Feature Story

RESEARCH GENES OVER-EXPRESSED AT CBI!

The "new" Commonwealth Biotechnologies is returning to its scientific roots: collaborating with clients to provide the highest quality scientific expertise and an exceptional technology base to support early-stage drug discovery.

The executives and scientists of Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc., have always known what their strengths were. But in the day-to-day press of business, they didn't always communicate those attributes to clients and prospects.

CBI, founded by three scientists from Virginia Commonwealth University, had booked new business mainly through personal contacts and referrals. The company has never hired a sales or marketing manager, nor put in place a significant sales force. In recent years, it has focused on building strategic relationships but there has never been anyone whose singular focus was to position the company in the laboratory R&D marketplace.

The face that CBI presented to the world through its brochures and website was largely a catalog of its technological capabilities. "We were marketing our technologies," says Chairman Richard J. Freer and Chief Operating Officer. "For a small company, we have a pretty impressive range of technologies and expertise." But other strengths, such as CBI's project management prowess and problem-solving abilities, were viewed internally as just something one does to support a client's R&D program. "Scientists love to brainstorm, to look for innovative solutions for problems. It's what they do by nature and CBI's scientists are exceptionally good at it", added Freer.

Last year that all changed. CBI successfully completed an equity raise and portions of the proceeds were earmarked to bolster the Company's sales and marketing program. The first step was to create a strategic marketing plan. In preparation for that effort, the company hired Kelly O'Keefe, a nationally known branding consultant, to conduct a customer satisfaction survey.

The findings from that survey generated an epiphany both in how CBI thought of itself and portrayed itself to others. "We've gone through a metamorphosis," says Freer. "We've gone from a menu-driven approach to a project focus with bundled services and a major emphasis on our problem-solving skills.

CBI had always offered collaborative and innovative solutions- it took in-depth conversations with our customers to see that these are areas in which we are thought to excel in the marketplace.

As part of their study, O'Keefe and his partner Cathy Bendall questioned CBI employees about their views on where the company was going, and then queried CBI's customers in a series of confidential, in-depth interviews to gauge outside impressions. Here are some of the findings (with quotes from clients):

• CBI is one of only a few companies that excel in early-stage developmental, bio-engineering work.
  Compared to other labs, they are more of a development lab. If you need some assays developed, they are willing to do that. Or assay improvement. If there is certain development work that you need some help on, they are willing to do that.
  They seem to absolutely love that kind of work, and they do a good job with it.
  
  
• CBI's scientific expertise is highly valued.
  They are extremely good when you have a problem and need someone to help you figure out how to approach it.
  We were looking for someone who could help us take a cancer test that had been developed and migrate it to a new platform and update the technology. … [CBI] had the paper experience, meaning the number of Ph.D.s and the unit to be able to do it. They had the scientific knowledge.
  A lot of the work is just mental conceptual work about how to approach a problem before you even turn on a machine. So you have to fully understand what the issue is and what the samples are and how to get the answer that you need. … The people at CBI will say, 'No, you don't want to do that and here's why.' And you can't teach that to people. There's no course in that. It comes with their experience."
  
  
• CBI has exceptional problem-solving abilities.
  These people aren't stuck in their thinking. They think through a problem in a very scientific way.
  I went to CBI because I needed to get them to help me develop an idea I had. I didn't want or didn't need a routine testing lab. Anyone who has a new idea doesn't need a routine lab. They need someone to help them work out a new approach and think through ideas, and that's what they do well.
  
  
• CBI is highly responsive to the needs of its customers.
  The folks at CBI seem to appreciate the fact that you need quality work, you need it done according to the schedule that you were promised, and if it's not right, it has to be made right. There are laboratories that can do the type of stuff that CBI does, but you'll get your data in six months or whenever their schedule allows for it.
  
  
• CBI excels at working collaboratively.
  They take personal ownership of the work that they do. You never get the impression that they're just churning through another project, but rather this is something we're working on together.
  They are very receptive to us sending one of our people down to their facility to spend one, two, three days. And they'll work through a new procedure with us, adapt one of their procedures or adapt one of ours to their way of doing things.
  One thing I like about CBI is that they are not rigid. They try to understand where you want to go, and if it's not typical, can make a modification to get you there. … You have direct access to the scientists in the company and they are willing to work with you in whatever way necessary.

O'Keefe concluded that CBI enjoyed a strong competitive advantage working with clients in early-stage, pre-clinical drug discovery and development, especially when clients wanted help in devising solutions.

That strength overlapped nicely with the sentiments of CBI employees, who expressed the desire to participate actively in projects as part of the team, contributing insights in a way that other vendors could not.

Freer sums up the conclusions from the survey this way: "Our previously unappreciated (by us, at least) value is in the underlying intellectual input, figuring out what clients need and how to get them what they need."

What impact will the new CBI have on clients? "While there may be no obvious changes from our customer's point of view," said Freer, we will be emphasizing the value of our collaboration much earlier in our relationships with clients. We'll be more forthcoming with scientific input and expect remuneration for our efforts. The more and earlier we can get involved with the client's project, the better we like it - and the more we can contribute."

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc. 601 Biotech Drive, Richmond, VA 23235 800-735-9224 (800-RELY-CBI) FAX: 804-648-2641 email: info@cbi-biotech.com