The 2021 Best Small Firms to Work For: SSI Strategy

Client Industries Served: Life Sciences and Biotech

Consulting Service Lines: Strategy and Operations Management

CMAG: How would you say you've managed to stay among the industry's Best Small Firms to Work For amid these unprecedented times?

It was a year of transformation for our company and our client partners. As the world looked to our clients for life-saving therapies, our clients leaned on our team to fill gaps and drive innovation. In our work supporting the functions of the Chief Medical Officer, we are close to the science and program-specific challenges of bringing novel therapies to market. This year more than any, our team really felt the value that we are bringing to each engagement. We were the secret sauce for many successful programs. We capped off the year with a growth investment from our private equity partner (Amulet Capital), helping us accelerate our plans to support the Medical and Scientific needs of Life Science companies. We are building an insourcing capability that makes us fully fungible to our client partners. We also ended 2020 with a robust capital fund to invest directly in our clients, which we are putting to important use. We are a highly collaborative organization but the macro-environment required us to really lean in and trust one another. We added awareness and transparency in a virtual world by creating more frequent communication outlets, monthly all hands, and other meetings to update our team on our vision. We also worked hard to keep things fun despite our aggressive growth goals.

CMAG: Were there any specific programs or initiatives (internal or external) that contributed to you being a Best Small Firm to Work For?

During the last 24 months, we really accelerated our efforts to create a focused growth strategy and a plan to expand our functional breadth. We established a clear vision and delegated roles to many colleagues to shape the company. We focused on the build-out of internal functions such as recruiting, training, mentorship, and culture to further hone the skills of our team and support their career development. Our colleagues have the opportunity to not only work across interesting, impactful projects at the forefront of the Life Science industry they also have the opportunity to make their mark in the company and our service array. The challenges and rewards that they have encountered via client work as well as our collaborative and entrepreneurial internal culture are what contributed to our success in being one of the Best Small Firms to Work For.

CMAG: What is unique about your firm? What sets it apart?

One of the most unique things about our firm is our consulting model, which leverages a mix of medical (e.g., former CMOs, seasoned Physicians, and Ph.Ds.) and business consulting staff. Through this format we've established ourselves as a leader in the Medical Office, supporting the Medical, Clinical and Drug Safety functions of pharmaceutical companies and biotechs. It's also opened doors for us to partner with the CXOs of emerging biotechs, as our model reflects their immediate needs to propel the science while developing an organization. This model allows our business consulting staff, many with science backgrounds or interests of their own, to deliver closer to the science than they normally would in traditional models. They support key activities such as product launch, medical strategies and organizational development. In the same token, our Medical experts share expertise with our clients and our team. Both athletes get together to take down any challenges or problems in the client setting and the result is quite powerful. Our clients believe in the model as well, knowing that they have the right people in place to bring in timelines and meet scientific and timeline targets.

CMAG: What's the top priority over the next 6 to 12 months?

Over the next 6-12 months we hope to round out our 'medical office' capabilities to be a complete partner to our clients. We do plan to acquire additional companies and grow organically. We also aim to build our operations and expand our people competencies with extra emphasis on cultural programs including a focus on career development. We do plan to get really creative and expand modes of internal collaboration and practice sharing. We are working on some amazing programs and operational economies are starting to bubble up. We recently acquired a small firm to expand our Pharmacovigilance and clinical capabilities. We will be growing our presence in the UK and EU significantly while maintaining the growth we've had in our US offices (Parsippany, New York, Boston, San Francisco).

CMAG: When you look at the remainder of this year and 2022, what excites you? What opportunities do you see in your markets?

We are most excited by the speed by which the market is advancing life-saving and other novel therapies and the opportunity to play a huge role in expediting those timelines. We can save lives, support growing teams, and snatch success from what would have been delayed or suspended programs with the right forms of support. We are just scratching the surface on what we can do with our amazing client partners.

We also have established a Gene Therapy Accelerator to enable the rapid expansion of early-stage companies through the combination of direct investment and our industry-leading consulting capabilities. We continue to seek out partners and investment opportunities in this space.

CMAG: What impact do you think being a Best Small Firm to Work For has on the firm? Employees? Clients?

SSI was built organically and in partnership with another perennial best firm's winner who helped incubate the company, Acquis Consulting. We are very proud of our heritage.  We know first hand the impact that a spot on the Best Small Firms list can have on recruiting and the internal pride of our colleagues.  We are very excited to be here in our first year of entering.