Billable consultants: 45
Offices: 2
Blockbuster breakthroughs in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries require plenty of time. The discovery, endless tests, regulatory approval, and marketing involved in launching a new drug routinely stretch well beyond a decade.
The patient growth of Putnam Associates, a strategy consulting firm specializing in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (as well as in medical devices and medical diagnostics) founded in 1998, in many ways echoes the pace of the drug-development life cycle.
Putnam Associates Managing Partner Kevin Gorman is a strategy consulting and pharma veteran who also served in the Carter Administration for four years. A collection of business cards from consulting firms that flat-lined motivates him to steer Putnam clear of the Icarus syndrome that commonly afflicts specialized firms.
"We have zealously adhered to delivering quality to our clients," he says. "This means that we have grown more slowly than most firms, but not because there wasn't business to be had. We have always ensured that any business we take on is handled by the highest-quality staff capable of delivering the highest quality of results."
Besides, Gorman adds, pursuing growth at all costs would have diluted the firm's DNA. "You get your best people by growing them internally," he says. "As a firm, we derive a great amount of satisfaction from seeing someone come in as a fairly green consultant and then watching them develop into a superb professional over the next four to five years." The on-average tenure for current Putnam consultants, managers, and partners is seven years.
While Putnam Associates has avoided flying into the Sun, its growth remains bright. The firm's year-to-year growth rate has been in the high single digits to low double digits for the past 10 years, according to Gorman.
Generalist firms, Gorman says, have to reinvent the wheel virtually every time a new project comes along in the pharma and biotech industries. "There is such a nexus of technology, science, and regulations that it creates convoluted decision-making," he explains. "The market was calling for a focused specialty group that also brought the traditional strategy consulting disciplines."
He also believes that too much specialization can fall short of meeting client needs. For example, the new Medicare pharmaceutical benefit (Part D) that takes effect next January has many companies in the industry scrambling to figure out what the change means to them. The niche players in the industry can help by providing highly specific advice, such as relevant actuarial information and trends, or insights on the intricacies of government policy.
Gorman says that Putnam can deliver that and more. "Our focus is to interpret what Part D means for their business strategy and their product strategy, in particular, and to then recommend pricing, positioning, and discounting strategies," he notes. "We are narrowly focused in terms of our industry areas, no question. But within these industries, we think that we offer as broad a portfolio of services as BCG, Bain, McKinsey, or any big strategy firm would offer."
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