Recently the ENCODE project released a map of the human genome containing more functionality detail than ever before, which helps us to better understand how the genome decodes itself, and how we can modify the system to express proteins and DNA of interest.
Putting aside the laurels of scientific discovery, biotech has forecast economic booms of the magnitude of other tech industries such as in web 2.0 and 3.0, mobile technology and early pharmaceutical blockbusters. But biotech faces many barriers to its growth. Funding for early research is limited, international policies on patents are a minefield, research commercialisation is long and arduous, business models are complicated and public perception is sceptical. Ernst & Young's report on the global biotechnology industry, Beyond Borders, asks: “How can biotech innovation be sustained during a time of serious resource constraints?”
I believe the biggest challenge facing this young bio-economy is a disconnection between its experienced practitioners and emerging generations. This leads to different disconnections: from current global biotech issues, and from the ability to map global trends in science, talent, capital and natural resources. These need to be overcome in order to spark the collaborative ventures on which biotech thrives. There is a saying: like proteins, humans need to interact for optimal function.
The pain points for the emerging generation of biotech professionals are a lack of jobs in academia and industry under the current recessive climate, lack of understanding of the needs of the industry and gaps in biotech knowledge, and—too often—a lack of aspiration to look beyond personal careers to grow the bio-economy as a whole.
There is an urgent need to connect and educate these young leaders with the challenges, trends, strategies and prospects of the bio-economy early on in their career. For this next generation of bio-leaders to take upon current challenges of the industry, their outlook and knowledge of bio-economies must be expanded to a global scale. The focus lens needs to be broader than the US and European biotech hubs and biopharmaceutical sub-sector, to encompass the breadth and diversity of biotechnology with all its prospects globally.
The biotech industry needs young, ambitious, experienced, well-connected, industry-savvy leaders. Many pharmaceutical and consultancy companies invest a great deal in order to attract the best talent to their organisations. Talent recruitment, management and retainment are critical challenges for many multinational companies—a point brought home by the theme of “Next Generation of Leaders” at this year's Economist’s Talent Management Summit.
There is a gap in connecting the aspirations of young leaders to talent education, management and recruitment needs of the industry. The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious. Global Biotech Revolution, a not-for-profit foundation, was founded by students and young professionals united not only by a desire to bridge this gap, but also to build upon it a culture of talented, connected, collaborative, forward-thinking leaders of tomorrow.
Learn more about Global Biotech Revolution via its Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Economist Intelligence Unit Limited (EIU) or any other member of The Economist Group. The Economist Group (including the EIU) cannot accept any responsibility or liability for reliance by any person on this article or any of the information, opinions or conclusions set out in the article.
