Client Context
Our client is a boutique life sciences strategy consultancy headquartered in Switzerland, supporting biopharmaceutical companies to prepare, launch, and commercialise products across EU and US markets. Following the successful growth of its European presence, the firm was looking to establish a US office and scale its footprint globally.
At the same time, leadership wanted to assess how competitive the business remained in the EU market to ensure it continued to respond effectively to evolving market conditions.
Client Objectives
The client’s objectives were twofold:
- To support the launch and scaling of a US presence with a clear understanding of the competitive landscape
- To assess and strengthen competitiveness across EU markets as the business continued to grow
This required clarity on both external competition and internal positioning across regions.
Our Approach
We conducted a competitor benchmarking analysis across both US and EU markets and developed an internal framework to support the client’s expansion strategy in the US while consolidating its EU presence.
Our work focused on identifying relevant competitors, gathering validated market data, and translating insight into practical actions.
Key Questions Addressed
The engagement provided clear answers to several strategic questions, including:
- Who are we competing against in the US market?
- How are competitors structured internally in the US?
- What value propositions and incentives are used to attract talent in the US?
- How competitive are we in the EU market today?
- Where are the priority growth areas to scale EU teams?
- How are competitors’ EU teams structured?
- Is our current value proposition competitive in the EU market?
Insights and Outcomes
The EU analysis identified the Consultant level as a key area for growth. Salary bandings at this level were found to be below market across all competitors, limiting the client’s ability to attract top talent. We advised revising these bandings to improve competitiveness and support future scaling.
Following this work, KRS was retained to address the identified talent gap and successfully recruited 3x Consultants into the business.
For the US market, we delivered an executive summary highlighting both strengths and gaps in the client’s competitive position. This included a supporting analysis of candidate motivations across competitor firms, enabling the client to refine and shape its value proposition ahead of US market entry.
