The Life Sciences in New York State

Biotechnology Business Development - Book Available Now

I'm honored to have made a small contribution to this excellent collection of articles and essays on biotech business development. Do check it out and let me know if it is helpful.

Best Practices in Biotechnology Business Development

Experts from a wide range of disciplines have composed best practices
based on their experiences and expertise, creating a vital toolbox
covering a broad spectrum of topics. These best practices will enable
you develop a better understanding of the key elements in these
operations and empower you to better manage their implementation.

Coming to a virtual bookstore near you...

Best Practices in Biotechnology Business Development, edited by Yali Friedman, is a collection of essays on a wide range of topics related to business development. I will have a chapter in the book tentatively entitled "Top Five Mistakes." In this chapter, I  discuss just some of the common mistakes made by entrepreneurs when seeking external financing. I believe these lessons also apply to internal corporate executives seeking funding for their projects as well. The book will be published in early 2008.

Comments on Twilight in the Desert

I rarely post book reviews on my blog, but I have to make an exception for Twilight in the Desert.

Let me cut to the chase and say that this book is simply outstanding. Why?

1. Rarely does one see a topic so thoroughly researched by someone who is already an expert in the field. Simmons had already spent the bulk of his career in the energy business. He decided to conduct extensive, quality research to shape his hypotheses and conclusions. Any student of research methods would benefit from understanding how this book was crafted.

 

2. Having such a data-driven body of knowledge means that the discussions surrounding peak oil, environmentalism, conservation, and geopolitics (perhaps the term should be geopetroleopolitics?) can be based on some semblance of fact, not rhetoric. Saudi oil fields are declining. This is a fact. We don not have good data to project when these declines will become irreversible. This is also a fact. How we react to these facts as individuals, as a nation, and as a planet, is vitally important. Simmons has crafted the foundations upon which these discussions can be conducted.

 

I do have some minor quibbles about the book. The index could be a bit better. Some of the technical terminology could have been defined in the text a bit better with footnotes. Some terms are used early, but not defined until much later. Again, I think these are minor points.

I highly recommend this book.

Review of Flat

I recently completed reading The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. I don’t normally post extensive reviews on my blog. But, I think that this important book requires some commentary.

Flat is really two books in one. The first 200 or so pages discuss the forces which flattened the world. In general, Friedman does a nice job identifying and describing these forces. The average business person will likely be aware or familiar with most of them, but it was good to see them all in one place and discussed in a coherent, intelligent manner.

Therein lies the problem. Freidman’s preface discusses how he missed all these forces, as he was focused on other things. Many readers will not find anything new nor necessarily insightful in the first half of the book. I would view this as a good review, or a good historical account, of where we are today and how we got here. If you are looking for forward-looking thinking, you might want to look elsewhere.

The second half of the book is where Friedman really shines. He discusses the geopolitical threats to a flattened world. The section entitled “Too Frustrated” in Chapter 11 elegantly describes the Arab-Muslim sense of humiliation that apparently is widely felt. I don’t claim to fully appreciate it after reading Friedman, but it is the first time I’ve seen it described so elegantly.

Overall, the book is what the subtitle says it is. It is a history book. It is a review of the key events, beginning with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, which have shaped our flat world today. History buffs will definitely enjoy this. If you want some forward thinking on how these forces can shape your corporate strategy, then you may want to look elsewhere, but read Flat first!

Seeking book recommendation

Last year, I read Three Billion New Capitalists, an excellent treatment of the opportunities and challenges we're facing in a global environment. I recently started reading The World is Flat, which I think is an excellent primer on these issues.

So, I think Flat is the primer, and Three Billion is the in-depth analysis of the drivers of these challenges and opportunities. What I need is a book that looks forward and addresses how businesses (especially small businesses) can exploit these trends. It's very easy to say "outsource the grunt work to India," but actually executing is an entirely different matter. How does one select a vendor or partner? What are the risks, legal and otherwise? What are the implications, organizationally? Financially? Are there alternatives, such as the JetBlue "home sourcing" model described in Flat? What about other countries, e.g., Australia? What about Canada?

I don't think a book can answer these questions. Indeed, I don't think one should try. However, I think a good book that describes a framework to help business owners analyze these issues could be quite useful and valuable. 

Any suggestions?

Killing English

New book describes how we continue to destroy our language. Quote:

Political writer Don Watson fears that the English language is being strangled by modern jargon, cliches, and “weasel words.” The breaking point? When his eleven-year-old granddaughter received a classroom assignment to write a personal mission statement, followed a year later by her first English essay—to be created in PowerPoint.

My kids are entering school now, and if there is one topic which brings me to a boil is this one. Why does an 11 year old need to learn PowerPoint? Why does my five year old have computers in his classroom?

