VENTURE FORUM 2008
Larta Institute organized its yearly venture forum on May 30, 2008 at Santa Clara Convention Center, Silicon Valley, CA. Biopreneur of the California Takshila University is being one of the affiliates of the program promoter had the privileged to witnessed the excitement of the entrepreneurs at the event.
This year the Venture Forum was dedicated to the life sciences primarily because of a large numbers of early stage innovators in the life sciences through the exclusive partnership of LARTA with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Furthermore this year Venture forum attracted entrepreneurs from several other countries. There were 80 companies exhibited their inventions at the conference – from USA NIH-funded forty eight (48), from affiliates program twenty-four (24), and International – eight (8). It was a highly coordinated and dedicated effort of the Larta team (as show above).
Keynote speaker Steve Burrill of Burrill and Company shared his vision of the life-sciences in the coming decades. Mr. Burrill pointed out the opportunities and challenges for the sector. According to him memory and metabolic-diseases related area will receive the highest attention from the market. He also indicated that more and more people were gravitating toward staying well concept – thus the market opportunities for the wellness industry are undisputable. Just to give a quantitative feeling of his statement – Current drug market is about US$240 billion while size of the wellness product market is US$300 billion and growing.
On the financial market stocks of nutraceuticals product companies consistently did better than the both the indexes for past five years.
One of his encouraging statements for the entrepreneur was “big company is not an innovator, small company is”. Taking string of that statement we discussed with Mr. Burrill and his associate. regarding possible working association with Biopreneur of the California Takshila University. He had one advice for our forum members – “when seeking investment entrepreneur must realize that the use of investment capital comes with the change in strategy.”
Attendees enjoyed an wonderful lunch session with the President of ResearchAmerica , Ms. Mary Woolley. She asked state to take much larger role in advancing research and lack of coordination and attention in the U.S.
We all anticipate and work for science fiction-like breakthroughs.
What we need now more than ever is an advocacy breakthrough, particularly advocacy by innovators and entrepreneurs. She explained the need of public investments in both the fundamental research as well as in technology commercialization. These investment in-turn created jobs and stimulated the nation’s economy.
She further emphasized the need for regenerative research in order to stay ahead of the global competition. Countries like Singapore, South Korea, India and EU nations are implementing more of the current knowledge of the regenerative technologies than that of USA.
Clearly we need more public awareness and governmental support in this area.
We ended the forum with an extraordinary speech on human health crisis in developing countries by Mr. Boris Nikolic, Senior Program Officer, at Global Health Discovery, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Dr. Nikolic challenged every entrepreneur in the audience with the current inequality of health that exist in the world. Guiding principles of the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is –All lives – no matter where they are – have equal value. It is foundation’s goal to reduce inequality of lives.
Where does the inequity lie?
With the 2/3 of the world’s 6 billion people that live in the developing world. The greatest need is among the 1 in 6 that lives on less than $1 per day.
Millions die unnecessarily each year from diseases that are currently treatable or preventable
» AIDS, TB and malaria alone kill 6 million people annually
» Vaccine-preventable diseases kill more than 2 million children annually
Access to existing, effective health interventions is severely limited for most of those in need
» Systems for delivery of vaccines don’t regularly reach all of those in need
» Vaccines available for many years in wealthy countries, but are not used widely in the developing world
The Result: a global health problem that undermines economic development, social and political stability
He concluded his callings with the vision of the Gates foundation –"There is no bigger test for humanity than the crisis of global health. Solving it will require the full commitment of our hearts and minds. We need both. Without compassion, we won’t do anything. Without science, we can’t do anything. So far, we have not applied all we have of either." Bill Gates, World Health Assembly, May 2005
I had the opportunities to meet some of the entrepreneurs who have made exceptional technological advancement in their field. I also met a Professor-preneur, like myself from Brazil, who not only teaches entrepreneurship to his life sciences students but also a founder of a positive cash-flow bio-business in Brazil. Above you see Prof. was explaining to me his peptide technology for metabolic syndrome.
More information on Larta and Venture forum can be found at www.Larta.com. Also stay tune for the up-coming events by Larta and its affiliates including TIP, Biopreneur/ California Takshila University.
Ryan Baidya
California Takshila University
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
WHO ARE BIOPRENEURS? - California Takshila University
WHO ARE BIOPRENEURS?
Miyuki Shiratani and Ryan Baidya
Cupertino, California
Biopreneurs or bioentrepreneurs are normally adventurous, innovative, analytical, problem solvers. PhD training in any given field gives the primary skills and core knowledge of that field. However, there is another whole set of skills and understanding that is not covered in normal PhD training. That aspect is the understanding of entrepreneurship itself, which makes it easier to manage and administer the aspects of a specific business. With bioventure comes extreme complexity that requires business knowledge and understanding. To become an established and successful bioentrepreneur no one can avoid the business aspects of such a venture. A successful biopreneur must acquire and command the necessary basic knowledge of general business practices. Planning a business and the execution of that plan to achieve real success are two completely different aspects of bionventure, or of any business. A person may have to go through an intermediary phase, or phases—becoming a technical manager—and might also have to be a lead scientist or researcher as well.
The transition from technical contributor to technical manager is not easy. Globally, in biotechnology, scientists are often given the responsibility for projects and people without much thought or additional management training. This is especially true in the case of biopreneurs who want to establish a business without outside administrative help. If they transition perfectly—i.e. they understand the proper place and roles of administrative people and mold themselves in accord with that—they’ll gain the same outcome as having outside managers brought into the team. The fact is that some biopreneurs make the transition rather well, though many experts agree that the industry has had a rough time in such transitional phases; it needs improvement. So, to reach the peak in your business, you cannot underestimate the need for efficient management styles.
