Commercial Director (Pharma – Innovative)
Our Client’s Challenge
Our client, a billion dollar international pharma company operating worldwide, required a Commercial Director in their ‘Innovative’ division to lead, to create strategy and drive commercial results.
In March 2024 Populus was commissioned, within its partnership plus relationship, to deliver a commercial director to turn around the underperforming commercial aspects of a huge pharma company. The MD and HR had slightly different approaches to the problem and our experienced consultant had to resolve both this disparity and make sure the search results appealed to both.
Our Approach and the Agreement/ Our Response
With a Populus Plus Partnership agreement with this client in place, we suggested an RDR approach within this framework. As is our usual practice, Populus allocated the appropriate practice consultant from the Life Sciences Team to take a brief alongside a member of our SMT for this newly created role. Populus acts as a critical friend and questions and challenges particularly at the briefing stage.
The Process
A research phase plus ongoing research sourced 215 candidates. The research included searching our own databases, competitor company searching, industry searching and client intelligence.
With such an important hire, we used our CRM to share the progress of the recruitment process, from search through to hire but also provided the Director of Talent with outputs from the CRM in the format he desired populated with additional and bespoke information fields.
In total, the practice team sourced 215 candidates. They approached over 130 qualified people, the majority of whom are ‘passive candidates’, ie. not actively looking to change job. Over 30 of these were invited to participate in a qualification interview with our expert consultant who went on to submit 15 high quality CVs. 13 candidates had interviews with the company, and 5 went on to 2nd interview.
Populus arranged an onsite interview at the company’s HQ for the ultimately successful candidate who lived in another country. We arranged interviews with the CEO and the COO of this pharma giant for our candidate who was then made a great offer, negotiated by our consultant.
Furthermore – the company was so impressed with the quality of the candidates that a role is being devised for another candidate from the final five.
Three Client Successful Outcomes
1. Two for One
As well as signing a significant commercial leader, a new role is being created saving the company money on their future growth and development
2. New Leadership and Drive
The new Populus Hire now becomes leader of the commercial department of this Pharma giant, taking on the strategic direction and teams in the US and Europe.
3. 10 week campaign
Engaging with Populus our client - the MD and Director of HR, knew they were in safe hands and reduced their opportunity cost while getting a fantastic result in 10 weeks – a quick result for a leadership role in a complex organisation.
Contact Us
To discuss how Populus can recruit roles like this for your organisation please contact:
Recruitment Consultant – Sofia Furlan – Email: Sofia.Furlan@PopulusSelect.com
Donna James – Research Director - Email: Donna.James@PopulusSelect.com