THE SITUATION: A late-entrant player in HIV needed a novel approach to a maturing and relatively satisfied market that had many effective and safe treatment options available. They sought a partner who could develop unique market opportunities and inform portfolio decisions.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: Determine how the team could enable major development decisions for their portfolio that were free from developer’s bias and reflective of market realities and emerging trends.

CUSTOMER FUTURECASTING: Orchestrated a scenario planning simulation with active HIV treaters and patient advocates to identify the biggest market uncertainties. Their real-world views on potential future dynamics and new product adoption trade-offs richly informed unique investment recommendations.

THE DELIVERABLE: A completely new narrative for HIV that reflected the forward-thinking opportunity to spin the franchise into a separate company and position it in a broader and more relevant manner: dedicated to aging lives.

THE SITUATION: A large pharmaceutical conglomerate and a Silicon Valley start-up partnered to create an industry-first innovation—a digestible technology for mental health—to drive improved value across stakeholders.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: The two companies had vastly divergent cultures, structures, and ways of operating yet needed to align on how they would work as one entity to accomplish something that had never been done before.

CONTEXTUALIZED SUCCESS: Designed and facilitated the inaugural summit to define long-term success from each company’s perspective and align on a vision. Created a governance charter, initial responsibilities and interpersonal/team relationships that maximized their respective strengths.

THE DELIVERABLE: A prepared and unified alliance, focused on achieving their common goals, eager to support each other, and sharing the commitment that success was only achievable together.

THE SITUATION: Executive leaders at a top global pharmaceutical company sought to reduce attrition in late-stage drug development. Rather than work with a usual “go-to” consulting company, they thought etch would yield more authentic insights.

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: Identify the factors and commonalities that led to the failure of multiple compounds in late-stage development. The mission was to go deep to determine the cause.

A RETROSPECTIVE ASSESSMENT: Conducted in-depth interviews with close to 100 cross-functional team members. Solicited reflective responses by posing thought-provoking questions and listening without biases. The learnings revealed that the drugs didn’t fail – the decision-making process did. And while no one wanted to hear it, the problem stemmed from a deep-rooted culture of being inwardly focused.

THE DELIVERABLE: The findings reverberated throughout the company and led to lasting change: the implementation of a robust decision-making process at key points in drug development and an evolved culture, both designed to minimize organizational biases, increase transparency, and bolster accountability at all levels.