Try to understand what happens within the minds of many biopreneurs. Failure in the transitional stage to manager occurs because most people with a PhD in biotechnology, while chalking out a business plan, focus on the scientific and technological aspects of the whole matter. As they consider their potential product and related incidentals, they see it only from a scientist’s point of view. Thus when it comes to the administrative aspects of the venture, they believe that implementing supervisory skills is simply a matter of time and gaining experience. They expect it to be a basic learning situation while they operate their new business.
Stan Sewitch, a human resources (HR) consultant in San Diego, contradicts that all too common belief saying, "Management is not an additional set of responsibilities requiring new skills to be added to one's professional repertoire," he continues, "Management is an entirely different career from that of the individual contributor in science." Sewitch, former director of human resources for Mycogen, San Diego, CA, USA, adds that technical professionals too often believe that managing people is a skill-set to be acquired. In most cases, they find out too late that this isn't the case. It’s best to take Sewitch’s advice seriously from the very outset of a project.
A researcher willing to set up a business based on his or her concept in biotechnology, known as a biopreneur in the industry, must achieve several useful qualities to reach the goal of becoming a successful businessman. Along with gaining managerial awareness it is also advantageous to know how they themselves are different from other businessmen. It surely helps them to smooth out any pertinent difficulties while adding indispensable qualities. It is essential to prospective biopreneurs to prepare for the future by learning and planning for their bio-venture. They must understand, along with other things, prior to commencing their business, their own drawbacks and weaknesses and how they may overcome them or at least be prepared to face them.
TRAITS OF A RESEARCHER AND A BUSINESSPERSON
RESEARCHER BIOPRENEUR (Science+ Business)
Determinant & Stubborn Determinant
Ambitious Ambitious with realism
Problem solver Problem solver & delegator
Unbound Explorer Disciplined Exploration
Risk taker Risk taker & hedger
Leadership (some cases) Leadership & Team Player
Cheer leader (some cases) Cheer leader
Sales person (some cases) Sales person
Hard worker Hard worker
From the above chart it is quite clear that researchers and biopreneurs are different in fundamental ways. You can recognize one thing clearly; if you are willing to become solely a researcher you may follow one path, inventing new things day in and day out. But if your goal is to become a successful businessman you will have a somewhat different pathway to take. If fortune is inviting you to become a biopreneur you must choose a special lifestyle— one where you must play both roles—researcher and businessman. Along with the characteristics that a researcher exhibits a biopreneur carries additional attributes which demand particular attention. For example, a researcher’s character-set insists on being ambitious. In contrast the character of a biopreneur requires ambition based on reality. That “reality” makes an ideal situation because in bioventure you must work to promote yourself along with your company’s brand. There is no place for airy ambition as you are required to make a profit for your investors. In the case of bioventure, you will be forced into certain obligations such as: competitive intelligence, task-management, finding investors and funding, tax concerns and monetary returns for your investors, marketing strategies, concrete branding—the future of your brand, reworking corporate structure etc. These things will prevent you from exploring new product-lines without ample concern for profit in the venture. Thus, still retaining characteristics of a researcher, which you truly are, you will also think and execute things like a businessman. That means not to embellish, so that you will become an ideal biopreneur.
Valuable opinions
Co-founder and Chairman of Responsys, Inc., Anand Jagannathan talked about the characteristics required to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need to have determination and drive, the ability to face rejection, and they need to be risk takers. They must know their “value proposition” with respect to customer “pain points.” Most successful entrepreneurs, Jagannathan suggests, have a clear definition of their personal success that goes beyond reaching the IPO stage, an ability to listen and adapt to customer’s requirements, and the ability to recognize and seize opportunity. Though it may be easy to read or listen to this, it’s really very difficult to follow through. And, to materialize the whole concept is even harder.
Mr. Bipin Shah, a successful entrepreneur, now a V.C. in the Silicon Valley, once presented advice to the new entrepreneurs:
• Start only if you are committed for the long haul and prepared to go through the ups and downs.
• Start only if you have the deepest passion for what you are going to do.
• Start only if you are prepared to “fail” if things go “wrong” and they “do…”
• Start only if you are absolutely convinced that you are killing a real pain that exists in the market today.
Though an old familiar story but probably novel to new entrepreneurs—starting anything new always has risk factors, which could lead to failure. If you are inclined to stop at this point, or move on to other tangential visions, you may never return to your dream of establishing a real bio-venture and it will remain merely a fantasy. Whether it’s a new, or an established venture, risk is always an innate part of the game. But you have to stick to your original choice of acquiring success. Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande rejected thoughts of returning to his life as a professor and software engineer—Re: book titled From Financial Flop to Billionaire. After his first failure, Desphande stayed the course, always true to his original vision. Now a very successful entrepreneur, he relates: “A manager means doing things (the) ‘right way’ and a leader means doing the ‘right things.’” If it's something you really believe in, he asserts, "…you're going to make it happen."
Here, before you decide which role fits you best, you have to know exactly what right thing and exactly which right way… Reading theories and building a business plan, based on theory alone, is not very hard, maybe even a little too easy. Your planning must be based first on reality. After that you have to be prepared to pursue essential intermediate goals in order to achieve success. First and foremost, you must consider possible risk factors that you or your company may need to face. Risks have to be faced; not succumbing to your fears will make you an ultimate winner.
Leadership—It’s Expected
Outstanding leaders in business have the ability to convince others. You must have the ability to inspire your peers and to execute things at the right time. You have to motivate investors and partners to have faith in your abilities and concepts, so that they do not waver to invest or support your decisions.
