Biography
Enterprenuershipa nd management has been my core of interest from a tender age. I adopted this from my family members who had ventued into enterpreneurship. Consequently, I decided to follow their footsteps. I was born in Australia back in the year 1965, on the 18th day of September. With the fact the entrepreneurship and business were the major backgrounds for my family, I graduated from Ruff's university in 1985, attaining a first class, which opened my doors towards getting a scholarship. I had to follow the same roots. Being the third born of my family, I decided to be unique and outdo the rest of my family including my dad. After my studies I managed to get an innovation fund from my school having won a competition on the same. To start my journey in entrepreneurship, I ventured into business with Magneto Biollogics, LLC being the name I chose.
Being my first practice and experience in the business field, I involved more stakeholders, amongst them my family, to help me with management ideas. Slowly by slowly I started getting what business world had. I felt no need to be in the business my own as it had reached a time when I was not able to be in the business due to the outdoors task. As such, I stepped down and recruited somebody who I trained and within a short time, his work was marvelous. However, I did not stay away from business management, and another business sought for my services. My experience as a CEO was filled with hurdles. After ten years of working, I decided to look for a more challenging place again. My ladder in entrepreneurship had been ascending, and I remain to train more individuals aspiring to be entrepreneurs.
First company: Magneto Biologics, LLC
Reason for starting the business
My choice to make everyone a Chief Executive Officer was driven by the need to make everyone feel an owner of the firm. Bearing the title drove me to endeavoring to win other employees’ loyalty (Casson, 2012). The sense of belonging and ownership associated with the title made many work diligently aiming to see the firm grow. The techniques of every being a chief executive officer managed to help me maintain and even increase the number of professionals who wanted to be part of the Magneto Biologics Company. The desire to start up Magneto biologics was created to solve some of the problems facing people in Boston and other parts of America. Moreover, there existed a large pool of jobless people with the required skill and knowledge that I needed to start successfully and operate a leading biotech company in the area.
In mind, I had clear objectives of how I wanted to transform the existing situation of biotechnology in America (Casson, 2012). With a background in biotechnology, attained at the university, I knew how to organize and put in place a competent biotechnology firm. The customer base was available and diverse in nature.Many people used to travel to other states to access the services I decided to offer at Magneto biologics. The services offered in other states were expensive, and affordability was hard for many. Only the rich could afford the cost of traveling to far distant places to access the services. Tentatively, conducive policies could facilitate setting such an enterprise (Kuszler, 2006). The government was willing to support such initiatives, which made the intended venture lucrative.
Learnings: Mistakes and successes
Concurrently, firm offering similar services were expressing interest to collaborate with potential natives to set up a biotechnology firm within the locality. The firm sought an individual laden with most of the skills I harbored to allow them to expand their service to Boston (Patzelt and Brenner, 2008). I saw the chance as an added advantage as they could readily offer technical support alongside monetary assistance whenever required. Having done a preliminary study on the potential of successfully operating a biotechnology enterprise in Boston I learned the following and they acted as pull factors further luring me to start Magneto Biologics (Drucker, 2014). There was good will on the usage of stem cell therapies. For one, religious leaders supported the advancement, which allowed members to use the same. The required technology was readily available in Boston. I did not require to search for technical know-how from far (Sharma and Chrisman, 2007). With a good marketing strategy that could be facilitated by social media networks, I realized I could easily market my company easily.
Besides the successes and the numerous learning experiences at Magneto Biologics, I always look back and felt that I did some things the wrong way (Patzelt and Brenner, 2008). I could have avoided the mistakes if I had had prior experience. One of the greatest mistakes was failing to come up with a good incentive and compensation scheme whereby if our staff who incur injuries while in their line of duty are compensated well. A good number were injured, and we could not assist them well to secure their future and that their dependents (Drucker, 2014). Also, I never anticipated a day where we could have competed among firms in Boston offering products similar to what Magneto Biologic was offering. Nevertheless, the subsequent managers that took up from me were tasked will helping have that in place.
