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By Dr. Bonnie Kuehl and Frédéric Sweeney
Don’t blame
the player,blame the game
dr. Bonnie kuehl is CEO and founder of Scientific Insights® Consulting Group Inc.
frédéric sweeney is vice president of Business Development and Corporate Strategy for Tornado Medical Systems.
Ihad lunch with a young scientist professional a few weeks ago. He is just starting his career and is excited about the possibilities of helping develop and launch new pharmaceutical products in Ontario. He has spent the past few months attending various conferences and seminars to learn about what opportunities are available and to discover where his talents may be best used.
During lunch he shared with me that despite having heard some presentations several times, at different venues, he remained unclear about the product and the needs of the company doing the presentation. In essence, despite telling their story the message being told remained unknown to at least one, and I am sure more, of the listeners.
I have always found that the opinions of young enthusiastic professionals in a given industry to be a fascinating exercise; akin to young children who ask unbiased, tough questions about life as they enter adulthood, young professionals have an inert ability to doubt, question and challenge the status quo, which, in the case of our beloved biotech industry, is nothing to write home about. Don’t get me wrong: it is true, the value propositions are unclear, the messages are mixed and the presentations sometime border on schizophrenia.
Consider the following when making a presentation:
Vision, Strategy, Passion
Developing a good business plan or a story should involve three key elements: a vision of where it will end or a goal, a plan on how to get to the end, and finally passion or true desire to give it your all to achieve the goal. Vision and passion without strategy will leave you circling or treading water while you continue to determine how to reach the goal. Vision and strategy without passion will get you to the goal, eventually, but with little pride in your accomplishment.
As emerging companies begin to develop their message and their story, it is important that they remember the three key elements of a good story and that consideration be given to who is delivering the message. Indeed, all companies should consider both the elements and the person delivering the message when developing their plan or story.
Delivering the Message
message. The person needs to be knowledgeable about the product, the end goal, and the strategy or path to achieve the goal. Reciting data and reams of information will neither excite nor educate your audience about your product. The presenter should be fully involved in developing the story and key messages in order to own the story, as well as being passionate and well-prepared in their delivery and ability to address questions.
Consider the following about the key people in a company. Scientists spend a great deal of their time defending their findings and conclusions. They have passion and a hypothesis (goal) but their strategy is driven by road blocks and caution lights, with many intersecting paths. The business person is trained to develop a strategy to achieve a goal. Their time is spent finding ways around road blocks and looking for the path with the greatest number of green lights or the greatest chance of successfully achieving the goal, however the business person is not usually an expert on the product and its capabilities. Together, the scientist and the business person can successfully move a product from the hypothesis phase to successful commercialization if they have the financing combined with some constructive feedback or guidance from financing and industry experts.
However, the financing environment is dry and populated by investors who if they happen to have some money left over may not be the best at giving feedback and guidance. Good feedback is hard to give and requires a significant amount of thought as well as some altruism. Unfortunately, only a handful of investors will take the time to provide companies with constructive feedback, especially on their vision and strategy.
Consider all of these challenges the next time you sit at a conference and wonder why the presentations are so unfocused with the value proposition lost in a sea of random cookie-cutter market segmentation slides copied from a 2007 market report. Try not to blame the presenter, who may be representing a company which has yet to clearly define the three key elements, or whose vision and strategy have been influenced by the dozen or so investors with whom they have met who made random comments on the vision and strategy but did not take the time to provide some intelligent, constructive feedback.
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