DataRobot had strong platform capability but limited access to the enterprise AI transformation conversations that start at the strategy level — the conversations where budgets get shaped and platforms get selected. BCG had exactly that access: the client relationships, the transformation credibility, and the mandate to recommend technology.
BCG's value to clients, though, rested on being vendor-neutral — recommending whatever technology fit the engagement, not steering clients toward a partner's platform. That made a formal partnership something BCG's leadership approached cautiously: any structure had to give their teams a capable platform to build on without compromising the independence their advisory business depended on.
To resolve that tension, I designed a pass-through licensing model: BCG licensed DataRobot's platform for use in client engagements rather than reselling it as a recommended vendor, giving case teams a technology they could deploy freely without putting BCG's neutrality on the line or committing them to DataRobot exclusivity.
To prove the model, I worked with BCG's life sciences practice to identify pharmacovigilance as the first joint solution and piloted it with an initial client. In parallel, I designed and ran a 400-person DataRobot platform training program for BCG data scientists, building the capability for their teams to build and deploy independently without requiring DataRobot involvement in every engagement.
The training program and licensing structure gave BCG's practice a repeatable way to build AI into engagements without waiting on DataRobot for every deal. Case teams could scope, price, and deliver joint engagements independently, and a pipeline review cadence and internal advocacy network kept new opportunities surfacing across practices.
The first joint solution, a pharma pharmacovigilance product, was developed and sold to an initial client, validating the model. That engagement established the repeatable commercial motion: a defined client engagement approach, the pass-through licensing structure, and inclusion in BCG onboarding training for new data scientists.