Date & Time of event : 2020, June 6
Pierbruno Ricci, PhD in Molecular Biology, Consultant Pharma & Healthcare, CEPTON Strategies. Here is more information about the speaker.
Video from the event you can watch on our Youtube channel Paris Biotech
Recommended books and resources:
What is strategic consulting?
Most of the companies need external expertise for certain tasks where they lack expertise. Strategic consults help companies to manage these specific problems and guide them through the process. Consulting aimed at improving the efficiency of companies and optimizes existing processes.
How did you choose the career path in strategic consulting?
I was inspired by a book about strategic consulting and found several reasons for myself to become one. First, what I liked is that strategic consulting is a very dynamic environment. It provides variability of tasks, challenges, clients from different fields (pharmaceutical, biotech companies, small startups, life science investing funds, etc.). Second, in a short period of time you can learn how different types of companies work, what kind of problems they face and how these problems can be solved. Third, you have a lot of human interaction which I missed in academic research.
What are the main requirements from candidates at interview in strategic consulting companies?
The main goal of interview is to understand wheatear the candidate will be good at it. Doing consulting requires not the particular knowledge about problems, but rather an ability to reason in a structured way, being able to approach problems efficiently and find the best solution. Consultants should be able to start from zero, create a plan, and find different ways to solve the problem. They should provide the best possible solution that client would not find on its own.
What is the best way to prepare for an interview?
You should learn how to become great at case studies. You can learn how to solve cases from books like Victor Cheng’s - Case Interview Secrets. Together with the knowledge of the Life Sciences field will help you to become a great consultant. Another way that can help you is via education. I did a specialized Master in Biopharmaceutical management at a Business school. You can skip this step, but then you need train yourself more about business, because Life Science consulting is all about business. You need to learn on your own about revenue, profit, fixed cost, etc. You will also need to pass GMAT test to show that you are able to make calculations related to business.For Life Science consulting in particular, you would need to know well the clinical trials process.
What are the downs sides for you of work in consulting?
One of the down sides of consulting for me is probably the intense working schedule. I usually work from 9:00AM till 8-9:00PM (12 h in average) with pauses. In other companies it can be even more. For me, however, after PhD training is not a big issue and I really enjoy my work. Second, the work is quite demanding and, often, in a short period of time (2-4 weeks) you need to become an expert in certain field. As a result, the turnover in strategic consulting is very high and people work here on average about 3-4 years.
What kind of background usually people working in Life Science consulting have?
We are about 25 people at CEPTON, and about a half of my colleagues have background (PhD or MSc+Business school) in biology or other fields. Everyone is unique and has an interesting combination of knowledge.
Is PhD useful to enter strategic consulting?
PhD is useful in strategic consulting because of obtained soft skills and ability to approach complex problems, not because you have particular knowledge. Often people without experience in experimental biology make great consultants in Life Sciences thanks to their ability of structured thinking. If you want to enter strategic consulting you need to be informed about the field. You need to follow the latest business news, e.g. mergers and acquisitions between companies in Life Sciences, Pharma, etc. Transitioning to strategic consulting would mean, however, giving up research itself and if your prefer research it is not an advisable path.
How do you see yours near future?
My objective now is to continue the path in strategic consulting. I want to become a senior consultant, then a product manager and then participate in leading the company.
Do you have some advice on improving structured thinking?
The best way is to train the case studies with other people (especially more experienced), practice market sizing. You can check craftingcases to prepare for case interview.
What are the usual exit options from LS consulting?
Usually after working in consulting firm you can go to work to one of your clients. Some people join some other companies, or venture capitalist firms. Other people leave to found startups.
Why do you think it is so important to have a good knowledge in economics? Would it be possible to be consultant “only” in more specific subjects?
Yes, you can do consulting specialist, but you won’t be able to do it as a strategic consultant. Knowing business is important because most of clients have business related problems even in Life Sciences field.
Would you suggest doing internship before applying for the job?
Yes, once you set your foot inside of the company, you did 50% of the job of getting hired. Even having an internship in such a company is very competitive. It is a great start to show your value. If the company will like you they will definitely want to keep you. It is not easy to find good people for consulting.
