1. From Breakthrough to Blockbuster — The Business of Biotechnology by Donald and Lisa Drakeman and Nektarios Oraiopoulos
This is a fantastic book/crash course in the business of biotech. You’ve got everything there, i.e. the players, the interactions, the agendas, the numbers, the challenges.
It’s backed with data, it’s beautifully written and it was only published in April 2022.
2. Letting Go by David Hawkins
Being a first-time CEO comes with a full range of uncomfortable emotions!
This book will teach you emotional resilience.
I’ve worked with hundreds of leaders; all end up becoming masters of the techniques explained in this book.
Letting Go will help you become more like a palm tree than an oak tree. The oak tries to resist the storm and ends up breaking, whereas the palm bends and comes back up again… The biotech journey is always full of storms and you have to be a palm tree.
3. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
This book gives you a framework on how to navigate challenging conversations with anyone, i.e. cofounders, investors, employees, or board—and do it with confidence. It will teach you how to speak your truth without the fear of “ruining the relationship”.
4. High Output Management by Andrew Grove
Graduate training doesn’t prepare you for managing people. This book is management explained in the most elegant and scientific way. This is where management meets leadership… or where science meets art! The former CEO of Intel, Andy Grove, the most loving teacher, left this gem to all of us.
5. Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle
This is the leadership playbook of Bill Campbell, the coach who coached Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Eric Schmidt, Sheryl Sandberg, and Ben Horowitz, among others.
In a biotech company, you have a bunch of stars. How do you manage egos? How do you build an envelope of trust? How do you become a coach like Bill for your people? Although it was not written specifically about biotech, this is what this book is all about. There are so many great management tools in there. I give it to all my CEOs.
6. Venture Deals by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelson
Biotech is a capital-intensive industry with years of loss-making operations… This is why Stelios Papadopoulos, aka the “Godfather of Biotech”, has said: “Until you get a product on the market, all you’ve got to sell is stock!”
The biotech CEO and every member of the management team have to be incrementally better at fundraising and be able to tell a clear and compelling story to the financiers.
As the authors of the book say, “You have to be smarter than your lawyers and venture capitalists!”
7. Conscious Business by Fred Kofman
This is my #1 book on company culture and team building.
You biotech folks are fighting against the odds and are called to tackle the most complex and difficult problems.
If some company out there can “make it” without passing the culture exam, you simply can’t. You can’t afford to play this long-term game without a great company culture. There’s no room for friction with you guys. You all have to work together like a fist against the disease. Having a healthy company is an absolutely necessary condition for solving the biggest problems in human health.