It is particularly true that gaining something is frequently easier than retaining it. Leadership is that same sort of thing. As a leader you may have to make decisions without having all the information at hand, but your decisions will have to be a strong enough so that no one will want to oppose you afterward. Though only real experience helps true leaders to make decisions effectively, nonetheless, many times intuition, based on personal and concrete understanding, is also a great and positive assist.
You have to stick to your decisions until a time when you find significant flaws in them. Here you will have to mindful that as a leader you must not play the part of a dictator. Good and generous leaders have their goals focused on their team’s goals. You have to be always ready to listen to your people because they may, in fact, have better ideas in mind than you. You must build a good team to execute what you think. Thus capable minds should surround you—their suggestions, comments and interpretations will always be helpful. You should try to remain the center-point of the team, and so your communicating skills will keep them in concert. You have to be strongly connected to your team-members, ready to listen to and talk to them as needed.
It may appear to be the job of managers but you also must learn how to separate your inner being—compartmentalizing yourself as required for a group venture. You must know how to gain the qualities needed to accomplish the duties of full leadership. You have to sanction yourself with powers like ego-power, self-power and agency-power. And it is your soul-power—the power of your spirit—that will keep you totally responsive to all appropriate feedback. That power will never lead you to feel-on-top of anyone, nor beneath anyone either. Also ego, if used positively, can make you self-aware; it can increase positive values in your life. But remember, your ego-power must not become tactless egotism—self-centered selfishness—optimally it should lightly touch egoism, i.e. self-interest. That difference subtlety prevents you from losing your humanity.
As Deepak Chopra has shared, you as a leader have to have the ability to look and listen—not normal looking, and listening—you must not be blinded to observing reality. For the best possible future of your business, you must not be deaf to free-flowing ideas and advice from your partners and your subordinates.
Interestingly, this vision is not only for you, but also for the sake of social justice and environmental responsibility. After all you must be responsible for any harm caused to ambient surroundings if it’s caused by your bioventure. So you ought to cultivate a sense of consciousness, and social-environmental awareness. Consciousness differentiates tangled hierarchies. Consciousness is necessary to virtually connect with reality. And so, it is a sense of consciousness, and awareness, that every human being, whether in business or any field or job, must possess, for the betterment of society and the environment in general.
A Simple Philosophy
Business is a service for the society and money is the by-product of that service. Every time, as you think of building a new venture, you ought to remind yourself of that statement. The by-product of the business is your profit and it is the living blood of your company, but the service you provide to society must not be any less than oxygen. That might be considered yet another responsibility, but as a leader you have to be prepared for such concepts.
Leadership is dependent on time and circumstances. You must be prepared to prove your abilities every time you are faced with requisite circumstances. You have to create a wholly positive environment for ongoing projects. As a leader you have to have understand synchronicity—a sense of co-ordination, and a sense of harmony within several jobs. A leader feels, visualizes, takes a risk, and accomplishes a commitment to pick up broken pieces, as he or she moves along to meet various goals. A leader never loses the winning spirit.
Nearing the end of this section, I would like to recap and philosophize. It’s not wrong to say that leaders, and followers, co-create each other. Leaders, followers and environments co-arise within the same space and time. It is rule itself that differentiates the ruler from others. Although there are several points or characteristics that may help an entrepreneur to manage the role of the ruler, there is nothing that is fixed in any business. Rules work for business, but business is never for the sake of rules. Rules or basic guidelines to prepare your business are conceived from previous business experiences.
As a leader you will have to make your own rules. Time will allow such opportunities. Then why talk about not-making-rules or avoiding it? Why listen to other people? It is for a breakthrough or to invent new or better rules, when you will reach new vantage points of understanding—newer positions of understanding, thus modifying older rules.
Knowledge is only a stairway that leads you to a level of success—you have to become successful first, by devising your own strategy. When your strategy is proven, you will establish your own rules in which to rule your business, as you see fit. This tipping point will be perceived as the birth of a real industry leader. …Hats off!
Inside the Minds of Biopreneurs
Now you know or at least have a vague notion of what a biopreneur is, a hint of the managerial aspects of the job, as well as the role and the ways of a leader. Now let’s take a brief journey through the mind of a biopreneur. What they hold in their minds makes them different from other researchers, as it also makes them known to the world! What is the inspiring source of such strong will-power! According to Mr. Olaf Isachson, the author of Joining the Entrepreneurial Elite, the ten most traits of entrepreneurs, including biopreneurs possess, are:
• They are in charge of their own destiny. Contradicting this, anyone can say that every man is the master of his own destiny, it is true! But the winning drive is this: Like other people, entrepreneurs, when problems arise, do not leave their destiny in hands of an unforeseen circumstance.
• They are non-conformists, able to be stand-alone or be with people. It is their iron mettle that helps them to face any situation. They know how to mold themselves in accordance with a given situation.
• They move beyond the local, the provincial, the familiar and the tried and true. In short they are true risk-takers.
• They avoid time-consuming trifles and are swift to make decisions. True leadership is always a part of their character. Always, even in the roughest and hardest situations, they remain cool and calm—to make the right and best decisions.
• There are no obstacles, only challenges and temporary setbacks. The word obstacle does not exist in the vernacular of biopreneurs. It is a merely a challenge, as they love to call it, and obviously it is a challenge that makes them so excited and charged.
• The harder they work the more energy they generate. They generally possess nonstop energy to go on, and on, and on…
• They love what they do, and their devotion and passion allows them to move beyond the confines of themselves. The passion and love for what you are about to do will make its outcome much better, and of course generally positive.
