growBOLD | Home

Annual Life Science HR Forum: March 20th, 2012

Issues, Trends and Possibilities for the Life Science Industry

Each year BOLD invites a prominent Life Science Industry veteran to share their perspective on the Life Sciences Industry.  This year we are fortunate to have Hoyoung Huh, MD, PhD, Chairman of Geron Corporation (see Bio below). 

Dr. Huh, known as a frequent speaker on topics of healthcare innovation and biotechnology commercialization, will share his perspective on current trends and challenges facing the Life Science Industry, as well as how these will impact the science business and HR.  Dr. Huh is an advocate of the people side of the science business, and will also share his vision and values as they relate to business results and treating patients.

Date: March 20
Time:  4:00 – 6:15pm
Location:  Exelixis, 210 East Grand Ave., South San Francisco

The following topics will be addressed:

• Where are the growth projections for Biotech and what areas of biotech/healthcare are attracting the most partnering, funding and interest?
• What are emerging areas of science, business models, and regulation trends?
• What are the most significant changes we will experience in the future of the industry?
• What are the HR ramifications/ implications for the evolution of the industry?

There will be time for Q&A and networking at the event.  Refreshments will be served. 

Agenda:
4:00 pm - Sign in and Networking
4:20 pm - Introductions and Announcements
4:30 pm - Presentation
5:30 pm - Q&A
5:45 pm - Networking
6:15 pm - Close

Pre-Registration:  (register online by Friday, March 16th at 6pm)

BOLD Members: $20.00
Non Members:  $35.00

Members are welcome to pre-register one guest at the member price.  For membership information, please visit the BOLD website or email info@growbold.com

Onsite-Registration:  (on March 20th)

BOLD Members:  $30.00
Non Members:  $45.00

Checks (only) can be made to growBOLD.  Receipts will be available.

Click here to Register online.   All are welcome. 

Speaker Bio: 
Hoyoung Huh, M.D., Ph.D. is Chairman of the Board of Geron Corporation (NASDAQ: GERN; Menlo Park, CA).  Dr. Huh has been involved in the formation, management and investment in over 20 successful entities across U.S, Europe and Asia.  He was previously President, CEO and Chairman of BiPar Sciences, Inc. (South San Francisco, CA), which was acquired by Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY; Paris, France) for $500 million in 2009.  He then served as a member of the R&D Investment Committee for Sanofi-aventis and Chairman of its Asia Pacific Board. 
He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Addex Pharmaceuticals (SW: ADXN; Geneva, Switzerland) and BayBio.  He was the former Chairman of the Board of Epizyme, Inc., (Cambridge, MA), and served as Chief Operating Officer and Board Director of Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ: NKTR; San Francisco, CA) and as Board Director of Facet Biotech (NASDAQ: FACT; Redwood City, CA), which was acquired by Abbott Laboratories for $722 million in 2010.

Dr. Huh was formerly a Partner at McKinsey and Company in the healthcare and technology practices.  Dr. Huh holds an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, a Ph.D. in Genetics/Cell Biology from Cornell University/Sloan-Kettering Institute, and a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Dartmouth College.

How to be a "Best Place to Work"

by Jill McGillen, Next Turn Consulting  (This is a summary of Jill's research as represented in her BOLD Roundtable discussion on January 31st.  The slide presentation is available for BOLD members.)

Every April, the San Francisco Business Times announces the Bay Area Best Places to work winners. 125 companies are chosen based on their employees’ evaluations of how satisfied they are in their workplace.  The question always crosses my mind: “I wonder if these companies are using similar approaches to engage their employees?”

In July 2011, I set out to answer this question by telephoning and meeting with a sample of Bay Area human resource executives and 2010 winners from these top companies. They answered my question:  Yes, they do share common strategies. The surprise was that most methods are cost effective and require little time to implement. 

Best Places to Work Award winners that I interviewed shared the following key commonalities:

 Transparent leadership involvement
 Interactive and consistent communication channels
 Engaged employees who are asked what is important to them
 Human Resource Departments that are passionate business partners
 Community and family focus with an emphasis on enjoying work
 Competitive benefits and flexibility

The following eight suggestions represent strategies that these companies implemented to keep their employees satisfied, engaged and aligned:

1.  Facilitate special interest groups (exercise, games, cooking) to enhance community and cross-functional interaction. Increase number and variety of employee engagement activities.

2.  Offer brainstorm sessions and surveys of ways to engage employees and also involve them in solving company issues.

3.  Offer educational, career and special interest opportunities (mentoring, training, partial tuition reimbursement, professional association dues).

4.  Add flex time, holiday time off, or other ways to recognize balance of work-family life.

5.  Introduce relationships and work with non-profits (Habitat for Humanity, Breast Cancer Walk, holiday gift giving, soup kitchens).

