CORPORATE GROWTH STRATEGIES FOR THE LIFE SCIENCES

We help all kinds of companies in the life sciences -- from startup businesses to market leaders - craft and validate their corporate growth strategy.  The goals of corporate strategy are universal.  They start with choosing which arenas to compete in and developing the metrics that determine success and then move to questions on how to compete. Almost every life science client that we work with has both informal and formal strategic planning processes that are charged with periodically evaluating the sources of value and aligning the firm to take advantage of the opportunities. In general, we find  that most life science companies have a deep understanding of their core business and markets and are very good at identifying immediate competitive threats and incremental opportunities.  However, the rapid pace of technological and scientific advancement in life science leaves even the most robust strategic planning process vulnerable to unforeseen threats.  As every executive in life sciences already knows, the lifespan of hard earned market dominance is rapidly shrinking and incremental corporate strategies based on extrapolations from the current  situation are rarely accurate in this market.

Our differentiator is that we believe that successful corporate strategy is built upon excellence in both the strategy development process and the content that drives the strategy.  Alongside our tested corporate strategy process, we bring validated market insight and a team that has experience in separating the hype from the truly game-changing trends in life sciences.  Our strategy development process is collaborative to build consensus and address key issues as they emerge.  We also add a point-of-view and insight supported by primary and market research in the life sciences.  By focusing solely in the life sciences, our staff is constantly interacting with investors, research institutions, emerging companies, competitors and customers.  This provides us an early warning system for new life science trends that none of our clients can match internally.

We believe that in order for a corporate growth strategy assessment to be useful it must first be grounded in the clients' realities.  For this reason, we usually start by jointly defining the fields of play with our clients.  We gather information from relevant stakeholders such as explicit and implicit barriers, financial hurdles, existing technology platforms and business models.  Unlike other firms, however, we then test the information received against our own market insights and data and recommend what we feel is the appropriate scope for the corporate strategy assessment.  Upon agreement with the client, we then start a portfolio assessment which begins with a detailed market and financial review of all assets supported by our ongoing monitoring of key industry metrics and trends. We employ that information to assess how well the client is performing relative to the industry's best practices and the marketplace's full potential.

Upon completion of the baseline information, we can recommend and advise clients with greater certainty as to where they should focus. It enables us to jointly to identify targets for acquisition or divestiture, as well as current assets that could add more value if they were managed to their full potential.  Our analysis includes opportunities to exploit new geographic markets  and new technologies. As part of our work, we develop a detailed roadmap to prepare the organization to deliver on the new strategic goals.

To learn more about Scientia's work in Corporate Strategy, please contact us.