Assisting a biotechnology company overcome growing pains and hit key milestones

The company had to fill new positions with the right people, and evolve the organisation to become commensurate to the new challenges. Thorney issues around shelf-life, supply chain, and locking the full product characteristics needed a fresh approach to close out. Growing complexity required new, efficient ways of working.

Skarbek worked with the company to introduce just enough of the right processes whilst preserving the entrepreneurial and agile culture that had underpinned success to date. We assisted with the recruitment of a new development director and provided an experienced Skarbek associate as a flexible project management resource. They created a comprehensive delivery plan which included integrating the partners efforts in the overall development activities. A simple but effective portfolio management system was introduced that gave visibility and control of the pipeline activities to the development teams and leadership group. A regular rhythm of activities was set up to increase the tempo of delivery and ensure the key issues and risks were addressed in a timely fashion and decision rights were clarified. Finally we worked with a manufacturing expert to unblock the critical supply chain issues holding up progress.

The development of the assets accelerated, and confidence that key milestones would be delivered grew amongst the key stakeholders. A virtuous cycle developed where the increased certainty of delivery allowed the more efficient planning and use of resources. A cultural shift took hold, with increased accountability, more effective teamwork and communication taking place both internally and between external partners.