Our reputation opens doors
We know the life sciences companies and people, and they know and trust us – giving our clients unique access to the world’s best physicians and R&D talent.
Publicly held early-stage Biotech Company
The client had a problem: the senior position they needed to fill was a perfect storm of difficulty, requiring a very high level of talent within a narrow specialty in a hyper-competitive niche. To add to the complexity, the client company was having strategic and financial challenges that made it less attractive to high-performing talent with other options. The first executive search firm they’d hired had given up after six months, saying the position couldn’t be filled. The client turned to The Higgins Group.
With decades of experience in the life sciences, we knew just where to look. Within 6 weeks, our team had found three highly qualified candidates that hadn’t been contacted by the other firm. And while these candidates would have declined another search firm’s overtures, they knew and trusted The Higgins Group, and took our calls. We helped the winning candidate see the bigger picture of joining a company with a higher level of risk, exploring the developmental opportunities and negotiating with the client to shape the role for the best fit
The “couldn’t be done” search was closed within 2 months with a superior leader who went on to play a critical role at a key turning point in the company’s growth.
Relentless pursuit delivers great results
We’re not there to just close the search. Our standards of excellence call for candidates of the highest quality on all measures—skills, experience, leadership, and cultural fit—not the safe choice candidate with the glossiest CV.
Immuno-oncology Company
The client company had been looking for a Chief Medical Officer in the highly competitive field of immuno-oncology for a long time. They had finally zeroed in on a candidate who had everything they were looking for: poise, exceptional qualifications, an impressive CV and a long list of achievements. The client thought their problems were over.
The candidate was actually one that The Higgins Group had reviewed and decided not to present; the candidate had come to our client through another channel. Our concern was that while the candidate was great on paper, in person he lacked the emotional intelligence, interpersonal skills, and leadership to take on such a highly visible and business-critical role. His style also was not consistent with the client’s culture, which we knew would create management challenges and backfire in the long-run. So we talked the client out of hiring him, and found someone better.
In the meantime, still impressed with his qualifications, our client decided to hire him as a consultant. After working with him for several months, the problems we had anticipated became painfully apparent. Our client was grateful and relieved to have avoided what would have been a massive—and very expensive—hiring mistake.
Superior service and lasting relationships
Our philosophy has always been to do great work for a small, select roster of clients we know well. Deep understanding of our client’s company, culture, and vision allows us to be a true strategic partner, to tell their story well and to help them solve the broader issues surrounding successful searches.
Global healthcare company
A long-term client had decided to re-enter a therapeutic area it had previously exited, and needed to rebuild its talent. Unfortunately, the people they wanted to hire were consistently turning them down. There were concerns about the company’s long-term commitment to a field they had exited years before, so top talent had no compelling reason to take the risk.
The company clearly needed a persuasive story to build trust in their renewed commitment to the therapeutic area. Leveraging our in-depth knowledge of the company and its history, we created a new narrative: who they were, why they’d taken the actions they did, and how the therapeutic area fit into their current strategy. We also analyzed the hiring market, and found that our client’s compensation strategy was not competitive in the rapidly changing market, and we worked with them to make adjustments. The new narrative, backed by Higgins’ reputation for integrity and well-earned market trust, gave the company story credibility and broke the logjam of candidate refusals.
Our client was able to hire four high quality people in the new therapeutic area within 12 months, and the successful hiring of talent is continuing.