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20 Tips on Becoming a Great Manager
If biotech is a team sport, the CEO or manager must be a master coach. If I had to recommend just one book to aspiring master coaches, it would be High Output Management by Andrew Grove, the former CEO of Intel. 20 key ideas from one of the greatest CEOs and management teachers: As a…
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What a Biotech Leader Can Learn from the Culture Baxter International
299 biotech companies went public between 1979 and 1996 in the US. Of the top executives of those companies, 81 came from Baxter International. Henri Termeer was one of them. How did Baxter’s culture breed exceptional biotech leaders? 1. Sink or swim. Imagine that you’re a bright 28-year-old MBA graduate working for a top medical…
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Jon Skvarka’s Leadership Principles
Jan Skvarka took Trillium Therapeutics from a $16 million market capitalisation to a $2.26 billion acquisition by Pfizer in only 2 years and in the midst of the pandemic. When Skvarka took the reigns at Trillium in September 2019, the stock price had fallen from $30 to $0.40, the company was about to be delisted…
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Biotech Founders Talking about Humility
Humility is probably the most critical quality for success in your arduous journey of bringing breakthrough medicines to patients. I am an avid reader and what has caught my attention is how often the concept of humility comes up in biotech founder and CEO interviews. “The job itself will humble you. You’ll be told no,…
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3 Things That Investors Want to See from You—A Succinct Summary
An incredibly succinct summary by one of my good mentors Janis Naeve, a Partner at Cota Capital, who has 20+ years of experience in biotech investing. 1. The team It’s all about the team, i.e. the founders, the experience you have in the space, your unique and complementary skills, and the teams you’ve put together…
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12 tools for building a high-performing biotech team
All my biotech CEOs/execs have struggled with this one thing: Team Efficiency and Speed. How do I make my team go faster? How do I create urgency? Iteration speed is slow. 1. Extreme Ownership You are the CEO. It’s entirely your responsibility to increase the output of your team. It’s #1 item in your job…
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7 Must-Read Books for the Bench Scientist Turning Biotech Leader/CEO
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…
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10 Principles for Real Multidisciplinary Teamwork
Having a multidisciplinary team and doing real multidisciplinary work are not the same thing. Bragging about your ultra-diverse team means little if they never debate or challenge each other. Here are 10 principles for doing real “mud scientist” work: 1. Establish a matrix organisational structure. Yes, you should have reporting lines but in terms of…
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When The CEO Talks to Younger Scientists
I asked a veteran biotech CEO what was one of the biggest lessons he had learned in his career. He said, “I love talking to the more junior people in the company. I get a lot of pleasure out of that. I love coaching them and brainstorming with them. But, when the CEO throws out…
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How to Establish Your Company Values
Establishing your company values is an extremely important exercise. Here are three considerations from my experience working with CEOs on this extremely important exercise: 1. Getting everyone involved. It certainly takes less effort, time and other resources to sit down as a senior leadership team to come up with the values of your company. However, …