The world is messy, with complex challenges that involve interconnected, moving elements. Confident decisions require informed engagement, and dynamic strategies with full team buy-in.
We work with you to set a clear path to innovate and grow.
We believe that you don’t need to settle for someone else’s strategy—we will design a unique process together from ideation to implementation. Our collaborative approach has a proven track record of driving growth in highly complex and challenging markets.
Client:
Top 10 global pharma
Key Services:
Long development timelines with high uncertainty make it challenging to sustain innovation investments that span multiple development horizons. Our client was pushing this further by seeking to develop platform solutions across disease areas and treatment modalities, with implications for all parts of their organization. Coactuate applied a strategic foresight approach to generate compelling long term value propositions grounded in emerging science. These were used as “North Stars” that stakeholders critically addressed. Active and iterative co-creation allowed for dynamic prioritization of emerging technologies, empowering leadership to make informed decisions on the company’s future development direction.
Client:
Top 10 global pharma
Key Services:
In a disease area with the first true breakthrough treatment in development showing possibility, there was a worrying experience divide between thought leaders and practitioners. Coactuate helped build a 2-year advisory program and active Working Group on creating an ideal patient journey. As a result we identified best practices to support optimal clinical readiness activities. Thought leaders were active participants, shaping the agenda for each meeting, contributing between meetings and inviting additional participants who could provide key input.
Client:
Top 10 global pharma
Key Services:
For a client seeking to push their strategic thinking, Coactuate completely immersed the senior client into an external mindset. This approach included deep role playing to build competitor strategies, and understand the market holistically, applying competitor perceptions and best strategic/tactical moves. This approach allowed the leadership team to redefine their own clinical, commercial and access priorities and strengthen their integrated strategy. The mindset shift resulted in changes to clinical development program, market segment priorities and go-to-market.
Client:
Top 5 global healthcare company
Key Services:
For an internal innovation working group overseeing cutting edge science in an emerging therapeutic area, developing a strong strategic narrative and accompanying visual identity was critical for building alignment as the team embarked on an ambitious new challenge. Coactuate applied its collaborative design approach, empowering scientists and researchers to be active in the design process. This included refining and prioritizing key messages and strategic focus, case studies and stories, and custom designing all visual assets and elements.
Client:
Top 5 global pharma
Key Services:
Managing a competitive simulation between internal teams calls for a nuanced approach that ensures a “gloves-off” discussion is possible, while still making it possible to stay friends. For a top 5 global pharma, Coactuate designed a futures simulation that encouraged role play from multiple angles, balancing competitive debate with co-creating an ideal future. Teams explored the honest challenges that must be overcome to achieve success, developed clear strategies for co-positioning, and identified the priority scenarios that might fundamentally impact development.
Client:
Toronto LHIN
Key Services:
The only way to truly know how change will have an impact is to get all the relevant people impacted to come together, share their experiences and needs, to map out the potential future, and implement. To help inform how Community Health Services could evolve under a new governmental operating structure, Coactuate designed and facilitated a 250 person co-creation workshop. To ensure authentic engagement, this included training patients and care providers to facilitate cross-functional groups that included leadership, administrators, providers, and users of community and care health services.
COMPETITIVE POSITIONING | STAKEHOLDER ALIGNMENT | STRATEGIC FORESIGHT | STRATEGIC PLANNING
Client: Top 5 Global Pharma
Key Services:
When our client approached us with a brand in decline due to a highly active competitor, there were conflicts about how to best respond while balancing in-market needs and the development program. Some were concerned with immediate positioning, while for others a potential shift in the treatment paradigm dominated thinking. To regain a leadership position in the market, Coactuate was asked to develop a future-oriented strategy that would meet immediate in-market needs while aligning the various work streams towards a clear North Star vision. The outcome of the strategy would either lead to reinvestment in the brand or tactical disinvestment.
For a highly cross-functional team, establishing a shared understanding of needs and goals can be a challenge. Coactuate designed and facilitated activities to push everyone into the future, revealing a shared vision and alignment around core principles. From this point it was possible to reverse engineer shared positions across multiple work streams and overcome previous conflicts. This unlocked potential new opportunities for growth.
Our final strategy was mapped to 3 distinct time horizons, each with its own clear criteria for success and prioritized activities. This structure made it possible to focus team member roles and responsibilities, establish an immediate market position, foundational lifecycle management, and a clear development program.
The co-creative process enabled all stakeholders to have the opportunity to be heard and actively contribute, overcoming debilitating internal friction and establishing ownership in a distinct value proposition. The team was aligned and had conviction on the optimal path forward.
