Jeff French on making the transition from client to consultant

It takes a leap of faith for a client to move across and join a service provider. After he took just such plunge, we recently welcomed Jeff S. French .

 After a decade of working closely with DT as a client, he joined our ranks as a senior director to drive DT’s digital transformation efforts in the life sciences industry.

We recently had an insightful conversation with Jeff to learn more about his career journey. As part of this we also explored what cemented his confidence in DT and his decision to join our team, as well as his vision for the future of DT Consulting. 

Can you tell us about the twists and the turns of your career path before joining DT?

I have spent the last 24 years of my career working directly in the pharmaceutical industry, across three different organizations, with the final 10 years focused primarily on digital transformation across commercial, medical, and technology functions. During the last four and a half years I had the privilege of working for an amazing company that focused on a single therapy area, which allowed me to apply and pull-through true transformational change at scale for the first time.

 At my other previous organizations, I was also able to have great success in putting new technologies in place, adapting engagement models to focus on experience design and execution, and innovating across the organization, but it was always only done in pockets of activity, given the complexity of a multi-therapy area organization. Moreover, these changes were very seldom applied at scale or truly sustained to drive lasting value.

Why did you decide to join DT Consulting?

 When it came to the question of “what’s next?” for me, I wanted to be somewhere I could leverage all that I have learned and apply that knowledge to help others that are going through similar challenges to the ones that I’d faced. That meant I needed to join an organization that truly understands these challenges, is solely-focused on industry expertise as a foundation to really drive this change, and is also developing what “good” looks like for the future of health experiences and care.

 Very few pharma-focused strategy consulting houses meet those criteria and, as a regular consumer of DT’s solutions and services over the years, I’ve always felt they had an “edge” about them. Engagements are always well-balanced between potentially competing demands for breadth and depth of understanding, combined with their consulting prowess this yields high value and robust outcomes. Additionally, they do this with a healthy combination of intensity and amiability, which are two factors I deem imperative to my own success. Therefore, after a meeting with DT Consulting to understand their vision, along with that of their parent company Indegene, it really felt like the right fit for me, for them, and for the future. 

What advice would you offer people contemplating a similar career transition to yours?

 Really take the time to understand what makes you tick and what gives you the sense of accomplishment you crave. If that includes enjoying the journey as much as the end result, then consider this type of career shift. Consulting offers significantly broader exposure to the full range of challenges pharma companies face, at strategic and tactical levels, as they transform their organizations. The work also often comes without the constant battle of competing priorities as you devise the best ways to meet the challenges the industry’s leading companies face, rounding out your own network along the way.

What do you hope to achieve with your new role at DT Consulting?

 With my varied pharma background across finance, IT, commercial, and supply chain, and having forged links with almost every part of the business, the key driver for me will be creating new lines of service for DT that infuse these experiences into the solutions we already have. I will also be considering new offerings that can further drive DT’s differentiated approach to leveraging digital, data, and technology at scale to transform organizations.