• They are visionaries and their biggest competitors are themselves. It is ultimately their unique vision and decisions that make up responsibilities for the future of their ventures. Certainly, if they are wrong, they will reverse an imminent catastrophe.
• They seldom give up. Failure is not in their vocabulary. Just like the word obstacle they are not ready to think of failure. A small piece of advice here: it is better to have confidence, not thinking of failure or obstacles, but you have to keep your eyes open for anything of that sort too, so that you find yourself and your people ready to face it, if it appears in the future.
• They firmly believe there are no sins of commission—only those of omission. That may differ depending on the individuals. However, it is also a particular trait that biopreneurs possess quite proudly.
Paths to success
We always like to know and teach, especially when we know a lot about business, leadership, etc., or about a formula that may bring success. I do not think there is any generalized formula or equation that can be used to define success. However, this does not prevent us from exploring and finding a cluster of formulas, or sets of characteristics, that may give us a foreseeable indication of a pathway to success. In bioventure this information is quite valuable. It is actually based on experience as well as the experiments of others who might inform us about possible, though not 100% flawless, paths to success. One thing might be applicable to X, though it may not equally be applicable to Z, and so on. A group of scholars at MIT’s Sloan School of Management did research on this subject for five years. According to their studies here is their model for success:
• Success takes a balance of forces. Technology is not always necessary and is almost never sufficient.
• Due to the power of open communication by the virtue of the Internet revolution, the business model of future company might be a huge corporation or it might be a very small enterprise.
• Decentralization is key phrase of the future. In order to be successful one must make decisions based on ones proximity to the knowledge of his or her customers.
• True activities, not the corporate organization charts, will become the primary building blocks in a business. Out-sourcing and alliances will eliminate the need for huge personnel, and becomes the enabler of the small businessperson intent on staying lean but growing into a big business.
• Companies large and small will be both global and local. They will need the local touch and all will face global competition.
• The most impacting discovery of this research is regarding the coming golden era of microenterprises—a vision that is saturated in the power of Internet. Given the low cost of communications, everyone can be well informed and thus will make good decisions. The highly motivated, the creative and innovative, the biopreneur, will convert imparted data and knowledge into business wisdom, and build successful companies to compete with gorilla-corporations.
As I already have mentioned these are possible ways; it depends upon you, as you are the sole responsible agent for the future of your company. It is useful and a wise decision for the time being to read these ideas to comprehend the right way before you make any hasty decisions. No one and nothing in particular will bring success unless you understand and decide what is good for you. It is well said that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Success comes from the ability to feel compassion.
Success Redefined
Inderjit Singh, founder and CEO of Infiniti Solutions and also TIE Singapore, a member of parliament in Singapore, he has shared the story of his entrepreneurship. Acquiring a seat in government or joining a multinational company formerly defined success in Singapore. This might resonate with many of us who have known success in Japan, or have equated it to signing-up with a multinational organization, or gaining a government position. Singh climbed the ladder of success in Singapore through the same means. But then he attempted something a bit different; he was able to acquire venture funding from inside of Singapore, and from abroad. In doing this he ultimately realized his entrepreneurial dream by changing previously construed, or tacitly defined, limits.
He said, as a member of parliament he championed the cause of transforming Singapore from a corporate based economy into an entrepreneurial one by addressing all concerns, impediments, and challenges to entrepreneurship—his mission leaving: “no stone left unturned.” According to him the key characteristics required to be a successful entrepreneur are as follows:
1) Determination
2) Risk-taking
3) Leadership
4) Number one sales person and number one cheerleader
5) Problem solver
So you see the basic traits required to be a successful entrepreneur stay same. It is only the method of utilizing these traits that change. Over the course, methods change with things such as the mind, time, and circumstances.
Though not directly connected to bioventure let us share another important success story. A well circulated story, if not well known, is one in which Ireland was looking to become a major center for Microsoft and wanted a major server hub. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s investigation revealed that Ireland’s electronic infrastructure could not support it because it did not have enough resident bandwidth. So everything stopped. What to do now! There was no looking back and no crying tears of woe. Ireland took on the enterprise, implementing the required bandwidth building it to the latest specifications in a very short span of time. The rest is history, thus establishing Ireland as a global center of excellence in Internet activity. And that is how one should be prepared for any forthcoming or unforeseen, unexpected, problem. Now then two questions arise:
How would another country have dealt with such a challenge?
How are other countries prepared to participate in similar dynamic and global marketplaces?
The problem and its solution will remain at their places we just have to find them out. Now that we have enjoyed a little bit of success kind a thing, let us explore some new ways to attend success:
Some Critical Success Factors In Biopreneurs
Strong Will Power That Can Motivate Others.
Early Contact With Successful Entrepreneurs.
Exposure To Success Stories And Case Studies.
Gain Practical, Real World Experience Before, During And After PhDs.
Be Willing To Be Unusual/Unconventional.
Agree To Embrace Risk, And Possibly Failure.
Ready To Leave A Large Company.
Great Idea To Start With.
Excellent And Passionate Team - Near And Long Term Vision.
Ability To Change Course Mid Stream.
Execution, Execution And Execution!!
Strategic And Marketing Brilliance.
Frugality & Excellent Cash Management.
Support Network - VCs, Board, Advisory Board And Other Value Add People.
Though it may look like bringing the same old line in front again, I should like to remind you again that things are not to be followed strictly. Those are important yet very flexible rules. Those tools are for the sake of your business and your business is not there to prove their practicality. Every ruler creates his/her own rule but it’s only after you be sure of calling yourself a ruler in business.
