Highlights from April Seminars Provided through Designer Genes

Everyone’s Business from Innovation to Project Management

On Thursday April 10th, Rutgers was greeted by one of the most revered experts in the project management field.  Dr. Aaron J. Shenhar, the Institute Professor of Management and the founder of the project management program at Stevens Institute of Technology spoke at Foran Hall at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences to a group of about 40 people.  In addition to being a professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, he is an executive at Rafael, the Armament Development Authority of Israel and President of the Electronic Systems Division, leading over 1000 engineers and scientists.
 

At the meeting, Dr. Shenhar spoke about how important it is for everyone to know about management.  He explained that for businesses to flourish, corporations need to have more projects and more jobs which move the company forward, rather than just perpetuate it.  In recent years, the rate of operations are decreasing while the rate of projects are going up. According to Dr. Shenhar, this is a positive change because the more projects that are created, the more new ideas for products are created.  He said that the problem with corporations is that they are not meeting their business course.  He said, “We need to improve projects and innovations.” 

Dr. Shenhar then explained specifically about what innovation is.  He spoke about the innovation process in a few specific steps:

• idea generation
• idea testing
• preparing proposal
• approval
• project management

He further clarified project management and its three processes: product definition processes, managerial, and technical. 

Dr. Shenhar concluded by providing his theory called “project diamond” which is a visual tool.  Again, he explained this as a process with steps, the first of which being novelty, followed by technology, then complexity, and finally pace.  He fervently said, “One should let customers try the product and then when they get feedback that’s when they should freeze the project to fix it.  One has to identify their project and to keep on pushing to put out their project.”

On Thursday April 17th, also at Foran Hall, Dr. David Sable, a physician specializing in Obstetrics and Gynecology, presented his presentation entitled The Biotech Transition from Academia to Wall Street to a room of approximately 40 people.

Dr. Sable discussed how having a science background could be utilized in the business field.  He talked about the pros and cons when using science in personal investment.  He started the seminar by discussing some issues of the biotech industry, and stated there are only 12 companies that are successful.  In addition, he presented the Biotech business cycle and the various ways one could obtain funding to support their company.

Further, Dr. Sable explained about the different types of biotech companies, such as platform companies, discovery, in-licensing, and virtual.  He then explained how one should leverage their science background.  In addition, he talked about investing in one’s own personal and skill areas. Therefore, he emphasized that “you need to know the science, the history of the company, the business plan, and the type of business it is.”