6.  Schedule regular town hall meetings or other ways for leaders and employees to connect with each other.

7.  Remove ratings from performance reviews.

8.  Encourage employees to give honest feedback on initiatives and respond to communication received.

None of these ideas are revolutionary, yet taken together, they convey to the employee:  You matter.  Once an employer gets that across and keeps reinforcing it, loyalty and engagement ensue.  I began with the idealistic notion that I would discover the one perfect strategy and finished being reminded of the wisdom of the author Robert Collier:  "Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out."

 

Mentorship: Red Flags and Best Known Methods for Mentoring

This article is authored by BOLD Member, Ron Sacchi, in preparation for the BOLD Workshop titled "Mentorship:  GoldMine or Minefield" on Sept. 1st, 2011.

1) Business Case for Program unclear:
Organization is unclear on business benefits the program would bring or more importantly how they would measure its success—as though it were a business.  Examples of business measurements:

• Decreased time to productivity for new employees (requires knowing a baseline for the current “time to productivity”)
• Positively correlating decreased attrition to the program (requires specific data which positively ties the two factors –attrition and mentoring—together)
• Application of mentor knowledge to mentee’s job (requires observation or behavioral analysis)
• Recession and environmental factors which may have contributed to Mentoring becoming a “solution” for development. Two consistently heard:
  Decreased spending on developmental programs and/or HR Programs in general; mentoring on the surface appears to be a “cheap” way to develop people.
  The “Employee Engagement Bandwagon” – because hiring in general has diminished, keeping high performers happy (beyond “pay for performance”)  in their current job has been a concern.

How companies succeed in a permanent state of change

By Ana Lucia Jardim Evans

In a recent newsletter, an OD professional association led the announcement of its new membership renewal process with the following quote: “Change is good. You go first.”

As BOLD goes through its own process of strategic change –working on its vision and mission for the future- we also open the dialogue with our members on strategic change management in the industry at the upcoming June 16 workshop entitled “What… More Change? How HR Can Take a Leading Role in Organizational Change”

FDA biopharmaceutical drug approvals increase despite slower development time

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has passed nearly twice as many biopharmaceutical drug approvals in the last 10 years than it did in the 1990s, a news release from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) has indicated.  From 2000 to 2009, 65 biopharmaceutical drugs got the OK from the FDA. In comparison, the 1990s saw 39 approvals, while the 1980s had 13 approvals, according to the CSDD study. Click here to read the full article.

The Games Companies Play

Corporate learning is evolving:   Here’s a Business Week article from 4/4/11, featuring examples of how companies are using games to simulate a work environment, help employees excel in marketing or customer service, and even educate and engage their board of directors.  One study reported that “Those using video games had a 14 percent higher skill-based knowledge level, an 11 percent higher factual-knowledge level, and a 9 percent higher retention rate than trainees in comparison groups”.

Issues, Trends and Possibilities for the Life Science Industry: Presentation Summary

For those of you that attended the February 17th "State of the Life Sciences Industry" presentation delivered by guest speaker James Sabry, MD, PhD, you have a taste of what some of the issues, trends and possibilities are for the industry. 

Members can access James Sabry's slides by clicking this link and entering the current username and password for the members-only part of the BOLD website.  Questions about the presentation or BOLD membership can be directed to:  info@growBOLD.com

Free Passes to BOLD Members for BayBio Conference April 20th, 2011

BOLD has been gifted with 10 free passes to the upcoming BayBio conference.  These passes are available to the first current BOLD members that register online.

BayBio 2011 Annual Conference: Powering Global Innovation

With Northern California regarded as a global innovation engine, theBayBio2011 Annual Conference will explore themes and topics that focus on fostering global collaborations in research, development and commercialization. BayBio2011 Annual Conference will feature a BioSpace Career Fair, Partnering Forum, Company Presentations and a dedicated Human Resources Track. The first 10 BOLD members to respond receive a free one day pass.

CBI Life Sciences Training, Learning & Development Congress, March 2011

 

Bio/Pharmaceutical and Medical Device
Training, Learning and Development Congress

Date:  March 21, 22
Location:   Hyatt Regency at Penn’s Landing, Philadelphia, PA

• Are you helping your leaders fill the knowledge distribution gap across your organization?
• Do you create training strategies that align development goals with business objectives? 
• Are you managing people and solutions that help accomplish learning objectives on an enterprise or global scale?

Health Care Reform Timeline Whitepaper

Some HR professionals in our BOLD member community have the responsibility for keeping current in healthcare reform and relevant timelines.  This paper, offered by Barney and Barney LLC, includes timelines that may help you achieve your department goals.

The Future of Health Care: Change is in the Industry....

By Ana Lucia Jardim Evans

In a not too distant future, we will know what is wrong with our body just by spitting on your Blackberry – this was the vision shared at the World Healthcare Conference in Dubai in 2010 by Steve Burrill, CEO of the San Francisco based Burrill & Co.

Today, doctors mostly react to patients’ symptoms. Tomorrow, they will preemptively treat the right disease. Personalized Healthcare is a vision shared by many.  David Ewing Duncan, journalist and bestselling author, recently released a Personalized Healthcare Manifesto funded by the Kauffman Foundation, which gathered views from science, business, government, patients, law, and the media.