Sum up
As someone once said, the best of us is not what we do but what we inspire in others. Thus when we share our experience and knowledge it increases. Whatever the way we choose or wherever we move to work the basic knowledge and way will remain the same. We may face failure and obstacles only to remember, “Failure is one of the major milestones of an entrepreneur and each obstacle is an opportunity”. It’s not a theory, as a theory is also based on what we learn out of our failure and experiment, but our own flaw and failure will teach us the right way to success. It will make us winner one day. Everything is dependant on our mind as Silicon Valley is not a geographical location it is just a “state of mind”. Think as a winner and you will find yourself as a winner. If you loose the vigour of your mind you will be nowhere in near future.
If experiment is the only thing that you have in hand, do it sincerely, genuinely and with an inimitable passion for them. With the human life span longer and the business cycle shorter, the opportunities are immense for those with the motivation, the temperament, and the guts to do it their way. There was no one-way, there is no one-way and there will be no one-way. It was the biopreneur’s way, it is the biopreneur’s way and it will be the biopreneur’s way.
(This artilce is taken from a book titled – Biopreneurs: the Molecular Millionaires)
Miyuki Shiratani currently is in charge of international logistic for Devicenet, USA, Inc. She has over 10 years’ international and multicultural experience (Japan, US, India) in both IT and biotech industries. She also held responsibilities of international marketing communications at Sharp Electronic Corp., Osaka, Japan; and sale/customer relations at JUSCO, Japan. She received her BA at Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka, Japan, and MBA at the San Jose state University, CA.
Ryan Baidya is an entrepreneur a business strategist and who has 12+ years of experience in biotech. He launched several biotech and high-tech businesses in Silicon Valley/USA, and Tokyo/Japan. He founded BioZak and BioZak-Infobase, and served as one of the founding management. Prior to that he was with Genprobe, , HyseQ; and GeneAsia. He serves as an advisor to Golden-Embryo, Pune/India; and KZAISoft corp., Durgapur/India. He gave numerous lectures on life sciences and bio-business topics at conferences, primarily in USA, and Japan. He authored articles, patents, and commentaries. Dr. Baidya received his MS from IIT Kanpur, PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz and MBA from the San Jose State University, CA..
Miyuki Shiratani and Ryan Baidya
Cupertino, California
Biopreneurs or bioentrepreneurs are normally adventurous, innovative, analytical, problem solvers. PhD training in any given field gives the primary skills and core knowledge of that field. However, there is another whole set of skills and understanding that is not covered in normal PhD training. That aspect is the understanding of entrepreneurship itself, which makes it easier to manage and administer the aspects of a specific business. With bioventure comes extreme complexity that requires business knowledge and understanding. To become an established and successful bioentrepreneur no one can avoid the business aspects of such a venture. A successful biopreneur must acquire and command the necessary basic knowledge of general business practices. Planning a business and the execution of that plan to achieve real success are two completely different aspects of bionventure, or of any business. A person may have to go through an intermediary phase, or phases—becoming a technical manager—and might also have to be a lead scientist or researcher as well.
The transition from technical contributor to technical manager is not easy. Globally, in biotechnology, scientists are often given the responsibility for projects and people without much thought or additional management training. This is especially true in the case of biopreneurs who want to establish a business without outside administrative help. If they transition perfectly—i.e. they understand the proper place and roles of administrative people and mold themselves in accord with that—they’ll gain the same outcome as having outside managers brought into the team. The fact is that some biopreneurs make the transition rather well, though many experts agree that the industry has had a rough time in such transitional phases; it needs improvement. So, to reach the peak in your business, you cannot underestimate the need for efficient management styles.
Try to understand what happens within the minds of many biopreneurs. Failure in the transitional stage to manager occurs because most people with a PhD in biotechnology, while chalking out a business plan, focus on the scientific and technological aspects of the whole matter. As they consider their potential product and related incidentals, they see it only from a scientist’s point of view. Thus when it comes to the administrative aspects of the venture, they believe that implementing supervisory skills is simply a matter of time and gaining experience. They expect it to be a basic learning situation while they operate their new business.
Stan Sewitch, a human resources (HR) consultant in San Diego, contradicts that all too common belief saying, "Management is not an additional set of responsibilities requiring new skills to be added to one's professional repertoire," he continues, "Management is an entirely different career from that of the individual contributor in science." Sewitch, former director of human resources for Mycogen, San Diego, CA, USA, adds that technical professionals too often believe that managing people is a skill-set to be acquired. In most cases, they find out too late that this isn't the case. It’s best to take Sewitch’s advice seriously from the very outset of a project.
A researcher willing to set up a business based on his or her concept in biotechnology, known as a biopreneur in the industry, must achieve several useful qualities to reach the goal of becoming a successful businessman. Along with gaining managerial awareness it is also advantageous to know how they themselves are different from other businessmen. It surely helps them to smooth out any pertinent difficulties while adding indispensable qualities. It is essential to prospective biopreneurs to prepare for the future by learning and planning for their bio-venture. They must understand, along with other things, prior to commencing their business, their own drawbacks and weaknesses and how they may overcome them or at least be prepared to face them.
