The Three Factors That Predict Consultant Success

A promising biotech program hits a critical regulatory decision point. The team hires a highly credentialed consultant with decades of pharmaceutical executive experience. Three months later, the program is stalled—still waiting for guidance while competitors advance and timelines slip.

This type of scenario plays out frequently across the industry. While the consultant looked perfect on paper, they struggled to translate strategic thinking into executable work. A quarter was lost, the budget depleted and the team was back to square one looking for someone who could actually do the job.

Why does this pattern keep repeating? Often, it’s because many biotech companies approach consultant selection the wrong way. They start with availability and credentials, then hope for the best. But the question they should be asking is far more important: What actually separates consultants who deliver from those who can’t?

KreaMedica has spent years solving this exact problem.

Why the right consultant matters

In drug development, biotech companies need subject matter experts who can address specific, niche questions. The challenge is that identifying and vetting them thoroughly takes time you simply don’t have. By the time you’ve screened candidates, checked references and discovered whether they’re truly the right fit, critical weeks or even months have passed.

That’s where we come in. At KreaMedica, we act as the general contractor for biotech companies. We handle the foundation, the framing and the day-to-day construction of your drug development program. When we encounter a specific challenge, we bring in consultants through our sister platform, KreaConnect. Think of these consultants as the structural engineers, architects and master electricians. Each specialized expert brings deep subject matter expertise for a specific aspect of your program. They help you get things right the first time, avoiding costly missteps that can derail your timeline or drain your budget.

This experience has taught us exactly what separates consultants who deliver from those who disappoint. Over years of matching consultants to complex biotech challenges, we’ve identified three core traits that consistently predict success.

Three traits for choosing the right consultant

1. Consultants who choose the work—and do the work

The best consultants deliberately chose this path. They left stable corporate positions because they wanted to solve complex problems, share their expertise with innovative companies and help bring new therapies to patients.

This matters because motivation drives everything else. A consultant who fully embraces this work shows up differently. Their engagement runs deeper. Their responsiveness is faster. Their investment in your success is genuine. They’re applying their knowledge because they find the work compelling, not because they’re filling time between jobs or easing into retirement.

But simply choosing consulting isn’t enough. They need to actually roll up their sleeves and do the work. Former professional baseball player Sam Ewing captured this perfectly: “Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves, some turn up their noses and some don’t turn up at all.”

We’ve seen many consultant relationships break down at one specific point. Companies hire someone expecting hands-on work, but receive only high-level strategic input that leaves their team to figure out implementation. The consultants who deliver real value write the regulatory sections, design the protocols and review the data themselves.

We avoid those who have built their careers primarily on delegation. Those skills have value in certain contexts, but they’re often not what early-stage biotech companies need. A hands-on consultant spots issues that strategists miss—whether it’s a subtle inconsistency in endpoint definitions, a manufacturing specification that won’t scale or a protocol design that looks elegant but will create enrollment challenges. They deliver completed work, not recommendations that leave your team wondering how to execute.

During your initial conversations, ask directly: “Why did you move into consulting?” and “What kinds of projects energize you most?” Then probe deeper: “Can you walk me through the last project where you personally created the deliverables?” Their answers will quickly reveal whether they’re genuinely hands-on or more comfortable staying at the strategy level.

2. Specialized expertise that matches your exact challenge

Beyond hands-on execution, biotech companies need deep domain expertise. We don’t work with broad generalists. Instead, we seek specialists with decades of experience in their particular domain—and a track record of success in areas directly relevant to your challenge.

A consultant with 25 years in rare disease regulatory affairs brings something that training simply can’t replicate. They’ve seen what works and what fails across countless submissions. They recognize regulatory red flags before they become problems. They also know which pathways are genuinely feasible and which will bog you down for years.

This is institutional memory built through direct experience. They understand not just the written guidance but the unwritten patterns, such as how reviewers think, what concerns consistently arise and which arguments gain traction. Most importantly, they’ve already made the mistakes—so you don’t have to repeat them.

Impressive credentials can, however, obscure critical gaps. A consultant might have exceptional results in one area but lack capability in what seems like a similar domain. Success in large molecule biologics doesn’t automatically transfer to small molecule programs where manufacturing challenges differ. Excellence in oncology trials doesn’t guarantee effectiveness with rare metabolic disorders. Drug development is too complex and expensive to accommodate learning on the job.

As the author Roy T. Bennett put it, “Some things cannot be taught; they must be experienced. You never learn the most valuable lessons in life until you go through your own journey.” That’s exactly why we match specific expertise to specific challenges. The consultants we recommend have demonstrated success on problems genuinely similar to yours, as opposed to problems in the same general category.

When evaluating candidates, don’t just review their CV—dig into the specifics. Ask them to walk you through two or three programs that closely parallel your challenge. Listen for concrete details: Which regulatory pathway did they pursue? What obstacles emerged? How did they overcome them? What were the outcomes? If their answers stay vague or overly high-level, take it as a warning sign.

3. Collaboration that works when it matters most

The third critical factor is how consultants work with your team. Technical expertise becomes irrelevant when collaboration breaks down. Some consultants have deep knowledge but respond poorly under pressure or become defensive when their recommendations are questioned. Others are pleasant to work with but consistently miss deadlines or require extensive hand-holding. Some struggle to translate their expertise into guidance your team can actually use.

These patterns rarely surface in interviews or reference checks. They emerge when real work begins, timelines compress and stakes escalate—when a regulatory question needs an immediate answer, when manufacturing data doesn’t look quite right or when the FDA sends unexpected questions two weeks before a planned submission.

Consultant-client relationships are partnerships built on trust and mutual respect. You need someone who can navigate the inevitable friction points that arise in complex projects without creating more obstacles. When deadlines collide and priorities shift, the right consultant remains steady, solution-oriented and focused on your program’s success.

We engage only consultants we would work for ourselves. You read that correctly—we strictly follow Mark Zuckerberg’s number one hiring rule: “I will only hire someone to work directly for me if I would work for that person.” He explains it this way: “If the tables were turned and you were looking for a job, would you be comfortable working for this person? I basically think that if the answer to that is ‘no,’ then you’re doing something expedient by hiring them, but you’re not doing as well as you can on that.”

For us, that means people who communicate clearly, respect commitments, integrate well with development teams and maintain composure when challenges arise. Mismatched working styles create friction that undermines progress, regardless of credentials.

Pay attention to how consultants show up in your early interactions. Do they respond to emails promptly? Do they ask clarifying questions that show they’re truly listening? When they don’t know something, do they admit it directly or dance around the gap? These small signals often predict how they’ll perform when the pressure intensifies.

A network of biotech veterans at your fingertips

Finding and vetting the right consultants takes time many early-stage biotechs don’t have. Through KreaConnect, that work is already done. We’ve built a curated network of biotech veterans who meet all three criteria. These professionals include active consultants, biotech executives and often both—bringing extensive networks within the pharmaceutical industry that provide access to connections and resources that can accelerate your drug development efforts.

The criteria we’ve outlined ensure that every consultant we engage brings not just knowledge, but the right knowledge—delivered by the right person, in the right way. Success in biotech often depends on who’s in your corner when pivotal decisions are made.

Ready to build your team with industry veterans who meet all criteria? Reach out to us to learn more about KreaConnect and how our network of biotech experts can accelerate your program.