“By being entrepreneurial, I turned a challenge into an opportunity!”
Testimonial of a Project Consultant
Julie Lagden works as a project consultant for Strand at UCB Pharma (Braine-l’Alleud). Her team works in the Quality Assurance department and more specifically in the Commercial Release of UCB’s Pharmaceutical products. A while ago, however, they faced a big challenge and Julie agreed to share how she handled it together with Strand.
The Challenge
“UCB is responsible for the research, development and commercialization of Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological products. Working in the Quality Assurance department, my team and I do the final checks before the medicine is released on the market”, Julie says.
“At the beginning we started with the release of one product, called Neupro (Active Ingredient: Rotigotine), used to help the tremors for Parkinson’s Disease. Now, however, we are leading towards the release of 4 different products, which implies a big increase of the workload.
Knowing that the number of Pharmaceutical Products to be released within our team was going to increase rapidly, UCB decided to put a new type of outsourcing service in place to help with the workload starting January 2019. This outsourcing service was open to Strand Associates, but also to a few other partners in the consulting world.
This meant that Strand Associates needed to fight to keep my position by winning the call for tender for UCB’s new service. Only then, I could stay full time at UCB and Strand could place a second person to accompany me.”
Taking on the challenge
“From the moment UCB put the call for tender out, my manager at Strand (Matthieu Saintmard) and I worked hard to put together the best offer we could and proposed it to UCB.
One of the main advantages for Strand, compared to the other consultancy companies, was that I had already been in the team for a year and I was fully trained for the position. Moreover, as an intermediary between Strand and my manager at UCB, I had insights into what the best offer needed to include. For example, it mattered which price Strand was going to propose for the new service but also how they were going to handle the new person coming on site and when.
Another big advantage was that Strand has a second Branch in Braine-l’Alleud, close to the UCB site. And since the new service was only half time, the new project consultant could easily commute between Strand and UCB.
Finally, after a lot of brainstorming, Matthieu Saintmard sent the offer to UCB and after a couple of days, UCB made their decision public and Strand got selected for this new outsourcing service!”
How it paid off to take on this challenge
“The outsourcing service has started 3 months ago. Strand and I hired one more Strandie, Marie Beauvois, to join my team at UCB,” Julie explains.
“Thanks to this new service at UCB, Strand added one more consultant to their team, and signed a new type of collaboration agreement with one of its best clients.
My manager at UCB gets to keep me in his team and has one more person in the team to help with the workload. (By the way, he is very happy to have Strand as a partner for this new service.)
And me, I’m very satisfied because I get to stay within my team at UCB and take on more responsibilities.
A positive turnout for all of us.”
What this challenge has taught me
“What I learned from this is simple. When you have a challenge to take on, you need to pursue it and not be scared to take some risks. At Strand we were able to work together and make it happen. This challenge has made me grow into a more responsible person and I’m ready to take on the next challenge!”
Julie Lagden
Project Consultant at Strand
Current project: Qualified Person Support Commercial QA Neurology & EB at UCB