Biggest Challenge
It was a milestone to establish a complete quality control department with a mechanism to check the quality of our services. With a competent, quality assurance department up and running, it helped me as senior administrator ensure our services as well delivered (Drucker, 2014). The department also ensured customers are satisfied with the services they received and in the long run creating customers’ loyalty. Customer’s loyalty is essential for any firm that once to remain relevant in the modern society.
Reason for Exit
At the time of exiting the firm, I felt I had given my best contribution that was too enabled the firm compete and remain profitable in the biotechnology industry (Palacios et al. 2009). My exit from Magneto Biologics was informed by the desire for a more challenging task. Having created structures that guided daily operation at Magneto Biologics I hardly faced any challenge in the firm’s operations. I served the company diligently and excited at the helm of it to other more challenging duties at a different firm. Immediately after relinquishing my position at Magneto Biologics several companies came calling for my services (Stevenson and Jarillo, 2007). I opted to join a small company that had just been established and had not grown any much compared to where I was coming. Joining Univar Technologies Limited as the Chief Executive of the firm was my new job. The firm was barely two years old in operation.
Second company: Bioreactor fermenters
Challenges
Bioreactor fermenter Limited was facing some internal problems that anyone could readily identify. I immediately sought to strategize on ways to implement a turnaround plan for the firm. The owner of the firm was supportive of my initiatives and willingly took my words. Bioreactor fermenters were having numerous logistical planning and resource utilization problems. I studied the firm for some days and within a month called for a meeting with all its stakeholders. From the meeting proceeding, I learned better about how the problems were systemic (Sharma and Chrisman, 2007). Later, with the help of the staff at the facility, I was able to come up with a masterpiece that brought change to the firm within a year. Poor planning and inefficient utilization of resources were no longer an issue of concern after one and half year since taking office as the chief executive officer of the firm.
Why I accepted CEO position
Management has been my passion since I was young. Therefore, I accepted the position since it was my passion and I gain I wanted to practice my strengths. Moreover, I need tasks that are more challenging. Despite seeing the company through stormy phases, it pains when emotions and personal desires override professionalism. It was a disappointment to see the owner of the facility manages some affairs with ignorance. At all times as an entrepreneur in biotechnology, you should be vigilant of emerging trends in the field. Once you stop being aware of changes in the market, you lose on seeing the firm continue to grow. It was a big disappointment to myself and my effort when my initiatives to diversify the business operations were blocked (Kuszler, 2006). The proprietor wanted to remain strictly in biotechnology business when I wanted the firm to expand and deal with related environmental issues.
How I changed things and my impact
Third company; Bristol-Myers Squibb Co
Reasons for accepting the role
The third company was not a new experience for me in terms from a managerial standpoint. At, first, I was brought in on a temporary basis at a time that the company was facing some legal and financial constraints. My reputation as an entrepreneurship expertise in the biotechnology industry had earned me this post, and as such, I was expected to enact the changes I had done on my previous companies and then handover when a new much more permanent CEO was found. The leadership had left a trail of financial misconduct with a court case contesting the legitimacy on one of the leading patents of the company. It is a company that had the resources to be one of the leading biotechnological enterprises and was yet to reach its full potential.
Developmental changes and resolutions put in place
When I came into the company, I met a staff of that was disconnected from the leadership. In the stiff economic times that were present at the beginning, it was important for the staff and stakeholders to come to get at a time the company needed them the most. One of the developing complications was the expiration on the company’s patent cliff on our blockbuster drug Plavix. The outcome of how the company was going to adapt to such a change was critical. The communication to the likelihood of the value of the drug dropping from six billion to zero in terms of revenue was a possibility that all the employees had to accept. In comparison to the experiences of my former companies I was faced with a situation where I had to revisit and revise it the strategic plan several times as the year progressed, ensuring that the changes that were being made enabled the company to adapt to whatever development that occurred in the industry. In my former companies, the formulation of critical policies used to be settled in several one-hour board meetings but with the dire situation, that I found Bristol-Myers Squibb in, our meetings would now take several days.
