BioTen video series: Professional search

Interviewer: Jonathan Wildman, Senior Client Partner, Biopharma/Med Device Advisory Lead, Korn Ferry

Speaker: Jon Liebman, Sector Leader, Biotechnology, Korn Ferry

Jonathan Wildman: Hi, folks. Welcome back to BioTEN. This is the eighth video in our series and today, I'm joined by Jon who is a leader in our Biopharma ProSearch Business. Jon, thanks for joining us today.

Jon Liebman: My pleasure. Thanks for having us, Jon.

Jonathan Wildman: Of course, of course. So, before we get into your client example, I think you're going to talk a little bit about what Professional Search is for Korn Ferry, so the audience knows the space that you play in.

Jon Liebman: Absolutely. So, yeah, Korn Ferry has always been known for its executive search presence and it's amazing that sometimes when working with new clients, they really didn't know that we had a pro-search division, and the prosearch division has been around actually for about 20 years and our function is really to work on roles that fall in middle management.

So, working on associate director level roles up through VP and those searches can range in sector anywhere from, you know, discovery all the way through commercialization of a product and launch.

Jonathan Wildman: Perfect and often times, you're working hand in hand with our recruitment process outsourcing business as well which I think is what you showcase in your example, is that right?

Jon Liebman: That's correct. That that's absolutely correct. I think, you know, part of the beauty for us and what we can bring to a client is that we have so many different applications that are available under one roof versus having to go to multiple vendors and in a couple of different instances, what we've done is we've had clients that are finishing out phase 3. They're moving into a commercialization stage. They need to start to position for launch while they're waiting for the FDA to give them their thumbs up and they will come to us and say, okay, you know, we need to build out 50 roles within our middle management that range in, you know, from marketing to maybe even some pharmacovigilance and R&D related roles and we also need you guys to help us with a sales force build out because we want to run that. We don't want to outsource it and so, what we basically can do in tandem is while we're building out these middle management positions for them our RPO team is able to come in and build out a sales force in really a matter of months to get them really prepared for this launch. Therefore, you have a sales force there.

They can also be moved to other product lines in the future and so, it's a really great value proposition for a client who's looking for a one-stop shop.

Jonathan Wildman: And Jon, what I love about what you do as well is your capability, the solutions we have in the space play across multiple operating models’ and clients, whether they're going to bring capability in house, whether they're going to separate it across product lines, geographies, depending on where the product is in the in the pipeline of course as well. So, it's really exciting.

Jon Liebman: Correct. Absolutely and globally as well. You know, again, it doesn't stop in North America. The work can be done in in Europe. It can be done in Asia and all simultaneously. So, even if there's a global launch going on, ability to take that on you know, full steam ahead.

Jonathan Wildman: Wonderful. For questions for Jon, please see his email address to the side and reach out at your leisure. Jon, thanks so much for joining us.

Jon Liebman: Thanks, Jon. Thanks for having me.

Watch all of the BioTEN Video Series