Immediate cessation of market share decline through revised competitive positioning and messaging platform
Investment in new indications and commitment to development program led to double digit growth in a market that had been declining for 5 years
Restructured development team with clear objectives to speed up development for specific new lifecycle options
CO-CREATIVE ADVISORY BOARD | STRATEGIC FORESIGHT | TACTICAL PLANNING
Client: Top 5 Global Pharma
Key Services:
When our client approached us, they were at a crossroads regarding their role and decision to continue investing in their well established brand. Internal investment was in decline, but with significant unmet need there was frustration regarding how best to support patients getting care. New non-pharmaceutical treatment options were intensifying competitive pressure. Coactuate was asked to help build a vision of what the future treatment paradigm might look like, what level of opportunity might exist, and whether there was any ability to change the anticipated trajectory of the brand.
Working closely with a highly active team, we built a vision for the future by leveraging a diverse range of foresight tools. We provoked creative thinking about emerging trends and how they might impact the healthcare landscape. Our approaches blended design fiction for pure provocation, back-casting to shed light on implementation opportunities and challenges, and development of “North Stars” to bring trends to life.
A co-creative Advisory Board with thought leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs pressure tested emerging assumptions. Some insights were surprising as many leading care providers were optimistic of the future and bullish on meeting patient needs by leveraging technology to provide care in novel and impactful ways. Stakeholders identified partnership opportunities that had been overlooked, energizing the internal team.
After securing the first boost to budget in almost a decade, the biggest challenge was prioritizing the ambitious array of ideas and identifying how best to achieve impact. Coactuate supported the client with qual/quant research, scenario planning, and design thinking ideation to size, prioritize, and refine tangible actions with the greatest potential to shift the market and transform patient outcomes.
Re-calibrated strategy and perspectives on competitive market, leading to working partnerships with new stakeholders
Leadership investment in brand, first increased budget in 5 years, driven by new understanding of growth potential
Overcame internal team and organizational barriers to growth investment, supporting strategy and budget allocation to new priority pilots
CO-CREATIVE PATIENT ENGAGEMENT | DESIGN THINKING | RESEARCH SYNTHESIS
Client: Top 10 Global Pharma
Key Services:
Our clients work tirelessly to create life-changing therapies for patients suffering from debilitating diseases. For one of our clients, their mission is to improve the experience for patients on a burdensome at-home therapy. Coactuate was asked to help develop and validate holistic solutions that solve for the greatest pain points for patients and caregivers, ultimately improving care to enable patients to live their best life possible.
There is no better way to understand the patient experience than to invite them to the table. Patients and caregivers spent a day with our client team to share their stories and the major and minor disruptions that the therapy had in their lives. Coactuate facilitated these discussions and tailored the activities to ensure patients were heard and that empathy would play a big part in the client’s decisions. Valuable patient feedback was used to inform prioritization and future company investments.
In true co-creative style, over 35 people from cross-functional teams gathered over multiple workshops and working sessions to ideate solutions that addressed the key patient needs. By using our understanding of the patient experience as the foundation, we helped pinpoint the truly differentiated areas where innovation could transform patient outcomes.
While over 200 solutions were generated, the true value was putting the many opportunities in context and identifying how single point solutions could be interconnected into transformative system solutions. Final ideas were packaged as detailed patient narratives to give life to the solutions and help illustrate the comprehensive and nuanced impact on patients’ lives. These narratives were then brought into market research and further tested by patients and caregivers.
Coactuate’s unique approach allowed the client team to feel confident that their solutions were well-informed, transformative, and truly patient-centric
Insights generated were able to impact pipeline and development opportunities across a variety of disease areas, leading to broader impact and scope from our solution
Prioritized concepts have been supported by leadership team and are in active development
We are a true partner for our clients and act as an extension of their team. Deep knowledge of client problems leads to discovery of the unarticulated or unspoken unmet needs. Clients come to us with a problem, and we solve the ones they didn’t even know they had.
We believe co-creation is the best way to work because it builds owners. Everyone brings thoughts and ideas to the project, and team members leave with alignment, understanding conviction on the path forward.
traditional management consulting methodologies with bottom-up design-based approaches that foster engagement to ensure that outcomes are owned and implemented. 
Top-down approaches employ rigorous conceptual frameworks to inform strategic direction. However, implementation is often a challenge as organizations struggle to link strategy to day-to-day tactics.
Bottom-up approaches build tactics around ground level insights. While impactful to deliver against unmet needs, these tactics may not be linked to strategic objectives and may not deliver top-line impact.
We have a diverse toolkit, and the tenacity to do whatever is required to get outcomes. Our approach is informed and shaped by experience, but we do not believe in force fitting past solutions to new problems. This means you are guaranteed to get a bespoke solution, tailored to your unique needs, and primed for action.
