CASE STUDY

CLIENT: Körber Pharma Software – a global leader in Pharma MES solutions

The Challenge

Körber Pharma Software, a market leader in MES for pharmaceutical manufacturing, faced a critical leadership gap. Their VP of Product had exited to a competitor, leaving a sudden vacancy in one of the most strategically vital roles in the business.

But this wasn’t just about replacing a title. The business needed someone who could step in with credibility, bring deep domain expertise in Pharma MES, and actively shape the future of the product — not merely maintain it.

The Leadership Mandate

We were engaged on a Retained basis to identify and secure a senior product leader who could:

Own and evolve the global Pharma MES product roadmap
Bring deep operational understanding of pharmaceutical manufacturing environments
Influence strategy at platform level — not just deliver incremental improvements
Integrate into a high-performing, multicultural product leadership team
Operate flexibly across Europe — as the role was location-agnostic

The task was bold: a visionary product leader with domain depth, strong stakeholder management, and the cultural agility to succeed in a global context.

The Search Strategy

With a pan-European scope and tight timeline, we deployed our retained search methodology to balance speed, specificity, and seniority.

Key elements of the strategy included:

Mapping senior Pharma MES talent across Europe with emphasis on product ownership, not just product management
Prioritising candidates with a track record of strategic vision and delivery across engineering, commercial, and regulatory interfaces
Assessing leadership capacity in cross-functional, matrixed organisations
Running weekly sprint cycles with the client for rapid feedback and profile refinement
Managing cross-border interview logistics and aligning expectations on location, relocation, and onboarding readiness

Within weeks, we presented a high-calibre shortlist of product leaders — each capable of steering the platform’s future direction.

The Outcome

The search was successfully closed in under 3 months. Körber made a strategic hire directly from our shortlist — a senior product leader who brought both domain fluency and the leadership edge required to shape the next evolution of their MES platform.

“We hired Daniel on a retained basis, and he returned excellent profiles. The whole process was quick, pragmatic and goal-oriented.”

CEO, Körber Pharma | Software

The search was completed ahead of schedule. Delivery timelines stabilised. Confidence in the roadmap was restored.

MITREC Strategic Insight:

In product leadership searches, especially in complex industries like pharmaceutical manufacturing, speed without precision leads to compromise.

And compromise at VP level is expensive. The key to this search wasn’t just access — it was alignment: of vision, domain fluency, and cultural fit.

That’s where focused, Retained Search makes the difference.

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CASE STUDY

The Challenge

The Leadership Mandate

The Search Strategy

The Outcome

MITREC Strategic Insight:

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