Q&A With Kelly O'Keefe

Q&A with Kelly O'Keefe

CBI Messenger chatted recently with Kelly O'Keefe, principal of O'Keefe Brands, the firm that conducted in-depth interviews with Commonwealth Biotechnology customers last Fall. Here are excerpts from that conversation.

Kelly, can you hit the highlights? What did you find in your survey?

We found that CBI is held in very high regard, but not only for the tests and procedures they can run. What clients really value is their ability to develop great solutions to their needs, particularly in respect to early-stage research.

Early stage research is not about doing a mass of simple procedures over and over to validate a result - there are other, bigger companies that are set up better to do that more efficiently than CBI. It's about trying one thing, and maybe that doesn't work, and finding something else, and working through very difficult research situations to get the outcome you're looking for.

All that equipment in CBI's lab, all that cross-training, does it have any value?

Oh, yes. The breadth of equipment gives CBI the flexibility to pursue different kinds of solutions to different kinds of problems. One person told me, "It's like when you go into a drugstore to buy a cold medicine. The fact that they have a wide selection gives you a greater likelihood that they'll have what you need."

If there are potentially five different ways to solve a problem, and an organization has only one machine, it'll try solving the problem the same way every time. If CBI has all five machines, it can look for the best way to solve the problem. The breadth of technology allows them to say, "I don't think we're going to isolate the protein this way. I think we'll get a better result doing it over here."

So, CBI's competitive advantage is in figuring things out.

Exactly. I heard a lot of positive comments that CBI has real scientists, not just technicians, not just people running factories, but people who enjoy solving problems. If you want to isolate a protein, and you say, 'Do 500 assays,' to a technician, you'll get one result. If you turn it over to a scientist at CBI, if they do some assays that produce sub-optimal results they will contact the client and say, 'We did what you asked, but it didn't work! So, we suggest you change the procedure and here's our suggestion as to how you might improve the quality of the data."

That expertise is what proved to be the core value to the customer. CBI had been selling its products. But the customers said they valued CBI for its great scientists. "What we're paying for is the expertise," they said. "That's something that the others don't have."

Do you see CBI's size as an advantage or disadvantage?

When clients think of CBI, the fact that they're small is actually a plus. CBI is like a skunk works. It provides a SWAT team capability. If you want scale, you go to a procedure factory. If you want solutions, you call in the Special Forces.

Do these findings mean that CBI has to change the way it does business?

I don't see any revolutionary changes here. Now that CBI has a clearer idea of its strengths, you might see some evolutionary changes. CBI can tighten its focus on critical early-stage work and strengthen its collaborative process. I expect they'll continue to recruit the best and brightest scientific talent. But, mainly, they'll change how they communicate to their clients.

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc. 601 Biotech Drive, Richmond, VA 23235 800-735-9224 (800-RELY-CBI) FAX: 804-648-2641 email: [email protected]