People resist change by default. The brain looks for evidence that the current approach is working, and usually finds it. Data tends to say something else. 

In this episode of Pharma Talks, Franck Mayet, Digital Transformation and Customer Engagement Expert, discusses what he learned running omnichannel operations across dozens of geographies. 

The 5% That Actually Differs 

The recurring global-team mistake is assuming one approach travels everywhere. “It’s never going to be like that,” Franck says. “You need to listen to your internal stakeholders and adapt to their needs.” Alignment has to run in two directions — global to local, and delivery operations to business priorities. 

That isn’t an argument for customizing everything. His preferred model is what he calls GloCal: a unified global framework with enough flexibility to absorb the roughly 5% of genuine market-specific nuance. 

“We need to stop thinking everybody is different,” he adds. “What we often see as massive complexity is actually marginal.” 

Data or Interpretation — Pick One 

“Operations must be data-driven,” Franck emphasizes. Running a content factory or a campaign, the capability that matters is capturing and interpreting performance data continuously, so delivery bottlenecks surface before they become expensive. 

Volume makes this non-optional. “I’ve been managing 7,000 requests across 30–40 geographies. Out of 7,000 requests, something will naturally go wrong. You need to acknowledge that to remove the pressure,” he says. 

Teams default to what they’ve done before because it feels safe. Changing delivery based on evidence rather than preference is what makes the next move visible at all. As Franck puts it: “you don’t know what you don’t know. Only data will tell you whether it’s a smart move or not.” 

He’s equally direct about the failure mode on the other side — collecting data nobody uses. “Data should be accessible to both client and vendor. Reporting only works if people use it. Otherwise, it’s just noise.” 

For his team, the standard is enforced in both directions: “Don’t tell me we have an issue without showing the data. Or say everything is fine without proof.” Anything else is interpretation, and interpretation carries bias. 

Feedback Is Data Too 

Turnaround time and cost per asset tell half the story. Customer satisfaction and stakeholder feedback are the other half, and they don’t arrive in a dashboard. 

“You’ll never know how much you served the needs of your customers unless you ask them,” says Franck. 

Global teams exist to support the business, not to run parallel to it — which makes the feedback loop between global operations and local business units structural rather than optional. 

Automation Adds Roles, It Doesn’t Remove Them 

“You unlock more creativity when your people aren’t stuck doing the basics,” says Nataliya Andreychuk, podcast host and CEO at Viseven. 

Franck’s view is that AI can absorb the low-value work — copy-pasting, manual compliance steps — and the point isn’t headcount reduction. It’s giving local teams the capacity to answer the questions that matter: what’s the right engagement strategy, what does the effective customer journey look like. 

He notes a pattern in where omnichannel capability grows fastest: markets where a digital lead sits at the same table as the business, close enough to hear the pain points and speak up during planning. 

Where to Start 

“It must be enterprise-wide. It must become part of your DNA,” Franck says. That needs leadership backing, and a clear message that building the ecosystem doesn’t make anyone redundant — it frees resources for the moments where field force effort is decisive, like a launch. 

Vendor relationships need the same transparency. Surfacing bottlenecks and raising concerns is what prevents tunnel vision on both sides. “If you’re afraid of change, you’ll never bring value. Experiment, iterate, and learn what works.” 

Resistance will show up regardless. Every team, marketing or business, needs to see how the transformation changes their own workflow for the better. That’s the point where it starts moving.