Relationship Building
Summer Internships: Mutually Beneficial for All
 | Earlier this year, we decided to hire two Project Onramp summer interns for Corval, our new startup. First, because we needed the help (!) and second, because we are committed to walking the talk of this important Life Science Cares program. (Project Onramp creates paid summer internships for Massachusetts college students who are under-resourced and… Read the full article… |
Notes from the Un-Empty Nest
 | My son, Jonathan, calls it “Mom-toring” — professional mothers (or parental surrogates) mentoring their adult professional kids. It applies whether or not those kids live at home, but there seems to be a specific and new shared experience when, thanks to the pandemic, the generations are back together living under the same roof. The more… Read the full article… |
What’s Different Now
 | In just one month, life for all of us has changed dramatically. This week, we learned that the new normal would extend at least through April, probably longer. Thoughts and Observations The concept of time is unfamiliar. Yes, the weekdays and weekends have merged. But the workday itself is also different. Although many of us had already… Read the full article… |
Is Your Networking Not Working?
 | Networking! You know, that activity that one either embraces or goes running away from as quickly as possible. For many, the word evokes a grueling, overwhelming, unnatural process, and something that requires stepping way out of one’s comfort zone. But I have two pieces of good news… First, networking is an incredibly effective tool for… Read the full article… |
Designing Effective Physician Advisory Board Meetings
 | Physician advisory board meetings are quite common in our industry — and, done well, they can be very helpful. Convening a face-to-face meeting with a group of expert physicians in a given therapeutic area benefits biopharma companies in several ways. Some of these include: verifying assumptions about unmet medical needs in the market; gaining insight… Read the full article… |
Rare Diseases: Abandon Everything You Think You Know
 | “Overcoming the hurdles has built a great faith in me that things can be done to help people with rare diseases. It will drive my optimism forever and my belief in achieving things that seem impossible.” —Henri Termeer, CEO of Genzyme,who launched the first lifesaving treatment, Ceredase, for Gaucher Disease I am and will always… Read the full article… |
Does Boston Biotech Have a Career Navigation Problem?
 | For those of us who have been in the industry since pre-DRG days, and have the wisdom and experience across the industry, there are many opportunities to mentor and network with today’s emerging generation of biotech executives. Now and then, we get the chance to speak with those who truly are the future generation –… Read the full article… |
The Sound of Silos
 | We have all heard about it; some of us have lived it firsthand. A vibrant, new start-up comes to life with energy and purpose. Everyone knows one another; everyone works together towards a common goal. Communication happens on the fly, informally, at all hours of the day and night. It’s fast and it’s fun —… Read the full article… |
Power to the People
 | Each month, as I ponder possible topics for this e-conversation, I find myself struggling with the same challenge: So many things to talk about; so hard to pick just one! When I decide to set aside topics within our core area of commercialization, you know I must be feeling a pressing need to speak to… Read the full article… |
Are You Getting the Most Out of Your Consultants?
 | It is always risky to read one HBR article and then assume you can apply it to every other work scenario in front of you. But here we go anyway. In their article, HR Goes Agile, authors Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis explain how the concepts of “agile development from the tech industry” have… Read the full article… |