Our educators have forgotten (or perhaps never realized) that a good education means:

• Being able to read and synthesize what was read
• Being able to express oneself clearly in writing and in speaking
• Not being afraid of math and science, even when career interests are elsewhere

Computers just turn reading and writing into a video game. School systems should eliminate their student IT budgets and use the cash to buy books, pens and pencils. The time being spent teaching PowerPoint can be used to read an advanced book, or write a better essay, or teach a more advanced science/math class. If they insist, then equip them with simple word processors (not Word) and spreadsheet (not Excel) programs.

I'll leave my rant about grade inflation for another day.

I challenge any reader to give me a good reason why an 11 year old needs to learn PowerPoint. Bonus for anyone who can tell me why it makes sense for an 11 year old to write essays [sic.] in PowerPoint.

Eco, amazon.com, and wikis

The Mrs and I are taking a holiday in a few weeks (yes, we're staying in New York State!). As per our habit, we like to buy a book each to bring with on vacation to read on planes and poolsides. This provided me with the perfect excuse to pick up Umberto Eco's latest novel, while the Mrs picked up another edition from the Jean Plaidy series.

So, we ordered our two book on Monday evening. We qualified for Free Shipping, which was fine, since we did not "need" them for another few weeks. Lo and behold, guess what arrived in today's [sic.] mail...a box with the amazon.com smirk on the side containing our two books. That's free shipping and 36 hour delivery! Ironically, our FedEx and UPS drivers don't deliver to our road until late in the day, so amazon.com and snail mail actually beat them.

Back to Eco. Readers of his novels (and you should be one) note that extensive notes and annotations are common for his works. Interestingly, his latest novel now has an accompanying wiki. Why a wiki?  Quote:

he MFoQL Project is an attempt to use Wiki technology to create a thorough and accurate set of annotations to Umberto Eco's latest novel. Anyone is free to add or modify entries. The project was begun by Erik Ketzan, who writes and edits for The Modern Word, the web's most extensive resource on Umberto Eco and his writings.

This is fantastic. I'm going to check the wiki as I go along in the novel. This is a great way to deepen one's understanding of the novel through the collective wisdom of its readers. I wonder if there are wikis associated with other books? A wiki covering the Bible, for instance?

Yup. Over 40 wikis on Wikispaces.com alone covering the Bible. Very interesting...

More on India

Having an MBA, this one really hit close to home. Quoting from Prestowitz, page 100:

Morgan Stanley long ago moved its back office operations to India to take advantage of the time difference and Indian salaries. Recently, however, it has moved about fifty of its analysts to India as well. Analysts are MBAs who do research and analysis of corporate financial statements, business plans, and execution in order to make investment recommendations on various stocks and bonds....guys who do it earn $80,000 a year and up in New York...Their American managers told me they (Morgan Stanley India) also work harder and make fewer errors while earning only $20,000 a year. [Emphasis added by me]

Incredible...

Connecting the dots

I'm currently reading Three Billion New Capitalists by Clyde Prestowitz. It's one of those rare books in which the author does a nice job of connecting the dots. In other words, Prestowitz takes a seemingly disparate set of events and links them together into a coherent story which explains what is happening today. Indeed, my theory behind the popularity of The DaVinci Code is that Brown does just this, linking Leonardo, Mona Lisa, the floor of a museum...all into an interesting, suspenseful, and enjoyable story. For a more sophisticated treatment of this, try reading any of the novels written by written by Umberto Eco.

Now it's one thing for a novelist to connect these dots into a coherent story, and it's another to connect these dots into a coherent, real life strategy. I'm very interested in reading how Prestowitz puts all this together and makes suggestions for how we can all move forward economically, personally, as a country, and as a global economy.

Re-Imagine, by Tom Peters

Just finished Tom Peter's latest book, Re-Imagine!This book is no doubt one of the best business books I've ever read. Well, to call it a "business" book is a bit narrow. It is business, but it's more self-help and career help than anything. A personal guide for introspection, and helping you carve out an interesting, successful, and "WOW" career. I'm reading this at a time when I'm leaving my comfortable cubicle job and striking out on my own, so the timing for me is perfect. Importantly, it offers ME clear guidance with respect to how I should be thinking about my work, my projects, my deliverables, the people I want to interact and work with, etc.

Having said all this, it's not a book for all. It's graphically intensive, to the point where some of the pages are difficult to read. There is a smattering of "colorful" language throughout. Dr. Peters also uses extreme (but accurate) examples to illustrate his points, which to some may seem like using the exceptions to draw conclusions. I think he also runs out of gas towards the end of the book.

Regardless, it's a wonderful, wonderful (sic.) book which I fully recommend.