the UK Government’s Life Sciences Plan Proves that policy needs change management to succeed.
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The UK’s ambitious Life Sciences Sector Plan outlines a comprehensive roadmap aimed at strengthening the country’s position as a leader in science and innovation by 2030. Its targets are compelling, from cutting clinical trial setup times to building an AI-ready Health Data Research Service. Yet while policy and vision provide critical direction, they alone do not guarantee results. As Richard Torbett, chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) puts it, “Without change, the UK will continue the slow slide down international league tables for research, investment, and the availability of new medicines.”
The lesson is not that the plan is doomed to fail, but that ambitious strategies only succeed when coupled with equally ambitious change leadership. Understanding where the challenges lie, and how they can be addressed, offers valuable insight for leaders navigating their own large-scale transformations.
The change leadership gap in policy implementation
The UK established a 10-year Life Sciences Vision in 2021, with the goal of becoming a ‘Life Science Superpower.’ However, by 2024, official indicators revealed underperformance versus potential on economic, health, and research metrics.
This illustrates a familiar challenge for organisations everywhere: strategy documents may set direction, but they don’t automatically create the momentum needed for change. This “policy-implementation disconnect” pattern emerges when organisations focus primarily on creating comprehensive strategies without equally investing in the change management infrastructure needed for their execution.
Success depends on leadership and middle managers who translate strategy into team-specific actions, frontline employees who modify their daily workflows, and cross-functional collaborators who break down silos.
Understanding resistance in multi-sector transformations
The UK's Life Sciences Plan is a transformation that impacts multiple stakeholder groups — government, pharmaceutical companies, the NHS, regulators — each with distinct priorities. It’s natural that these groups interpret policy through different lenses, often creating friction or resistance points.
For example, the plan's emphasis on AI-driven regulatory processes requires regulatory professionals to fundamentally change how they evaluate and approve treatments. These teams have built expertise and credibility around their existing approaches, making them unsurprisingly sceptical of rapid transformation.
Another source of potential resistance is the disconnect between government investment messaging and funding realities. While the policy promises increased support for innovation, pharmaceutical leaders worry about research funding cuts and question whether the NHS will actually adopt new treatments faster. This creates a credibility gap that undermines stakeholder buy-in.
The lesson here is not that resistance is fatal, but that it often stems from legitimate concerns about execution. Successful change leaders acknowledge those concerns, build credibility through quick wins, and provide visible support for teams navigating new ways of working.
Managing mixed signals and building coalitions
One of the most challenging aspects of any transformation is managing expectations when signals appear contradictory. In this case, the government simultaneously promoted increased investment in innovation while implementing cost-containment measures that limit pharmaceutical pricing flexibility. Mixed signals like these often create uncertainty and hesitation that makes it difficult for industry leaders to commit fully to the transformation agenda.
For organisations going through their own transformations, the equivalent might be leaders calling for bold innovation while simultaneously enforcing strict cost-cutting. Effective change management in environments like this requires building coalitions that can maintain momentum despite ambiguity.
The most successful organisations will be those that can unite internal teams around shared opportunities while managing external stakeholder relationships, such as with government or investors, strategically.
The role of change champions
Transformation is most successful when “change champions” step in to bridge strategy and execution. These champions translate high-level strategy into clear, actionable steps, ensuring that both leadership and frontline employees understand how the change affects them.
The pharmaceutical industry's mixed response to the UK plan may reflect a shortage of sufficient change champions who can bridge the gaps and connect government goals with industry priorities, or regulatory innovations with operational realities.
For leaders in any organisation, developing and supporting these champions at multiple levels throughout the organisation is critical for creating alignment and maintaining momentum.
Developing agile decision-making capabilities
Ambitious policy requires equally ambitious organisational capabilities. Traditional structures often struggle with rapid pivots, especially when environments evolve faster than established processes can adapt. Large-scale transformations increasingly require organisations to develop new ways of working that are flexible, responsive, and capable of handling constant change.
Long-term goals provide direction, but operational systems must be designed to adapt quickly. This involves empowering cross-functional teams, embedding faster decision-making processes, and investing in the human capabilities that allow organisations to respond to external change without losing sight of core objectives.
Turning strategy into action
The UK’s Life Sciences Sector Plan demonstrates both the potential of ambitious policy and the challenges of turning vision into reality. For pharma leaders – or any organisation driving transformation – strategy and policy set the course, but it is people who deliver results.
This case study offers several key insights. Firstly, successful transformation requires dedicated change champions who can translate strategy into actionable implementation. As for stakeholder resistance, often it reflects legitimate concerns surrounding implementation rather than resistance against change itself. Lastly, coalition support is key to winning the battle against mixed signals and competing priorities.
Most importantly, remember that outcomes depend on capabilities that can't be mandated through policy alone. Organisational systems that are adaptable to changing environments whilst maintaining focus on their core objectives are the beating heart of effective change. This includes developing adjustable decision-making processes, creating cross-functional collaboration mechanisms, and investing in the human capabilities needed for sustained performance improvement.
The UK Life Sciences Plan is not – yet – a cautionary tale, but it is a reminder: bold ambitions and complex transformation can succeed, but only when strategic vision is supported by the change leadership needed to bring them to life.