Aligned with the overall project objectives we had defined 3 main activities:
Task 1. Work on the development of an upgraded business plan for the next 5 years.
For task 1 we have implemented the following activities:
1) Build an interview guide for customers and potential customers with inputs from members of the R&D teams and the Commercial team
2) Assess information gathered during the interviews and produce a summary
3) Conduct meetings with our Scientific Advisory Board to understand current market dynamics and latest trends in Drug Discovery.
4) Create a new strategy plan that reflects the chosen set of strategies
5) Presented the strategic plan to the Board of Directors for approval
This new strategic plan questions the financials assumptions of the previous business plan which assumed a very steep growth in fluorescent ligands. Our change in market approach, more focused on delivering a complete solution to researchers rather that selling just ligands will have a smoother growth timeline.
Our view of potential investors also changed because we now realize that some of our competitors like Eurofins might be potential investors looking to complement their offerings.
Task 2. Adapt Celtarys workflow to scale up our activities.
For task 2, we have contracted a consulting company ‘Sinapsys Business Solutions’ that worked with us on 2 streams:
1) Diagnosis of different aspects of Celtarys (Management, Finance, Marketing, Operations, Knowledge Management, Continuous Improvement, People Management and Infrastructure)
In this stream the main activity was assessing key processes by functions and what needed to be improved. This gave us a thorough cross-company view.
2) Workflow analysis and process maps with a prioritized action plan for implementing improvement actions.
In this stream we did a impact analysis to understand the impact in each function and to decide which actions would be a priority.
The consulting company involved several members of the Celtarys team and our CSO Maria Majellaro was key for the project development.
After considering all aspects (efficiency, safety, cost, quality) we have now a much clearer view of our operational needs for further expansion.
Task 3. Consolidate our business team with the incorporation of a senior business developer.
For task 3 we have expanded our business development team. One of the risks was our ability to attract and hire the right profile for business development. In order to overcome this we started by designing an attractive job description. Because hiring ourselves for this role was such a challenge, we have engaged LIM Global an executive search company specialized in Lifesciences. We found the right candidate and the team was expanded, and commercial reach was increased. Commercial activities and marketing campaigns were launched even though we still haven’t seen the repercussion in newly generated sales. One example of a thorough awareness campaign was the one we launched on LinkedIn with content for 11 relevant posts that were launched from May till July. This campaign had an average click rate of 2%.
Celtarys also increased its market exposure by participating in important events in the drug discovery sector.
Our target customers segments still remain the same:
1) Big pharma and biotech
2) CROs and mid-size pharma and biotech
3) Research groups
However, the way we go to market needs to be different with an evolution from our products (ligands) to solutions (kits with ligands, biological products and protocols of use) which bring a higher value to our customers.
Our overall evaluation of this project leads us to the conclusion that the objectives we had were accomplished because:
1) we were able to produce a new coherent business plan
2) our ability for scaling up R&D has increased and indeed the team increased
3) we have expanded our business development capabilities
