Rebecca Willumson:
Hi there. My name's Rebecca Willumson. I'm the publisher of Fierce Pharma, and I'm here today with Guarav Marya, a Strategic Business Unit Head of Mergers and Acquisitions at Cognizant. Gaurav, thank you so much for joining me today.
Gaurav Marya:
Thank you, Rebecca.
Rebecca Willumson:
Now, before we begin, can you tell me a little bit about your role at Cognizant. What are your main focus areas?
Gaurav Marya:
So, I'm a Strategic Business Unit Head within Cognizant's Health Sciences Practice. By virtue of that, I have three responsibilities. Firstly, it's about leading our Life Sciences Manufacturing group globally, which most of you know was formed primarily through the acquisition of Zenith Technologies and TQS Integration over the last couple of years. I also lead our mergers and acquisitions globally for the Health Science Practice, and I'm responsible for our business for Life Sciences within the East Coast.
Rebecca Willumson:
Very good. So starting us off, tell me what does it take for companies to be successful in M&A?
Gaurav Marya:
Well, that's a fairly loaded question. Now, let's make an assumption that the M&A target has been identified, and the target is aligned to the long-term vision of the company, and you know what the market needs. For there on, in my mind, what it takes to be successful is the ability of an organization to embrace, adapt, and evolve. And if I was to widen the approach of that a little bit, when I talk about embrace, it starts really with having a strong partnership between the M&A group and the business. And both these teams should develop a very sound understanding of a company's business, their value proposition, so that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.
Now, when I think about adapt, it's really all about managing the integration, managing the change management, the communication as it relates to the acquisition between the acquiring company and the target company, and really setting it up for success. Don't underestimate the importance of keeping the secret sauce as a part of the integration. And finally, when you think about evolving, the idea is really to help companies become a better version of themselves post the acquisition while still retaining the rationale behind acquiring the company in the first place. So hopefully that helps.
Rebecca Willumson:
Now, Cognizant has successfully acquired companies to build its Life Sciences Manufacturing practice. What trends are you seeing in manufacturing, especially as we emerge from the pandemic when manufacturing presented such challenges from need to rapidly manufacture vaccines, all the way to supply chain issues?
Gaurav Marya:
So the pandemic really has impacted every industry, but as all of us know that the life sciences manufacturing has really been at the center of this pandemic, and in many ways it has helped us to respond to it more effectively. So more than ever, the transformation within the Life Sciences industry has accelerated pace.
Now, if I think about the trends, really it's all about digital data and automation which is taking center stage with respect to every Life Sciences company which I am talking to. And right from the board to the frontline engineers, everybody is talking about digital data and automation.
Now, as you think about digital data and automation, one has to go back and say, why is it becoming important? Because all Life Sciences companies are really thinking about flexible manufacturing, performance management, reliability of supply chain, diversifying location of the manufacturing facilities, remote monitoring, risk reduction, net zero manufacturing and so on and so forth. And this has created really a need for partners who are domain centric as well as very deep in technology, so a big trend which we are seeing these days is that the domain centric technical partners, along with the hyperscalers are taking a center stage as Life Sciences companies think about transformation. So, the traditional players are out, and these domain-centric tech players are taking center stage, so that's a big break.
Rebecca Willumson:
Now, my final question for you today, what should biopharma companies be looking for in a partner?
Gaurav Marya:
You see, the entire pharmaceutical industry is, as all of us know, is built around very, very complex partnerships. So when you think about a partner, you really think about, does the partner has the right level of leadership, does it have the strategy? Does it have the vision? Can I trust the partner? Is the partner really client centric? Are they bringing the right culture of innovation and client centricity? But in my mind, all those are really table stakes to play in this ecosystem, and what really differentiates a great partner from a good partner is their ability to walk the talk.
Rebecca Willumson:
Well, that feels like a great place for us to end. Thank you so much for joining me today. I appreciate the conversation.
Gaurav Marya:
Thank you, Rebecca.
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