TRAITS OF A RESEARCHER AND A BUSINESSPERSON
RESEARCHER BIOPRENEUR (Science+ Business)
Determinant & Stubborn Determinant
Ambitious Ambitious with realism
Problem solver Problem solver & delegator
Unbound Explorer Disciplined Exploration
Risk taker Risk taker & hedger
Leadership (some cases) Leadership & Team Player
Cheer leader (some cases) Cheer leader
Sales person (some cases) Sales person
Hard worker Hard worker
From the above chart it is quite clear that researchers and biopreneurs are different in fundamental ways. You can recognize one thing clearly; if you are willing to become solely a researcher you may follow one path, inventing new things day in and day out. But if your goal is to become a successful businessman you will have a somewhat different pathway to take. If fortune is inviting you to become a biopreneur you must choose a special lifestyle— one where you must play both roles—researcher and businessman. Along with the characteristics that a researcher exhibits a biopreneur carries additional attributes which demand particular attention. For example, a researcher’s character-set insists on being ambitious. In contrast the character of a biopreneur requires ambition based on reality. That “reality” makes an ideal situation because in bioventure you must work to promote yourself along with your company’s brand. There is no place for airy ambition as you are required to make a profit for your investors. In the case of bioventure, you will be forced into certain obligations such as: competitive intelligence, task-management, finding investors and funding, tax concerns and monetary returns for your investors, marketing strategies, concrete branding—the future of your brand, reworking corporate structure etc. These things will prevent you from exploring new product-lines without ample concern for profit in the venture. Thus, still retaining characteristics of a researcher, which you truly are, you will also think and execute things like a businessman. That means not to embellish, so that you will become an ideal biopreneur.
Valuable opinions
Co-founder and Chairman of Responsys, Inc., Anand Jagannathan talked about the characteristics required to be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs need to have determination and drive, the ability to face rejection, and they need to be risk takers. They must know their “value proposition” with respect to customer “pain points.” Most successful entrepreneurs, Jagannathan suggests, have a clear definition of their personal success that goes beyond reaching the IPO stage, an ability to listen and adapt to customer’s requirements, and the ability to recognize and seize opportunity. Though it may be easy to read or listen to this, it’s really very difficult to follow through. And, to materialize the whole concept is even harder.
Mr. Bipin Shah, a successful entrepreneur, now a V.C. in the Silicon Valley, once presented advice to the new entrepreneurs:
• Start only if you are committed for the long haul and prepared to go through the ups and downs.
• Start only if you have the deepest passion for what you are going to do.
• Start only if you are prepared to “fail” if things go “wrong” and they “do…”
• Start only if you are absolutely convinced that you are killing a real pain that exists in the market today.
Though an old familiar story but probably novel to new entrepreneurs—starting anything new always has risk factors, which could lead to failure. If you are inclined to stop at this point, or move on to other tangential visions, you may never return to your dream of establishing a real bio-venture and it will remain merely a fantasy. Whether it’s a new, or an established venture, risk is always an innate part of the game. But you have to stick to your original choice of acquiring success. Gururaj “Desh” Deshpande rejected thoughts of returning to his life as a professor and software engineer—Re: book titled From Financial Flop to Billionaire. After his first failure, Desphande stayed the course, always true to his original vision. Now a very successful entrepreneur, he relates: “A manager means doing things (the) ‘right way’ and a leader means doing the ‘right things.’” If it's something you really believe in, he asserts, "…you're going to make it happen."
Here, before you decide which role fits you best, you have to know exactly what right thing and exactly which right way… Reading theories and building a business plan, based on theory alone, is not very hard, maybe even a little too easy. Your planning must be based first on reality. After that you have to be prepared to pursue essential intermediate goals in order to achieve success. First and foremost, you must consider possible risk factors that you or your company may need to face. Risks have to be faced; not succumbing to your fears will make you an ultimate winner.
Leadership—It’s Expected
Outstanding leaders in business have the ability to convince others. You must have the ability to inspire your peers and to execute things at the right time. You have to motivate investors and partners to have faith in your abilities and concepts, so that they do not waver to invest or support your decisions.
It is particularly true that gaining something is frequently easier than retaining it. Leadership is that same sort of thing. As a leader you may have to make decisions without having all the information at hand, but your decisions will have to be a strong enough so that no one will want to oppose you afterward. Though only real experience helps true leaders to make decisions effectively, nonetheless, many times intuition, based on personal and concrete understanding, is also a great and positive assist.
You have to stick to your decisions until a time when you find significant flaws in them. Here you will have to mindful that as a leader you must not play the part of a dictator. Good and generous leaders have their goals focused on their team’s goals. You have to be always ready to listen to your people because they may, in fact, have better ideas in mind than you. You must build a good team to execute what you think. Thus capable minds should surround you—their suggestions, comments and interpretations will always be helpful. You should try to remain the center-point of the team, and so your communicating skills will keep them in concert. You have to be strongly connected to your team-members, ready to listen to and talk to them as needed.
It may appear to be the job of managers but you also must learn how to separate your inner being—compartmentalizing yourself as required for a group venture. You must know how to gain the qualities needed to accomplish the duties of full leadership. You have to sanction yourself with powers like ego-power, self-power and agency-power. And it is your soul-power—the power of your spirit—that will keep you totally responsive to all appropriate feedback. That power will never lead you to feel-on-top of anyone, nor beneath anyone either. Also ego, if used positively, can make you self-aware; it can increase positive values in your life. But remember, your ego-power must not become tactless egotism—self-centered selfishness—optimally it should lightly touch egoism, i.e. self-interest. That difference subtlety prevents you from losing your humanity.
As Deepak Chopra has shared, you as a leader have to have the ability to look and listen—not normal looking, and listening—you must not be blinded to observing reality. For the best possible future of your business, you must not be deaf to free-flowing ideas and advice from your partners and your subordinates.
Interestingly, this vision is not only for you, but also for the sake of social justice and environmental responsibility. After all you must be responsible for any harm caused to ambient surroundings if it’s caused by your bioventure. So you ought to cultivate a sense of consciousness, and social-environmental awareness. Consciousness differentiates tangled hierarchies. Consciousness is necessary to virtually connect with reality. And so, it is a sense of consciousness, and awareness, that every human being, whether in business or any field or job, must possess, for the betterment of society and the environment in general.
