People
Introduction
The best people make things happen. With a seasoned, diverse, accomplished, engaged team, investors will help with your money problems, which will help with your time problems. At least as importantly, with a seasoned, diverse, accomplished, engaged team, you’ll actually get the rights things done, minimize drama and on-the-job learning, and have plenty of creativity on hand when things get challenging.
What
Seasoned people have done the job before. They bring skills to the table, but more importantly, they’ve been battle-tested, hardened, tempered… the military analogies abound! A seasoned team member has made many mistakes in the past… and hopefully has learned from them. Much has been studied and written recently about team diversity. The obvious advantage is that 10 diverse team members will have 10x the collective life experience from which to draw as would a team of 10 clones. Slightly more nuanced and slightly more powerful, the first hypothetical team would also bring a larger variety of perspectives, i.e. synthesized knowledge and experiences, i.e. wisdom. Finally, and least obviously, diverse teams typically exhibit less ego and while there may be more constructive confrontation, there is less destructive drama. When team members truly understand the value everyone who is not them brings to the team, egos are put aside, and the team can focus on the challenges of the project.
When
As soon as you have the ability to hire your team, you’ll hire your team. Most costs in biotech are personnel costs, because most value created in biotech comes from highly trained, highly creative individuals.
Why
Leading the right team is like rolling downhill – the project manager may occasionally provide direction, but otherwise acceleration is natural. Conversely, when the wrong people are on the team, the focus is on them, they may drag others down, or encourage drama and division. Rather than attempting to drive the wrong team uphill, consider whether a change in the composition of the team would be a better path.
Learning Goals
Basic Project Management
Resources