Life, Science, and Marketing Podcast: Episode 14

Guest: John Kennett, Director of Global Marketing, Brand & Solutions at Forte

John's Background:

• 20+ years in marketing roles across the life sciences industry
• Previous companies include Medaxial, Covance, Envigo, and Labcorp
• Originally studied electronics engineering and made a transition into marketing
• Masters degree in psychodynamic psychotherapy

Key Discussion Points:

• Enjoyment of constant innovation and progress in the life sciences industry
• The importance of storytelling to make complex science understandable
• Building bridges between science and marketing through curiosity and conversations
• Orchestrating marketing messages across teams for clarity and harmony
• Balancing business priorities while still focusing on people

Key Quotes:

• "Our ability to have a strong working culture means that we ought to be thinking about how we compliment one another rather than compete with one another."
• "Go ask dumb questions, because there's no way that I could know everything even people with a doctorate in bioscience don't know everything about someone else's specific research area."
• "Culture eats strategy for breakfast - if you've got a good culture in place, then you can have the best strategy in the world, but if you don't have the culture to deliver on that strategy, forget it."

Life, Science, and Marketing Podcast: Episode 13

Guest: Haydn Boehm, Product Marketing Excellence Lead at Agilent Technologies

Haydn's Background:

• PhD in organic chemistry
• Deep technical expertise combined with marketing roles at various life science companies (Sigma Aldrich, Johnson Matthey, Merck, Thermo Fisher, Agilent, etc.)

Key Discussion Points:

• Shift from sales-led to marketing-led organizations due to digital transformation
• Identifying where target audiences go to learn and providing valuable content there
• Perspectives on lead nurturing, inbound marketing, and the rise of outbound outreach
• The promise and limitations of AI in drug discovery processes
• Applying scientific thinking and a problem-solving mindset to marketing strategy

Key Quotes:

• "You don't wanna employ sales people to act as marketers. They need to speak to people who are engaged and say, right, what are we gonna do now?"
• "Assume nothing. And validate everything. And so you look at, so it always gives you quite sort of fresh eyes into a sort of a situation."
• "If people learn to like to learn on their own, it's about putting the right content that's really valuable is a lot rich in terms of education."

Life, Science, and Marketing Podcast: Episode 12

Guest: Paul Kippax, Sales Operations Director at Malvern Panalytical

Paul's Background:

• PhD in physical chemistry
• 25+ year career with Malvern Panalytical in various roles spanning product management, marketing, and sales

Key Discussion Points:

• Collaborating deeply with customers to uncover hidden insights and new analysis approaches
• Building cross-functional understanding between technical and commercial teams
• Leveraging scientific knowledge to extract more value from analytical instruments in customer workflows
• Delivering sustained value to your core customer “tribe”
• Continuously experimenting to drive incremental marketing improvement

Key Quotes:

• "I need to do a job where what I do means something."
• "Curiosity drives your interest in the customer. You start asking questions about the customer rather than yourself."
• "If you try to appeal to everyone who doesn't get you, you'll dilute the unique value you could offer."
• "I want the grit. The grit polishes the stone - it reveals the beauty."
• "Most people don't deliberately come to work to do a bad job. Approach things assuming people want to succeed."