A Simple Philosophy
Business is a service for the society and money is the by-product of that service. Every time, as you think of building a new venture, you ought to remind yourself of that statement. The by-product of the business is your profit and it is the living blood of your company, but the service you provide to society must not be any less than oxygen. That might be considered yet another responsibility, but as a leader you have to be prepared for such concepts.
Leadership is dependent on time and circumstances. You must be prepared to prove your abilities every time you are faced with requisite circumstances. You have to create a wholly positive environment for ongoing projects. As a leader you have to have understand synchronicity—a sense of co-ordination, and a sense of harmony within several jobs. A leader feels, visualizes, takes a risk, and accomplishes a commitment to pick up broken pieces, as he or she moves along to meet various goals. A leader never loses the winning spirit.
Nearing the end of this section, I would like to recap and philosophize. It’s not wrong to say that leaders, and followers, co-create each other. Leaders, followers and environments co-arise within the same space and time. It is rule itself that differentiates the ruler from others. Although there are several points or characteristics that may help an entrepreneur to manage the role of the ruler, there is nothing that is fixed in any business. Rules work for business, but business is never for the sake of rules. Rules or basic guidelines to prepare your business are conceived from previous business experiences.
As a leader you will have to make your own rules. Time will allow such opportunities. Then why talk about not-making-rules or avoiding it? Why listen to other people? It is for a breakthrough or to invent new or better rules, when you will reach new vantage points of understanding—newer positions of understanding, thus modifying older rules.
Knowledge is only a stairway that leads you to a level of success—you have to become successful first, by devising your own strategy. When your strategy is proven, you will establish your own rules in which to rule your business, as you see fit. This tipping point will be perceived as the birth of a real industry leader. …Hats off!
Inside the Minds of Biopreneurs
Now you know or at least have a vague notion of what a biopreneur is, a hint of the managerial aspects of the job, as well as the role and the ways of a leader. Now let’s take a brief journey through the mind of a biopreneur. What they hold in their minds makes them different from other researchers, as it also makes them known to the world! What is the inspiring source of such strong will-power! According to Mr. Olaf Isachson, the author of Joining the Entrepreneurial Elite, the ten most traits of entrepreneurs, including biopreneurs possess, are:
• They are in charge of their own destiny. Contradicting this, anyone can say that every man is the master of his own destiny, it is true! But the winning drive is this: Like other people, entrepreneurs, when problems arise, do not leave their destiny in hands of an unforeseen circumstance.
• They are non-conformists, able to be stand-alone or be with people. It is their iron mettle that helps them to face any situation. They know how to mold themselves in accordance with a given situation.
• They move beyond the local, the provincial, the familiar and the tried and true. In short they are true risk-takers.
• They avoid time-consuming trifles and are swift to make decisions. True leadership is always a part of their character. Always, even in the roughest and hardest situations, they remain cool and calm—to make the right and best decisions.
• There are no obstacles, only challenges and temporary setbacks. The word obstacle does not exist in the vernacular of biopreneurs. It is a merely a challenge, as they love to call it, and obviously it is a challenge that makes them so excited and charged.
• The harder they work the more energy they generate. They generally possess nonstop energy to go on, and on, and on…
• They love what they do, and their devotion and passion allows them to move beyond the confines of themselves. The passion and love for what you are about to do will make its outcome much better, and of course generally positive.
• They are visionaries and their biggest competitors are themselves. It is ultimately their unique vision and decisions that make up responsibilities for the future of their ventures. Certainly, if they are wrong, they will reverse an imminent catastrophe.
• They seldom give up. Failure is not in their vocabulary. Just like the word obstacle they are not ready to think of failure. A small piece of advice here: it is better to have confidence, not thinking of failure or obstacles, but you have to keep your eyes open for anything of that sort too, so that you find yourself and your people ready to face it, if it appears in the future.
• They firmly believe there are no sins of commission—only those of omission. That may differ depending on the individuals. However, it is also a particular trait that biopreneurs possess quite proudly.
Paths to success
We always like to know and teach, especially when we know a lot about business, leadership, etc., or about a formula that may bring success. I do not think there is any generalized formula or equation that can be used to define success. However, this does not prevent us from exploring and finding a cluster of formulas, or sets of characteristics, that may give us a foreseeable indication of a pathway to success. In bioventure this information is quite valuable. It is actually based on experience as well as the experiments of others who might inform us about possible, though not 100% flawless, paths to success. One thing might be applicable to X, though it may not equally be applicable to Z, and so on. A group of scholars at MIT’s Sloan School of Management did research on this subject for five years. According to their studies here is their model for success:
• Success takes a balance of forces. Technology is not always necessary and is almost never sufficient.
• Due to the power of open communication by the virtue of the Internet revolution, the business model of future company might be a huge corporation or it might be a very small enterprise.
• Decentralization is key phrase of the future. In order to be successful one must make decisions based on ones proximity to the knowledge of his or her customers.
• True activities, not the corporate organization charts, will become the primary building blocks in a business. Out-sourcing and alliances will eliminate the need for huge personnel, and becomes the enabler of the small businessperson intent on staying lean but growing into a big business.
• Companies large and small will be both global and local. They will need the local touch and all will face global competition.
• The most impacting discovery of this research is regarding the coming golden era of microenterprises—a vision that is saturated in the power of Internet. Given the low cost of communications, everyone can be well informed and thus will make good decisions. The highly motivated, the creative and innovative, the biopreneur, will convert imparted data and knowledge into business wisdom, and build successful companies to compete with gorilla-corporations.
