Working in strategic partnership with Cogora: The Agency gives you first-in-class access to market insight via our advisory boards, meeting your business needs, while ensuring tangible return on your investment.

Advisory boards

Our approach is encapsulated in these top tips on the way we plan and implement half-day or full-day advisory boards (face-to-face or virtual) for our pharmaceutical and medical device clients in the UK, Europe and globally:

We listen to our client’s needs, and gain understanding of what they are looking to achieve – the closer our understanding of our client’s definition of a successful advisory board, the more likely we are to achieve it. The client may need to gain a critique of an innovation in development, or to access company-confidential market insight, or to hear the delegates propose specific tools with which to address a specific need – we are flexible in our delivery of the type of advisory board the client needs.

Based on this, we bring the right people to the table, ideally a mix of our client’s selected advocates or key opinion leaders from Cogora’s extensive list of experts. These people (ideally not more than 8) will be the team that provides market insight, so they must all be knowledgeable, influential and complementary. Getting the team right is the single most important element of a successful advisory board.

We create and agree an agenda for the advisory board that maximises the transfer of market knowledge and insight from the delegates to the client. Structure the agenda so as to introduce various means of engagement.

We prepare. One-to-one interviews in the week preceding the advisory board are conducted. Ten interview questions (agreed with the client) in 30 minutes is all it takes for the Chair to appreciate the delegates’ perspectives on the topic to hand, the better nuanced the discussion on the day of the board. And it is an ideal platform from which the delegates can step into the discussion.

We build a rapport with the delegates. Chair the advisory board in a way that gives a voice to all delegates, not only those who are inclined to speak loudest. Focus at all times on the client’s objectives. Stay on piste. Remember: the client is not paying for the Chair’s opinion – it is the Chair’s sole responsibility to get to the essence of what the delegates can contribute to the discussion. This will not occur in a question-and-answer format, but rather when they are steered to interact with each other. Remember, although our delegates will all be experts, they may well never have met each other, especially if they come from across disciplines and many countries. The more energy the Chair can muster in running the board, the more energy will result from the delegates, for the benefit of the client.

We deliver the outcome of the board in the format that suits the client’s needs – a report to be published in one of Cogora’s media brands (print or digitally), a presentation for the client’s internal requirements, or as a series of options of tools for further development from which to choose.

This allows Cogora to develop a long-standing relationship with our clients, working on additional projects which have been strategically decided on based on the outcome of the advisory board.

We nurture our relationships with the client and with the delegates – they will want to remain associated with the delivery of change-provoking, insightful activities.

Advisory boards are an excellent example of the type of strategic partnership by which Cogora: The Agency seeks to define itself, bringing our clients in close working contact with healthcare professionals around the world. 

To discuss how advisory boards can suit your business needs, please contact us.