M
Professor Brian D. Smith
Supporting strategists in the life sciences
“
Who I am
I research, teach and write about strategising in pharma and medtech and I help you to strategise and execute better than your competitors.
As a thought leader, I’ve published hundreds of articles and books. In two decades in the industry as a scientist and marketer, then two decades as an academic, author and advisor, I’ve helped hundreds of life science companies to achieve their goals.
If you share my fascination with strategy in the life sciences, let’s chat.
“
Who I am
I research, teach and write about strategising in pharma and medtech and I help you to strategise and execute better than your competitors.
As a thought leader, I’ve published hundreds of articles and books. In two decades in the industry as a scientist and marketer, then two decades as an academic, author and advisor, I’ve helped hundreds of life science companies to achieve their goals.
If you share my fascination with strategy in the life sciences, let’s chat.
How I can help you
Creating strong strategy
Your job is to create and execute strong strategy.
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Validating your strategy
You need to know that your strategy will work.
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Anticipating the market
You must anticipate your market, not react to it.
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Mentoring strategists
Strong strategists must grow and develop.
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Aligning strategy and culture
Your culture must amplify your strategy.
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Creating market insight
Strong strategists know what their competitors don’t.
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Training cross-functional teams
Strategizing is a team game.
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Enhancing your meetings
Meetings and conferences must add value.
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Creating value beyond the product
Your product is only a fraction of the value you create.
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Transforming your business model
Your business model must fit your market environment and goals.
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My published work
Browse my hundreds of articles, about strategy in the life sciences and ask for any you want.
Or click on any of curated collections below.
Cross-functional implementation
Strategy without execution is just a fantasy. These articles cover the human side of strategy execution through cross-functional teams.
Leadership in
the life sciences
The life sciences industry is not like any other. These articles explain how its leaders adapt to their unique context.
Becoming a
strategy expert
True strategy expertise is rare. These articles cover the three things you must master to achieve it.
Making strong strategies
Strategy is simple but not easy. These articles define what strong strategies look like and how they are made.
Industry evolution
The life sciences industry is a complex, adaptive ecosystem. These articles explain its evolution and how to manage your own.
Strategy’s human side
Strategy is a social process. These articles explain the cultural and behavioural issues that can strangle or supercharge your strategy.
Cross-functional implementation
Strategy without execution is just a fantasy. These articles cover the human side of strategy execution through cross-functional teams.
Becoming a
strategy expert
True strategy expertise is rare. These articles cover the three things you must master to achieve it.
Industry evolution
The life sciences industry is a complex, adaptive ecosystem. These articles explain its evolution and how to manage your own.
Leadership in
the life sciences
The life sciences industry is not like any other. These articles explain how its leaders adapt to their unique context.
Making strong strategies
Strategy is simple but not easy. These articles define what strong strategies look like and how they are made.
Strategy’s human side
Strategy is a social process. These articles explain the cultural and behavioural issues that can strangle or supercharge your strategy.
My book seminars
My online book seminars let your team learn quickly and easily from my industry-specific research. Each seminar:
Summarises one book’s key points | Includes discussion | Take only 2 hours | Includes signed books
If you want your team to understand your industry better, let’s chat.
New Drugs, Fair Prices
Weaving together knowledge shared by experts across the pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem, this seminar explains why the ecosystem works but often fails. More importantly, it outlines how it can be managed for a sustainable and affordable supply of innovative medicines.
Leadership in the Life Sciences
Based on interviews with CEOs and C-level executives from global pharma and medtech companies, this seminar will give your team unique insight into how leadership is practised in the context of our most unusual industry.
Brand Therapy
Developed from workshops with hundreds of pharma and medtech companies, this seminar will introduce your team to new techniques for understanding your market and crafting strong, actionable brand strategies.
Darwin’s Medicine
Based on years of research into how the life sciences industry changing, this seminar will reveal to your team how its business models are speciating and how they can accelerate their own business model transformation.
