Seeding Klick’s Genome beyond agency walls

New VP of strategy leads efforts to share operating system

Klick co-founder and CEO Leerom Segal has always been insistent that his agency is far more than just a digital shop for healthcare creative. Last week, Klick announced the hires of three new executives: Doug Burcin, formerly of Havas Health, as chief growth officer; Leslie Jamison, previously of in-sync, as senior VP, brand strategy; and as new VP, strategy, Michael Young, who had been with Parexel International as VP, business development.

To industry observers Klick’s choice of Young, a former CRO executive, for a key position may seem odd, but he brings a wealth of biotech and pharma marketing and communications experience from previous stints at Ligand Pharmaceuticals, Eisai, GSK, Adria Laboratories, and Bayer.

His switch to Klick, Young says, “was a natural transition for me and one in which there are so many new and innovative approaches to not only applying our digital expertise but understanding more importantly the real application of ambient data and how what we know about customers should be applied.”

“We like to think of ourselves here as a commercialization partner, and as you know more about Klick, it certainly goes well beyond the traditional view of an advertising agency,” he adds.

Young says while he is spending half of his time on work with Klick Health, he is also working with Sensei Labs, another Klick vertical, to help advance the use of Genome, the agency’s internal operating system.

According to Sensei Labs, “Almost everything that happens in the Klick companies happens in Genome. It has become our Enterprise Operating System (EOS), a sophisticated growth engine that drives our industry-leading success.”

Genome acts as a coach to every Klick employee, with “sophisticated algorithms mine a massive data warehouse stretching back over a decade to predict patterns, provide real-time coaching and training, and to optimize our behavior.”

Genome’s tools include Weekly Review, a diagnostic that uses a mix of self-reported and ambient data to evaluate the status of all open projects. “All of the data collected in the Weekly Reviews bubbles up to our Portfolio Management meetings, in which the leadership of every client portfolio comes together to assess the health of their business. Genome creates an agenda for those meetings based on the data it has collected since the last meeting, including kudos received by the teams, the state of all of the projects, and the data from the 360s. The set agenda, facilitated through a customized iPad-based interface, makes these meetings highly efficient and high value for all participants. Any next steps or actions are immediately captured into tickets for follow-up, guaranteeing that they get tracked and completed.”

Chatter is a Genome tool that acts like an internal Twitter channel, giving everyone at the company an idea of what’s going on without having to check a stream of corporate updates. Genome also includes logistics support that integrate and automate travel, expenses, and time tracking.

Young says several companies, “in particular smaller biotechs in a hypergrowth phase, were very intrigued by the success we were able to attain utilizing tools such as Genome. So we have commercialized this within Sensei Labs, and we are beginning to deploy this technology and this way of doing business in a number of different biotechs at this time.

“Things are going along very well, and it seems to be dramatically moving these companies to exactly what we are talking about, increased accountability, transparency, collaboration, and hopefully speeding up their decision making.”

Four clients are in various stages of using Genome, Young says. “Genome is our internal nom de plume, but we actually like to have our companies brand this operating system for themselves. They have individual names but the commercial presence is Sensei OS.”

Young came on board Klick shortly before the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. “It’s given me a nice opportunity during the last 10 or 12 weeks here to get a sense for the vast amount of talent and just the incredible smartness that resides here at Klick,” he says. ” I’m very impressed by the people I’ve met, and I believe that there is a true intent on advancing good science, good medical care, and things that will benefit Klick’s clients.”