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Purpose: To provide executives in the pharma/biotech industries with a pragmatic understanding about a holistic approach for dealing with ‘leadership’ issues relating to knowledge utilisation within organisations and teams.Methodology/approach: this paper proposes a methodology which addresses issues raised about the failure of strategies, projects and knowledge management programmes. An illustrative case study of a real-time exercise involving a number of these issues provides real-world understanding of the approach.Findings: Complex issues around leadership and knowledge can be handled using an holistic, systemic approach and delivering outputs and outcomes across a number of areas of key importance to the team or organisation.Research Limitations/implications: The methodology has been tested in numerous organisations over a 10-year period across the private sector, the public sector and the not-for-profit sector. Examples include Organon pharmaceuticals across three continents; Biogen biotechnology in France and Netherlands; Turku School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland; and Henley Management College, UK. The leadership components come from a DBA thesis by author P.A. The thesis includes a review of the leadership theory. The Leadership Culture Display diagnostic covers values and behaviours across the team. The repository of scores is growing as the instrument becomes more widely used.Originality/value: The strategic techniques used come from the Seven Management and Planning Tools developed originally by the Japanese in the 1970 s and 1980 s. This original approach has been further developed by the authors. The knowledge constructs are not only systematic, but also systemic. Parts of the approach make use of analysis, but the systemic parts make use of synthesis. The ‘big picture’ or roadmap, that is generated, is an example of real-world ‘joined-up-thinking’.Journal of Medical Marketing (2006) 6, 94–104. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jmm.5050019 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]