Building a visionary organization for medical accessibility 

This is the second time Open Quest team has awarded FIA (Facilitation Impact Award). The following paragraphs are the summary from the awardee page. 

Impact 

The project supported the development of Amgen Taiwan as a reliable and innovative healthcare partner and employer of choice in Taiwan. 

Amgen Taiwan has demonstrated significant achievements, including: 

• number of employees increased by 33% since 2018 
• the company was awarded “HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia” in three consecutive years from 2019 to 2021 and also won a WeCare™ certification award in 2020 
• internal referrals for new-hire employees reached 54% 
• internal talent transfers for open positions increased from 6% in 2019 to 45% in 2021. 

Context and challenges 

Amgen is one of the world’s leading biotechnology companies, deeply rooted in science and innovation to transform new ideas and discoveries into medicines for patients with serious illnesses. Amgen Taiwan Limited is dedicated to making innovative medicines available to Taiwan patients suffering from serious illnesses. 

While Amgen has great reputation globally, the brand and the innovative medicines were relatively unknown to the stakeholders including healthcare professionals in Taiwan. Joyce Lee, the General Manager, who was on board in 2018, invited Laura Hsu and the Open Quest team to support her in bringing the organization to the next level through 3 workshops facilitated by them. The first workshop was focused on the challenge at the time – new leader integration, embracing and executing company vision and strategic direction. As initial efforts showed promising results, the collaboration evolved to help address other organizational challenges in the following years – help shaping local organizational culture, cross-team collaboration process in 2019 and 5-year scenario planning to bring clarity on 2025 vision and key initiatives in 2020. 

Project objectives 

Amgen Taiwan needed to show business results fast to gain confidence of the team locally and regionally. The leadership team needed to build an organization that its employees could trust each other and synergize to face business challenges. 

The project objectives were, through workshops facilitated by Laura and her team, the leadership team of Amgen Taiwan could further develop the following aspects in a more efficient manner. 

1. Discern shared values and cross-functionally co-create the 2020 local vision and strategy (2018). 

1. Create desired local organizational climate and redesign the cross-team collaboration processes (2019). 

1. Build 5-year scenario to bring clarity on 2025 vision and key initiatives (2020). 

Approach 

Laura Hsu, an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator | Master, and Ivan Huang, an IAF Certified™ Professional Facilitator, from Open Quest Facilitation Technology worked with Amgen Taiwan over a three-year period. 

During stage one of the project Technology of Participation (Top) Methods, such as Consensus Workshop and Wall of Wonder, and Community Story Telling were used to explore the shared values and vision for the organization. 

In stage two, processes such as Appreciative Inquiry, Dialogue and Process Mapping were used to create desired local organizational climate and enhance the collaboration processes. 

In stage three, processes such as Wave Analysis, Scenario Planning, Systems Thinking and Open Space Technology were used to help the organization navigate uncertainty and clarify options and next steps. 

Acceptance speech