OUR EXPERTISE

Strengthen Your CORE

CORE Consulting Group provides a range of consulting services to help biotechs scale. Each of these areas are grounded in data and employ highly interactive approaches to engage and align your team(s).

Vision & Strategy

It all starts here.  Helping your team to hone your Vision/Mission and strategy to drive alignment to the overall strategic roadmap for your company.  This is dynamic.  Strategy is not static, and neither is our approach.

  • Working closely with senior team, mapped out five-year view for this promising and novel technology company. Integrated the Science with the Business & People needs and mapped out value inflection points (tied to financing). Gained input and alignment from the Board to the overall strategic plan. Served as a critical roadmap to guide internal research and development efforts along with overall corporate development strategy.

  • Facilitated portfolio strategy sessions for mid-size biotech looking to (re)assess existing and future assets and ensure a clear view of priorities internally, including defined decision criteria to assess programs on an on-going basis. Looked at the broader competitive landscape as part of the project. Resulted in ranked prioritization with resources and gated staging focusing on the high potential programs. Linked results to broader BD/corporate development plans.

  • Partnered with leadership team to assess operational model and redesign to align more closely to scaling and growth needs as the evolved from research into development and a single-asset into multi-program view for the company.

Thriving Boards

We dive into the Who, What & How of THRIVING BOARDS.  This is grounded in best-practice data and the collective experience of the top-performing Boards in biotech.

  • Lead Board of Directors through annual Strategic Retreat to focus on the longer-term view for the company allowing for more “white space” to debate and align around the key strategies and implications beyond a typical Board meeting. Focus more directly on teaming as a Board and their overall evolution.

  • Work with Board to further establish themselves as a Team identifying what great looks like and define norms and expectations to guide the group. Using validated tools, create opportunities for Board members to better understand their fellow Directors and the strengths and blind spots of the group.

  • Developed a proprietary self-assessment tool to diagnose Board and Committee health across numerous dimensions. This data (collected over time) is an invaluable tool to help continue to “raise the bar” for the Board and guide staged Board evolution. The tool can be further supported by one-on-one interviews to dive into specific issues as needs arise.

Next Level
Leadership Teams

As your company evolves, so does your leadership. We walk hand-in-hand with leadership teams to help you get to the next level of effectiveness. No obstacle courses here, we employ “content-driven teaming” to raise the bar for your group. We bring proven tools to guide and support you on this

journey including CORE team diagnostics, 360s, leadership & development, personality assessments and more.

  • Partner with senior leadership over time to ensure that they are focused on “leveling up” across all aspects of their leadership team – including the strategic, operational, and core leadership view. Work closely on a quarterly basis to engage in strategic discussions aligned to the latest internal developments. Rolled out personality assessments to ensure that team members understood their peers’ preferences and communication styles. Worked through emerging issues as a group on an on-going basis. Focused on overall health and performance of the team including collecting and reflecting on team self-assessments. This team has successfully navigated high levels of complexity and the inevitable ups and downs of biotech levering on these core investments in the team.

  • We are told we have a UNIQUE approach to bringing people/teams/organizations together for Offsites. We engage with our partners to lead meaningful, strategic, and cultural events for leadership teams and organizations. These are typically led on an annual cadence and highlight the Science, Business and People/Culture progress internally. Homegrown, these Offsites become critical touchstone events for teams and organizations – each one shaped to a strategic theme representing that unique moment in time for the organization. Highly interactive and engaging, these are strategic and cultural experiences not to be missed.

  • Conduct exercise annually with biotech leadership team to gather 360 feedback for each leader (aligned to the company’s unique leadership model). Invaluable tool for leadership development and planning – partner with leaders to review data and discuss trends and specific ways to use this to get to the “next level” of their own leadership journey. Work with full leadership team to assess group data and set goals as a group.

Culture & Organizational Development

We employ data-driven approaches to guide your overall culture and organizational evolution. Includes: Culture, Assessments, Values Definition, Operating Model Work, Organizational Design as you move from research into development and commercial.

  • Launched a validated culture tool to assess the overall health and engagement in growing biotech organization. This included partnering with senior leadership to design and launch tailored tool aligned to industry best practices on innovation and engagement. Upon completion of analysis (delivered in a simple dashboard view), partnered with leadership to identify and amplify the key engagement trends. Led listening tours to roll out the culture data broadly and learn more in smaller groups about ways to lever on strengths and close out any gaps emerging. Invaluable tool to measure growth and organization now committed to conducting exercise annually.

  • Launched grounds-up team to define the unique values for this newly spun-out biotech entity. Got to the core of what matters most in terms of core behaviors and beliefs. Resulted in creative, organic, and inspiring set of core values that have become real touchstones and anchors for the organization. Ensured that these values are infused into the overall culture of the organization in a meaningful way.

  • Partnered with young start up company to redesign the program team structure and overall operating philosophies for this platform company as they were moving from one program to advancing many at same time they were moving from research into development. Worked closed with both senior leadership and program teams to ensure focus and clarity on their roles and overall communication and decision making. This also included developing an overall Portfolio Management capability and quarterly cadence to guide the portfolio view.

Our Client List

  • "Kate has a keen and creative ability to rally a team toward a common goal. She is really one of a kind! Her approach to Leadership Offsites/Board Retreats is unique and powerful — creating invaluable cultural and strategic touchstones for any growing biotech. At Alnylam, she connected our team with vision, mission, and purpose for over a decade, during our most formative years. She is a true partner fully-vested in the company and the team."

    -John Maraganore, Ph.D.
    Former and Founding CEO, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

  • “I have had the pleasure of working closely with Kate for years in the areas of strategy and strategic teaming. She is wonderful to work with; she is smart, direct, compassionate and funny! Her work and style has an outsized positive impact on the teams and organizations she engages with.”

    Jeff Goater, Venture Partner, Column Group

  • "I encourage all my CEOs to work with Kate if they can. Her strategic experience paired with her ability to coach, elevate discussions, and navigate challenges make her an ideal partner for leadership teams. She has a rare mix of skills that enables both Boards and C suite members to facilitate strategic planning and alignment – the end result on the other side is always a stronger sense of team and vision. "

    David Grayzel, MD Partner Atlas Venture

  • "Kate has been an instrumental strategic advisor to executive leadership, including Boards. She has an innate ability to walk into an organization and quickly garner credibility and trust, inspiring cross- functional teams to spring into action with a focus on customized strategic planning, culture, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, and team building."

    -Paula Cloghessy CPO, Seres

  • “Kate brings a unique combination of business strategy, operational expertise, and people and culture insight that allows her to make an extraordinary impact to companies in a short amount of time.  She builds strong, trusting, and personal relationships with senior executives, CEOs, people leaders, and board members.  The integration of these relationships ensures her solutions meet the needs across the entire organization.”

    Kathy Wilkinson, Chief People Officer, 2seventy bio