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From good to great in biotech partnering
Pick an easy number, like $10 million, and say that is the average amount a company might put into the first stages of an in-licensed
biotech or pharma development program. Now multiply that number by 2,250, which is the number of people working on those programs who
are attending BIO-Europe 2007 in Hamburg.
That is a lot of business development money moving around the exhibition floor.
Now take two experts in the professional business development skills and asks them a simple question, "Are these delegates doing a good
job?"
In other words, are biotech and pharma companies getting their money's worth from the meeting that generates over 8,000 face-to-face
meetings here in Hamburg?
Joseph Dillon and Lesley Stolz are the co-leaders of the BIO Advanced Business Development Course that was held ahead of the opening
of BIO-Europe, Nov. 9-11 at the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg, Germany.
Some 80 executives drawn from biotech and pharmaceutical firms and a few academics attended the three day course this year to sharpen
their skills for program valuation, appreciating intellectual property, conducting due diligence and negotiating.
Looking over the crowded exhibition floor, Dillon right away was impressed by the activity.
"People are clustered in twos and sometimes threes, sitting at tables," he said. "They have broken into serious meeting formations,
even if it looks casual. The pharma industry is percolating. You can feel the energy. "
"These people are not often exposed to this kind of setting," he said, "You can see them working the opportunity."
Stolz notes, "These people are not shy types, and this event creates lots of opportunities for them to engage and to speak to each
other."
"Still I can see from here about 100 people who should have been in the course," she said. "If you point out to them what they are
doing, or what they should NOT be doing, they will say, 'Oh yes, I knew that, but I got lazy and I forgot."
The right thing that people are doing is talking, she said.
But then she quickly ticked off a list of basics that people should NOT be doing, pointing out examples on the BIO-Europe exhibition
floor.
Who is talking, you or your computer? "Everyone is carrying a computer around," she said. "The trick is to know when to use it. When
you are finally meeting someone you want to work with, opening the computer is NOT a good idea. And definitely do NOT use the computer
to explain your project to a potential partner."
Do NOT talk incessantly. "Remember to explore your partner's goals and interests," she said. "And leave time to ask questions."
Do NOT hide. "Sitting at a table and reading in a setting like this is hiding," she said. Moving off to a corner is hiding. Talking
only to your colleagues, this is a form of hiding, too, even if it makes you look like you are doing something.
Do NOT prolong a meeting. Meetings are set for 25 minutes, which is a good rule. "But the meeting might be over faster than that, and
it does not always make sense to go on. Mutually establish goals right away, and if the goals do not match, move on."
Participants in the BIO Advanced Business Development Course run by Dillon and Stolz is not for beginners and the skill sets are far
more advanced than good meeting manners.
Dillon said intermediate to advance executives are the target for the hands-on workshop.
"This is not a student-teacher course," he said. The structure is built around the idea that you will learn from the other people in
the class.
The three-day course is built around a single carefully constructed case study that leaves a lot of room for participants to flesh out
the details from their professional experiences.
Stolz said a person finds the group gathering around a topic relevant or even familiar to their daily work, even familiar, "but then
suddenly they start hearing 79 different points of view on this topic. That challenges people in the way they think about approaching
the problem.
She said that for the case study often pharma people are assigned roles in biotech, and the other way around. "We also put the people
from academia into the pharma roles, and that gets interesting," she said.
I have seen people with five years in business development benefit from the course, and we have CEOs attending as well," she said.
Said Dillon, "When you think that some of these people are the front end of a $500 million asset for a company, devoting three days to
getting good at what they do is not an unreasonable investment of their time if it increases the chance they will win."
The course, developed by the Biotechnology Industry Organization in collaboration with EBD Group, will be offered next November in
Mannheim, Germany ahead of BIO-Europe 2008.
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