Are you working mostly on your own or in teams? Does it depend on the mission and the client?
It depends on the mission and the client. Usually it is a small team with 3-4 people. Sometimes, for shorter missions you have just one person, for example, project managers and senior consultants are able to manage the whole mission on their own.
What types of client do you have?
It is around 50% of Big Pharma clients, 35% small companies (startups and biotech companies) and 15% investing funds.
Do you get to choose the company to work with?
Yes, you can. In a small consulting firm, however, it is a nontrivial task to make sure that all 25 people are always on a mission and everything is optimized. Usually the consulting company takes all the projects and finds people to do it.
What do you do if you are not on a mission?
It is rear, but if it happens, you can do research, you can write, you can help your colleagues or you can help with recruitment process.
What is the reaction of the industry after COVID-19 and we will start recovering?
Most of companies have lost money due to COVID-19. Thus, the budget for most of the companies has got tighter and they will want to cut some of their spending. In parallel, a lot of companies invested a lot into finding the vaccine against COVID-19. The company that will able to find the vaccine will win a lot in the long term. In my opinion, in October/November we will have first positive results of vaccine search and the year after we will have mass vaccination.
Which vaccine (RNA or live attenuated) do you think will be the first one to hit the market?
I did PhD on micro RNAs and I personally hope it will be RNA based , but it is hard to predict. At Cepton Ctrategies we regularly post updates about COVID-19 and treatments and I suggest you to start following it. There are different strategies (attenuated vaccines, RNA-based), but we should wait for the results of current studies.
As Pharma/biotech companies are investing lots of money in COVID19 research. Are they economically at risk? Do they reducing investment in some other areas?
They usually evaluate the risk carefully. If they invest in COVID-19 research it means that they can take this risk. Moreover, finding a solution for current crises is a great financial possibility. They do reduce investments in other areas, but it is uncommon that companies would fire people just to invest in COVID-19.
Do you know if in EU many companies are working with immune therapies for oncology?
Yes, there are many companies working in this field. It is the future of oncology. Clearly we have a lot of missions in this area. It very innovative and gives a lot of promises, but it is not yet completely clear if it will be much better than previous treatments. The price of this new treatment is also very uncertain. Often, small biotech companies develop treatments and then they sell their technology to bigger companies.
Do you use external experts in consulting?
Sometimes missions are so specific that you need experts. Sometimes we call experts to verify our ideas, but often it is us who become experts. Sometimes we also can hire outside consultants for some missions. It also depends on the budget and size of the company.
Did you work on AI applications in drug discovery / repurposing, what are the trends and how advanced Big Pharma is in this area?
Big Pharma is like an elephant in a forest. A company with 40k employees and 30 clinical trials at the same time. AI is definitely the future and will offer a lot of advances in Pharmaceutical industry. It is getting implemented more often, but the rate is quite slow. Big companies usually have established working process; however, they lack agility and prefer to hire external experts to launch new directions. This is a job for operational consultants.
What is the salary range in consulting?
Starting salary varies; it starts with 30-35K, and as a project manager at 60-70K. Usually the salary is much better than in academic research.
Do French consulting firms prefer people studied at Grandes écoles?
Generally, yes, for historical reasons and because grandes écoles are much respected in France. However, it is possible to get into consulting firm without it, like I did. Moreover, 50% of peoples studied at grandes écoles are not coming from France and profiles are very diverse. In other countries like Germany or Italy it is not a question.
Do you want to start your own consultancy firm? What is the timeline?
I did consider creating a twin of CEPTON strategies in Italy doing the same job in a different country. I really like this job and I can easily see myself in this company for the next 10 years. Regarding the timeline, having a 3-4 clients per year can be enough.
Do you prefer working in a big consulting firm or a small one?
I did both and I prefer the smaller one. Big consulting companies often recruit generalist consultants rather than specialists and orient their focus to the most profitable industary. Smaller boutiques hire more of specialists are get specialized and in certain industries. In smaller companies you also know all your colleagues, their expertise and you can establish better professional connections. In big companies the advantage is that you have colleagues all around the world and you can always contact them to answer some questions. In a smaller company you do everything yourself.