As I already have mentioned these are possible ways; it depends upon you, as you are the sole responsible agent for the future of your company. It is useful and a wise decision for the time being to read these ideas to comprehend the right way before you make any hasty decisions. No one and nothing in particular will bring success unless you understand and decide what is good for you. It is well said that success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal. Success comes from the ability to feel compassion.
Success Redefined
Inderjit Singh, founder and CEO of Infiniti Solutions and also TIE Singapore, a member of parliament in Singapore, he has shared the story of his entrepreneurship. Acquiring a seat in government or joining a multinational company formerly defined success in Singapore. This might resonate with many of us who have known success in Japan, or have equated it to signing-up with a multinational organization, or gaining a government position. Singh climbed the ladder of success in Singapore through the same means. But then he attempted something a bit different; he was able to acquire venture funding from inside of Singapore, and from abroad. In doing this he ultimately realized his entrepreneurial dream by changing previously construed, or tacitly defined, limits.
He said, as a member of parliament he championed the cause of transforming Singapore from a corporate based economy into an entrepreneurial one by addressing all concerns, impediments, and challenges to entrepreneurship—his mission leaving: “no stone left unturned.” According to him the key characteristics required to be a successful entrepreneur are as follows:
1) Determination
2) Risk-taking
3) Leadership
4) Number one sales person and number one cheerleader
5) Problem solver
So you see the basic traits required to be a successful entrepreneur stay same. It is only the method of utilizing these traits that change. Over the course, methods change with things such as the mind, time, and circumstances.
Though not directly connected to bioventure let us share another important success story. A well circulated story, if not well known, is one in which Ireland was looking to become a major center for Microsoft and wanted a major server hub. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s investigation revealed that Ireland’s electronic infrastructure could not support it because it did not have enough resident bandwidth. So everything stopped. What to do now! There was no looking back and no crying tears of woe. Ireland took on the enterprise, implementing the required bandwidth building it to the latest specifications in a very short span of time. The rest is history, thus establishing Ireland as a global center of excellence in Internet activity. And that is how one should be prepared for any forthcoming or unforeseen, unexpected, problem. Now then two questions arise:
How would another country have dealt with such a challenge?
How are other countries prepared to participate in similar dynamic and global marketplaces?
The problem and its solution will remain at their places we just have to find them out. Now that we have enjoyed a little bit of success kind a thing, let us explore some new ways to attend success:
Some Critical Success Factors In Biopreneurs
Strong Will Power That Can Motivate Others.
Early Contact With Successful Entrepreneurs.
Exposure To Success Stories And Case Studies.
Gain Practical, Real World Experience Before, During And After PhDs.
Be Willing To Be Unusual/Unconventional.
Agree To Embrace Risk, And Possibly Failure.
Ready To Leave A Large Company.
Great Idea To Start With.
Excellent And Passionate Team - Near And Long Term Vision.
Ability To Change Course Mid Stream.
Execution, Execution And Execution!!
Strategic And Marketing Brilliance.
Frugality & Excellent Cash Management.
Support Network - VCs, Board, Advisory Board And Other Value Add People.
Though it may look like bringing the same old line in front again, I should like to remind you again that things are not to be followed strictly. Those are important yet very flexible rules. Those tools are for the sake of your business and your business is not there to prove their practicality. Every ruler creates his/her own rule but it’s only after you be sure of calling yourself a ruler in business.
Sum up
As someone once said, the best of us is not what we do but what we inspire in others. Thus when we share our experience and knowledge it increases. Whatever the way we choose or wherever we move to work the basic knowledge and way will remain the same. We may face failure and obstacles only to remember, “Failure is one of the major milestones of an entrepreneur and each obstacle is an opportunity”. It’s not a theory, as a theory is also based on what we learn out of our failure and experiment, but our own flaw and failure will teach us the right way to success. It will make us winner one day. Everything is dependant on our mind as Silicon Valley is not a geographical location it is just a “state of mind”. Think as a winner and you will find yourself as a winner. If you loose the vigour of your mind you will be nowhere in near future.
If experiment is the only thing that you have in hand, do it sincerely, genuinely and with an inimitable passion for them. With the human life span longer and the business cycle shorter, the opportunities are immense for those with the motivation, the temperament, and the guts to do it their way. There was no one-way, there is no one-way and there will be no one-way. It was the biopreneur’s way, it is the biopreneur’s way and it will be the biopreneur’s way.
(This artilce is taken from a book titled – Biopreneurs: the Molecular Millionaires)
Miyuki Shiratani currently is in charge of international logistic for Devicenet, USA, Inc. She has over 10 years’ international and multicultural experience (Japan, US, India) in both IT and biotech industries. She also held responsibilities of international marketing communications at Sharp Electronic Corp., Osaka, Japan; and sale/customer relations at JUSCO, Japan. She received her BA at Kansai Gaidai University, Osaka, Japan, and MBA at the San Jose state University, CA.
Ryan Baidya is an entrepreneur a business strategist and who has 12+ years of experience in biotech. He launched several biotech and high-tech businesses in Silicon Valley/USA, and Tokyo/Japan. He founded BioZak and BioZak-Infobase, and served as one of the founding management. Prior to that he was with Genprobe, , HyseQ; and GeneAsia. He serves as an advisor to Golden-Embryo, Pune/India; and KZAISoft corp., Durgapur/India. He gave numerous lectures on life sciences and bio-business topics at conferences, primarily in USA, and Japan. He authored articles, patents, and commentaries. Dr. Baidya received his MS from IIT Kanpur, PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz and MBA from the San Jose State University, CA..
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