Foresight
Strategic Planning
Competitive Simulation (medical/commercial, brand/franchise level)
Service Ecosystem
Tactical Planning
Ideation
Implementation (medical, commercial)
Visual Identity
Strategic Narratives
Advisory Boards (medical, commercial)
Medical Communications
Multi-model Communication of Qualitative Insights (e.g. personas, idea vignettes)
Ethnography
Integrated Qualitative-Quantitative Journey Mapping
Foresight
Strategic Planning
Competitive Simulation (medical/commercial, brand/franchise level)
Service Ecosystem
Tactical Planning
Ideation
Implementation (medical, commercial)
Visual Identity
Strategic Narratives
Advisory Boards (medical, commercial)
Medical Communications
Multi-model Communication of Qualitative Insights (e.g. personas, idea vignettes)
Ethnography
Integrated Qualitative-Quantitative Journey Mapping
We acknowledge our responsibility to listen and learn, and follow the leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC). We commit to understanding how to be an ally for change.
We are actively reviewing our internal policies, hiring, and training. We commit to dedicating time and resources towards finding actionable steps for continuous learning, inclusivity, and impact.
We are an intellectually curious group of
that tirelessly use creativity to solve ambiguous problems
We are an intellectually curious group of
that tirelessly use creativity to solve ambiguous problems
Backgrounds in management consulting, strategic foresight and private equity provide robust top-down strategic thinking to support you in your most challenging problems
We are an intellectually curious group of
that tirelessly use creativity to solve ambiguous problems
Experts in the design-thinking approach integrate bottom-up, insight-driven methodologies into projects, enhancing actionability
We are an intellectually curious group of
that tirelessly use creativity to solve ambiguous problems
Visual designers and biomedical communicators clearly articulate complex information in compelling, memorable and differentiated ways that drive impact
We are an intellectually curious group of
that tirelessly use creativity to solve ambiguous problems
Our sociologists and anthropologists use ethnography, conversation analysis and other qualitative techniques to uncover true behavioral decision drivers
We are a mixed bunch of people with diverse experiences and expertise, united by our compulsion to solve messy problems. Our curiosity drives us to delight our clients, and we are fearlessly jumping into the deep end to deliver valuable insights.
“Coactuate feels like family. We support, laugh, challenge, and learn from each other everyday. I’ve built personal relationships with my co-workers that I know will last for years down the road.”
“I look forward to our summer offsite every year. We spend a few days reflecting on the past year and setting new goals as a company. I like that we get to celebrate our wins and have a voice in building Coactuate.”
“We’re an adventurous bunch that likes to try new things. Sharing these out-of-office experiences together brings us closer as a team and keeps us active. We take turns planning these socials to keep things interesting!”
“We certainly know how to work hard and play hard. Whether it’s celebrating a win with afternoon beers or ending a busy week with a Raptors game, work-life balance is important to everyone on our team.”
“Wednesday team lunches!! Our whole company takes a mid-week break to share stories, laughs, and try new food. It helps that our office is in an amazing neighborhood with endless food choices!”
Rob has spent the last 20 years navigating and managing clients’ most complex and ambiguous challenges. This has amassed to a diverse and deep amount of hands-on experience (including leading over 150 strategic engagements with global healthcare organizations). With years of expertise and executive leadership roles in strategy, design thinking, finance, and private equity, Rob brings a bespoke and multi-dimensional approach to helping clients innovate and grow their organizations. As Coactuate’s founder and CEO, he’s always looking for ways to keep challenging the status quo and evolve how organizations approach strategy.
Education
Current Obsessions
With 15+ years of experience, Joy has extensive biopharmaceutical and life sciences consulting expertise, and has lead a wide range of strategic and tactical exercises to support product and portfolio planning, early phase valuations, and launch preparation across a broad range of therapeutic areas and markets. Joy is fiercely dedicated to exceeding client expectations and has a passion for developing customized processes to solve complex problems and translate market and stakeholder insights into actionable plans.
Education
Current Obsessions
A passionate and curious generator, Carl has over 15 years of experience building strategic and innovative capabilities across diverse teams and supporting clients through complex challenges. Carl has deep experience in healthcare, leveraging strategic foresight to support long term decision making. His broad background includes teaching at all levels, using biomimicry to connect science with engineering to provoke innovation, and systems thinking to make sense of abstract interconnected fields.
Education
Current Obsessions
Co
Cocreate
Communicate
Collaborate
Connect
Contact Coactuate
2345 Yonge Street, Suite 710, Toronto, Ontario, M4P 2E5, Canada
