October, 2009
In August 2009 we conducted a factory tour of the Kawashima Industrial Park for a patient-family association, as an activity that allows each employee to listen directly to the words of patients and their families, and to see the reality patients face, understand unmet patient needs, and identify new patient values.
On the day of the tour, employees involved in Product Creation (R&D) and Demand Chain (Production) led the way in welcoming 14 families from a patient-family association to the Kawashima Industrial Park. Accompanied by two employees, each family took tours of the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry and the packaging process, participated in hands-on experience making Japanese basil juice, and joined in activities in the chemistry experiment classroom, etc. Employees were given the extremely valuable opportunity to associate with patients and their families, including during lunchtime, and talk with them directly.
At the end of the day, participants gathered in the main auditorium of the Naito Museum of Pharmaceutical Science and Industry to exchange views regarding “what Eisai is thinking on a daily basis” and “what patients and their families want from pharmaceutical companies.” In addition, an officer from the patient-family association lectured on the feelings of patients who are battling illnesses, and of their families, providing an opportunity to see the reality patients face, understand unmet patient needs, and identify new patient values.
By learning of the reality patients face, Eisai will not only respond to overt patient needs, but will understand their latent desires, and strive to achieve customer joy that exceeds customer satisfaction, through fulfilling those unmet needs.
