Rethinking leadership in drug discovery projects

Great efforts have been dedicated to rebuilding the engine of pharmaceutical R&D. However, one potential area of improvement has received limited attention in the literature and in practice: namely, leadership. In this article, we enrich the traditional views of leadership, which consider leadership a responsibility of a few centrally placed authorities, with the concept of distributed leadership. Distributed leadership reflects a group-based capability driven by everyday activities and the key scientific questions at hand. We identify three leadership challenges faced by R&D teams that could be addressed by implementing distributed leadership. Furthermore, we provide some suggestions as to how to foster distributed leadership in drug discovery projects.

► We apply the idea of distributed leadership to boost drug discovery performance.
► The dialogue between distributed and centralized leadership is crucial for success in innovation.
► We show how pharmaceutical companies can foster distributed leadership.