Could an Interim Executive Save Your Business?

For many life science companies, being able to find someone with the right expertise at the right time can sometimes make the difference between succeeding and going under. That’s why interim management is playing an increasingly important part in the talent lifecycle.

When it comes to interim management and life sciences what was once a niche stop-gap activity now plays a key part in providing organisations with the talent they need to succeed in a competitive and fast-moving environment. Sometimes, finding the right person at the right time can quite literally make the difference between success and failure. And this can apply to start-ups as much as it can mature, well-established life science players.

A key advantage of working with an executive interim is that they have the experience and knowledge to spot a problem early and the skills to deal with it before it becomes terminal. They are often executives with a successful career in the sector before making the conscious choice to work on a project basis as opposed to a single employer.

Strategic Advantage

For example, Talentmark recently worked with a biotech start-up whose private owner was reluctant to commit more cash after his initial $50 million investment. As a result, the company faced an uncertain future. We brought in a business development specialist who is negotiating a licensing agreement that could generate $6 billion for the business and secure its future.

Another assignment involved a private VC-backed company that wanted to go public but lacked the knowledge or internal capability to do so. Talentmark found an interim chief financial officer who transformed the business in less than three years, talking it public on NASDAQ. Additionally, its share price value soared from around $1 billion to $6 billion in the six months after the flotation.

The best interims can think strategically but also roll up their sleeves to get the job done. We placed a senior interim executive on an assignment for a Japanese bio-pharma The business had made a significant investment in order to launch a new drug, but the process was not going to plan and the source of the problem was not clear. As our executive interim had strategic medical and clinical in-sight, she was able to identify that the geographically-dispersed team was not operating efficiently and required reorganising to deliver what was required. The company’s executives gave her the responsibility to refocus the development programme and get the business back on track.

New Opportunities, New Approaches

Currently, we are seeing increased demand for interims in the clinical trial space where there is a boom following an 18-month hiatus during Covid when non-Covid related trials all but ground to a halt. This growth is being bolstered by a record level of investment in the life sciences industry. As a result, there are significant skills shortages which interim specialists able to fill at short notice.

Whilst it’s not unusual for executive search firms to provide personnel for clinical trial work on a contract basis using interim managers, Talentmark recently had the opportunity to provide an innovative solution for a biotech client which had a skills issue to resolve. We assembled a team of interims specially chosen for their ability to work together effectively and charged them for the project as a whole just like a CRO would.

I have seen multiple occasions when an executive interim has played a pivotal role in helping to turn around or even save a business.

This offered a number of advantages. Firstly, using a team of executive interims created the flexibility to optimise staffing when the needs of the trial changed as it went through the different phases. Secondly, working directly with the sponsor means that the team is focused on a single goal. Thirdly, as executive interims typically bring much more experience than is available in-house, and this that creates a real competitive advantage.

I have seen multiple occasions when an executive interim has played a pivotal role in helping to turn around or even save a business. This comment from one of our interim specialists who has more than 20 years’ experience of running trials in both large pharmaceutical companies and contract research organisations sums this up perfectly.

“Knowledge is power. If you are on a trial and something goes wrong you can’t ring around Merck, Syneos and a few other companies to find out what they have done to fix the problem. They wouldn’t tell you. But I have in-depth experience of running trials and solving problems at these companies — so I can tell you.”