September 17-23, 2010
Emmanuel College offers scientists business chops by Mary Moore journal staff
Emmanuel College — with strong interest and input from Merck Research Laboratories — is attempting to fill the gap between how scientists are trained and the real-life demands of the drug industry with a new graduate certificate program the college is offering in biopharmaceutical leadership. The program is meant to nurture leaders and managers among the scientists working at Merck and other local pharmaceutical companies, shaping them into stronger project and team leaders more capable of developing drugs. What makes the program at Emmanuel different from a standard management and leadership course is that the classes are grounded in case studies and examples that scientists encounter in the pharmaceutical industry, and it differs from a typical professional science master’s degree in its emphasis on the management and leadership aspects rather than science, said Judith Marley, dean of Emmanuel’s graduate and professional programs. The program started earlier this month as a pilot project with nine students — six from Merck, the others from AstraZeneca and most of them Ph.Ds. Next fall Emmanuel would like to begin offering it online. “I’ve always wanted to be involved in developing medications to help cancer patients. If this is effective at helping me do that, I’m all for it,” said Erick Morris, a team research biologist for Merck and a student in the class. He later added, “We’re not seeking to become a leader in and of itself. We really want to contribute to the development of medicine. If this helps us develop the skills to do that.” Xiaomei Feng, a senior associate scientist who works for AstraZeneca and a
W. MARC BERNSAU | BUSINESS JOURNAL
Judith Marley, standing, Emmanuel College’s dean of graduate and professional programs, with students Lily Moy and Erick Morris from Merck Research Laboratories.
student in the program, said she hopes the new knowledge will help her lead teams that consist of scientists from different countries. Three of the classes focus on leadership, and three of them focus on the business of the pharmaceutical industry, taught by a scientist accompanied by a leadership expert, an entrepreneur or someone with a background in business strategy, said Nancy E. Kohl, a former Merck research scientist who helped create the certificate program. While the program is open to students from all drug companies, it marks a particularly significant step in an ongoing relationship between Emmanuel and Merck. A typical leadership challenge faced by scientists working in industry is the matrix team model in which they often operate, with scientists from different disciplines — chemistry, and biology, for example —
working in teams. “It can be effective, but when people don’t know how to function in that environment, it can be a disaster,” Kohl said. “Maybe people don’t agree on a path forward or a timeline. You can’t pull rank to solve the issue because those people may not report to you.” “It’s just made us more aware of different situations that you may be placed in and, I guess, how you might interact with individuals in those situation,” said Lily Moy, a pharmacology scientist for Merck. The program is being coordinated through the Merck Polytechnic Institute, which is a central learning institute for Merck Research Labs started in January 2009 and is responsible for the learning and development for staff in Merck Research labs, said John Constantine, executive director.
Reprinted with permission from Boston Business Journal. ©2010, all rights reserved. Reprinted exclusively by Scoop ReprintSource 1-800-767-3263.