The Future of Pharma
Applying the ideas of Darwinian evolution to the changes we see in the pharma industry, this seminar will give your team an original and insightful perspective on what the industry is becoming.
Marketing and Finance
Alloying lessons from strategy, marketing and finance, this seminar will show your team how the design of strategy can create value for all stakeholders.
Creating Market Insight
Using the lessons from dozens of companies, this seminar will guide your team on the journey from data, through information and knowledge, into the special, rare and valuable advantage that is genuine market insight.
Making Marketing Happen
Developed from research into how life science company’s planning processes, this seminar will give your team a deep understanding of how to make your strategic marketing planning process work.
New Drugs, Fair Prices
Weaving together knowledge shared by experts across the pharmaceutical innovation ecosystem, this seminar explains why the ecosystem works but often fails. More importantly, it outlines how it can be managed for a sustainable and affordable supply of innovative medicines.
Leadership in the Life Sciences
Based on interviews with CEOs and C-level executives from global pharma and medtech companies, this seminar will give your team unique insight into how leadership is practised in the context of our most unusual industry.
Brand Therapy
Developed from workshops with hundreds of pharma and medtech companies, this seminar will introduce your team to new techniques for understanding your market and crafting strong, actionable brand strategies.
Darwin’s Medicine
Based on years of research into how the life sciences industry changing, this seminar will reveal to your team how its business models are speciating and how they can accelerate their own business model transformation.
The Future of Pharma
Applying the ideas of Darwinian evolution to the changes we see in the pharma industry, this seminar will give your team an original and insightful perspective on what the industry is becoming.
Marketing and Finance
Alloying lessons from strategy, marketing and finance, this seminar will show your team how the design of strategy can create value for all stakeholders.
Creating Market Insight
Using the lessons from dozens of companies, this seminar will guide your team on the journey from data, through information and knowledge, into the special, rare and valuable advantage that is genuine market insight.
Making Marketing Happen
Developed from research into how life science company’s planning processes, this seminar will give your team a deep understanding of how to make your strategic marketing planning process work.
My latest work
2026.10.15.
Lilly Isn’t Reinventing, It’s Speciating
Why “the pharma business model” no longer means anything
This Substack article argues that Eli Lilly is not reinventing itself, but speciating, adding new business models alongside its traditional ones as the life sciences industry adapts to distinct market ‘habitats.’ Drawing on long-term research into industry evolution, it explains why firms now operate multiple species of business model under one roof, why capabilities must diverge as environments diverge, and how leaders can guide their own directed evolution rather than rely on slow, wasteful trial-and-error.
Request the PDF.
2026.10.10.
Leading Through Complexity
Strengthening strategic judgement under uncertainty
The third article examines behavioural strategy, the discipline that helps leadership teams counter the predictable distortions of judgement that arise in complex, ambiguous environments. It explains how framing, challenge and calibration improve descision quality when evidence is incomplete, and how disciplined decision hygiene becomes a source of competitive advantage in life sciences.
Request the PDF.
2026.09.30
Leading Through Platforms
Competing in an era beyond products
The second article explores platform strategy; how repeatable technological architectures can create advantage only when bounded, disciplined and anchored in customer value. It shows why platforms can stabilise portfolios in VUCA markets and why, without strategic governance, they become expensive distractions that amplify volatility rather than dampen it.
Request the PDF.
2026.09.14.
Leading Through Turbulence
How dynamic capabilities enable adaptation to VUCA markets
The first article in the four-part series introduces dynamic capabilities, the sensing, seizing and reconfiguring routines that allow life sciences firms to adapt when volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity are the norm. It explains why some organisations evolve and thrive while others stall, and how leaders can diagnose and strengthen their own adaptive capacity.
Request the PDF.
Contact me
If you share my fascination with the life sciences industry and how pharma and medtech strategies and business models are evolving, then I'd love to chat.
You don't need to fill in a form, speak to an assistant or give me your life story.
Your mail will come directly to me and I'll reply with times when I'm free.
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