Life Sciences is in a period of hyper-change and uncertainty, creating opportunities for first principled approaches to gain meaningful market advantages. The principles popularized in Michael Lewis’ 2003 book Moneyball offer a compelling framework for transforming the way life sciences organizations manage commercial teams in the face of scarce resources and uncertainty.  Rather than relying on conventional indicators such as established networks or subjective assessments, a Moneyball-inspired approach emphasizes the identification and measurement of the unique insights that more effectively predict commercial outcomes. By leveraging advanced analytics, performance data, and predictive modeling, organizations and individuals can develop the insights that translate to operating with greater precision. 

Traditional sales metrics alone are heavily biased by self-reporting. Industry consolidation and common business platforms have created a generic set of indicators. Applying Moneyball thinking redefines success using evidence-based performance indicators, insights into a customer’s journey, engagement quality, adoption velocity, and long-term account growth. This data-driven approach also strengthens hiring, coaching, and organizational planning by focusing investments on behaviors and capabilities that create measurable value.

Ultimately, the lens of Moneyball shifts from intuition-based decision-making to a culture of continuous measurement, experimentation, and optimization.  The collective mindset of a commercial organization builds on the insights identifying hidden drivers of performance and challenge longstanding assumptions.  The efficiency of a shared understanding across the organization focuses on action rather than influence and alignment.  

The challenge is to disrupt the commercial inertia, moving past the WHEN and HOW to understand the WHY.

Johanne McGregor, Snr Director, Product Marketing – Reagents Solution Division, Bio-Techne

Priya Rangaraj, Snr Director, Product Marketing – Analytical Solutions Division, Bio-Techne

The vision was clear: create simplicity and clarity for customers by unifying four established life science brands under a single brand and consolidating three separate websites into one seamless digital experience. The ask? Deliver it in approximately twelve months. The challenge was not defining the strategy. The challenge was figuring out how to execute it while maintaining business continuity and supporting ongoing priorities.

With steady-state resources, an aggressive timeline, and a business-critical deadline, success depended less on the strategy itself and more on the ability to operationalize it. This session is a practical case study in executing large-scale transformation when time, budget, and people are constrained.

Attendees will learn how a cross-functional team spanning marketing, digital, product management, and commercial functions translated an ambitious vision into an executable plan. We will share the planning, governance, stakeholder alignment, content migration, and decision-making frameworks that enabled progress while navigating competing priorities, organizational complexity, and constant pressure to deliver.

Through real-world examples, we will discuss the approaches that proved most valuable, including ruthless prioritization, transparent communication, collaborative governance, risk-based tradeoffs, and a relentless focus on progress over perfection. We will share what worked, what did not, and the lessons learned along the way.

Attendees will leave with practical insights and repeatable approaches that can be applied to their own high-stakes initiatives, especially when the vision appears to outsize the available resources.

Productivity conversations often start with tools: another AI platform, dashboard, subscription, or workflow system. But tools only create value when people have the skills, role clarity, and confidence to use them well. What if the real constraint on productivity is not the technology available, but the capabilities people need to do their work?

In Bio-Rad’s Life Science Group, approximately 500 employees assessed the skills required for their roles, identified strengths and development gaps, and used those insights to write more meaningful development goals. In this practitioner-led case study, Lia Vosti will share how that role-based skills framework was built and translate the approach into a practical framework attendees can use themselves.

The SHIFT framework helps individuals: Scan the skills that matter for their role now and next; Honestly assess their current capabilities; Identify the one to three skills that would make the biggest difference; Form a plan to build them through learning, practice, mentorship, exposure, or stretch opportunities; and Take the first step.

Learning isn’t about fixing a gap—it’s an unlock: a way to expand what you’re capable of and stay ahead as work continues to change.

Attendees will leave with one priority capability they want to develop, a concrete development goal and strategy for building that capability, and a first action they can take immediately—along with a question they can continue asking themselves and their teams: What do you want to learn next to expand what you’re capable of?

I’ve watched sales and marketing act like rival tribes for most of my career. Marketing builds campaigns that sales doesn’t trust will have an impact. Sales closes deals marketing never hears about. When numbers miss, everyone points fingers instead of looking in the mirror.

When I was CEO of Vector Laboratories, I decided I was done with that. I would not hire “lone cowboys or cowgirls”. I knew I needed to avoid talent who wanted to win alone instead of together. Under my leadership, sales and marketing contributed equally to strategic decisions, no exceptions. And I asked one question, over and over, until it became automatic for the leaders and their team members: “Who did you run this by?” That’s it. That’s the habit that turned two functions into one team.

Here’s what worries me now. As sales and marketing each rush to adopt their own AI tools, I’m watching teams risk undoing years of collaborative work as each team gets more efficient inside their silos while quietly rebuilding the walls between them.

Come prepared to be a little uncomfortable. I’m going to ask you to actively participate, not just listen. I promise it will have nothing to do with public speaking or testing of your AI know-how. Because human connection isn’t something talent or leaders should delegate to efficiency. It’s the thing that actually makes sales and marketing work as one team. It’s the one thing AI will never do for you.

I’ll share what building that culture really took, the good, the bad and the messy. My bet on the teams that win in an AI-driven market won’t be the most automated teams. I’ll bet on the teams that are the most human and the most unified.