ONE PARTNERSHIP, THREE STAKEHOLDERS: RETHINKING HOW BUSINESS LEADERS, PROCUREMENT AND AGENCIES WORK TOGETHER

By Annabelle Sandeman, Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Health UK

For too long, procurement in healthcare marketing has been treated as a checkpoint — a necessary part of the process, but often brought in once the big strategic decisions have already been made.

That model no longer reflects the reality of the industry.

As highlighted in MM+M’s recent article on the evolving relationship between procurement, marketers and agencies, pharma procurement is changing fast. What was once seen primarily as a commercial or contracting function is increasingly becoming a strategic business partner: one that must navigate cost, compliance, governance, supplier diversity, data security, innovation and increasingly complex stakeholder expectations.‍ ‍

The challenge isn’t procurement; it’s how we work together

‍But while procurement’s role has evolved, the way we work together has not always kept pace.

‍Too often, procurement, business teams and agencies are still brought together around a problem, a pitch or a pressure point — rather than being connected early enough to shape the conditions for better partnership from the start. The opportunity now is to stop managing three separate relationships and start building one healthier, more transparent partnership between three equal stakeholders.‍ ‍

That thinking sits at the heart of the Healthcare Communications Association’s Partnership Triangle initiative which I have had the pleasure of spearheading alongside other industry leaders. The Partnership Triangle brings procurement, business partners and agencies together around a shared ambition: to create better ways of working that deliver value for all sides. Its first practical output, the Partnership Triangle Playbook, is not designed to describe today’s reality. It is a blueprint for what great partnership could look like tomorrow.

‍And that distinction matters.

‍A new definition of value

In a more complex, AI-enabled, commercially pressured environment, value can no longer be defined by cost alone.

‍AI is already forcing organizations to ask sharper questions about what should be automated, where human expertise matters most, and how technology can create genuine business impact rather than simply deliver efficiency. In that context, the strongest agency relationships will not be built on responding to briefs alone. They will be built on deeper understanding: of business objectives, organizational constraints, procurement priorities and the pressures facing every stakeholder in the system.

‍For agencies, that means thinking beyond delivery. For marketers, it means sharing context earlier. For procurement, it means being involved upstream in strategic planning, not downstream in process management. And for all three, it means recognizing that better conversations happen when everyone understands each other’s priorities from the outset.

What gets measured gets improved

‍The next step is measurement. Not just measuring campaigns, supplier performance or commercial outcomes, but measuring the health of the partnership itself. By looking at shared indicators such as transparency, value and relationship strength, organizations can move partnership conversations from opinion to evidence and create the conditions for continuous improvement.

‍Because partnership quality isn’t a soft metric, it’s a business one. That’s why the Partnership Triangle initiative has developed a practical assessment tool — the Partnership Index. Rather than relying on anecdotal feedback or subjective perceptions, the Index allows organizations to assess the strength of their partnerships through shared measures across three core dimensions: transparency, value and relationship. These measures create a common language for discussion and help identify both strengths and opportunities for improvement.

‍A call to the community

‍The future of procurement is not about balancing competing interests from the sidelines. It is about helping create the conditions where procurement, marketers and agencies can solve problems together — earlier, more openly and with a shared definition of value.

‍Join the Healthcare Procurement Alliance. The first and only global community dedicated to healthcare procurement professionals, launched by the Healthcare Communications Association (HCA) as part of the Partnership Triangle initiative. A forum for collaboration, knowledge sharing and professional development, the Alliance ensures procurement has its own voice while remaining connected to the wider partnership conversation taking place across the industry and agency alliances within the HCA.

‍Share your approach. Whether you are testing a new operating model, embedding earlier cross-functional collaboration or finding new ways to measure, the community would love to hear from you. By sharing real-world examples we can build a stronger evidence base for what great partnerships look like in practice and accelerate progress.

‍Ask yourself, how healthy is our partnership? Because the future won’t be built by procurement, marketers or agency working in isolation. It will be built by all three working better together.

‍For more information about the HCA Partnership Triangle and the Healthcare Procurement Alliance please visit www.the-hca.org.      ‍ ‍‍ ‍