Diversity / Inclusion and Reputation Management

Context: A global management consultancy were charged with assessing and maximising the effectiveness a S&P500 pharmaceutical company’s board, with a view to improving its effectiveness at translating a strong R&D pipeline into profitable therapeutics, and allaying growing concerns from institutional investors.

Solution: IPAV deployed its proprietary diversity, inclusion and operational effectiveness assessment tools directly with the company’s board, which frankly saw the intrusion as a combination of a waste of time and ‘soft science;’ partaking principally to placate the strategically important investors. Using the hard data generated by the assessment, IPAV demonstrated that the risk-perception of all board members was astonishingly similar (risk averse), and dominated by general management and financial skill-sets, with limited understanding of biomedical science or the resource requirements to translate innovations to market. Additionally, it purported that the Global Head of R&D had become so frustrated at resource requests being declined at Board meetings that they had stopped attending board meetings.

Outcome: IPAV connected hard diversity and inclusion data to the company’s ‘bottom line’ and the tremendous development opportunities that were simply not understood by the homogenous board to make bold strategic decisions. IPAV proposed an optimal risk-perception and skill set of a new board, and worked with a trusted headhunting partner and leveraged its deep professional network, to identify and appoint a new ‘refreshed’ board. Today, the Global Head of R&D enthusiastically attends board meetings, three late stage clinical assets that were abandoned by the ‘old’ board are progressing positively through pivotal clinical trials, and the disgruntled shareholders are now in discussions with potential acquirers valuing the company at a significant valuation multiple.