Every entity of the strategy had to be revised under a microscope in order to prepare for the worst-case scenario. It enabled the members of the board to memorize, understand, interpret, and develop the plan, which enabled the formulation of critical decisions easier. Such commitment enabled us to come up with alternate solutions that targeted a market niche in the medical class that was yet to meet its full potential. We discovered that there is a dire need for medical services in several therapeutic specialties. We put in place a business development program that I proudly dubbed “string of pearls,” that I centered these therapeutic specialties. The strategy I put in place functions round the clock to date. Once we complete a question, we move on to the next class immediately to provide these services as immediately as possible.
Another key entity was the revision of the cash flow management policies. It enabled us to secure an eight billion cash balance that was directed at research and development. I ensured that we had replaced the income statement orientation method with a balance sheet one. It is a task that involved the re-education of some of our senior staff.
Executive Leadership lessons learned
A lesson that I learned as a business leader was the appreciation of teamwork. There is the need to ensure that all the individuals in the company are under one understanding of the critical aspects that need to be articulated in order for the company to service leave alone flourish. I recall when I was starting my career, I had a boss who would micromanage every single detail of my input, and it felt undermining. Everyone knows that senior positions hold lump sum wages that are proportional to the responsibility that thy have. Performance goes without question. As such, I learned to delegate some of the responsibilities quite early. The same principles were applied here. I only intervened when my team members would come for a consultation. Such delegation does not come with its own detriments. I learned that sometimes not every employee would be on board with the prospects of the company.
It came as a surprise, and it prompted me to get much more involved in the entrepreneurial activities of the company. I came to find out that some of the staff were not adequately skilled or specialized in the roles that they played. The further intervention led me to analyze the hiring methodologies that were being applied in the company. I realized that most of the hiring was done as a means of filling a vacant spot and not necessarily hiring an individual capable of delivering in the role. As such, I made sure that not hires were approved without my signature. It might come off as dictatorial, but I explained to my staff that it is a means of ensuring that they are more cognizant of the value of surrounding one with a team that has the same values, goals, and entrepreneurial zeal to perfume in our internal business environment. These days were hire based on qualification. It might have seen our rate of hiring of down, but our profits shot up by nearly half. I ended up being hired as the CEO on a permanent basis, a job that I hold to this day.
Conclusion
If there is, a critical lesson that I have learned over the years playing a managerial role in the entrepreneurial world of biotechnology is that the key to success lies in the type of people that you surround yourself with. The team that enables you to communicate and execute the strategy to any give a business problem or prospect has a direct impact on the success of the organization as a whole. The development, promotion and retention of these individuals are critical to not only that specific employee but to your organization and the industry as a whole. Empowering the people who assist you achieve success enables them to go and do the same in other companies enabling development and growth to ripple across the people you touch. It is as simple as understanding the capacity an employee has to deliver and empowering them with roles that they can perform in. once they achieve success here, they find the motivation within them to take up even bigger roles. This growth continues over the period, and soon enough you will see such employees rise up to be budding entrepreneurs.
However, not every board member or employee would automatically agree with tour manner of doing things just because of your reputation. It takes time and compromise to bring every member on board under one unanimous goal. I did not get 100 percent buy from the board, but it is better now than it was three years ago. It took us the first two years to reach the best performance benchmark.
References
Casson, M. (2012). The entrepreneur: An economic theory. Rowman & Littlefield.
Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge
Kuszler, P. C. (2006). Biotechnology Entrepreneurship and ethics: principles, paradigms, and products. MED. & L., 25, 491.
Palacios, D., Gil, I., & Garrigos, F. (2009). The impact of knowledge on management innovation and entrepreneurship in the biotechnology and telecommunications industries. Small Business Economics, 32 (3), 291-301
Patzelt, H., & Brenner, T. (Eds.). (2008). Handbook of bio-entrepreneurship (Vol. 4). Springer Science & Business Media.
Sharma, P., & Chrisman, S. J. J. (2007). Toward a reconciliation of the definitional issues in the field of corporate entrepreneurship. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 83-103). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Stevenson, H. H., & Jarillo, J. C. (2007). A paradigm of entrepreneurship: Entrepreneurial management. In Entrepreneurship (pp. 155-170). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
