What It Takes To Be A CEO At A Start-Up Biotech Company
In Jon's twenty-year career, the CEO highlights resilience and persistence as crucial skills, emphasizing the need to "keep a level head" amidst inevitable challenges in the biotech industry. A curious and adaptable mindset, combined with self-motivation, is also essential for navigating the rapidly changing healthcare landscape and successfully learning from diverse perspectives.
Resilience, Persistence, Adaptability, Curiosity, Self-Motivation
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Jon Ellis
CEO
Start-up Biotech Company
University of Leeds (UK) 2002
N/A
Biology & Related Sciences
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical
Business Strategy
Immigrant
Video Highlights
1. Resilience and persistence are crucial for overcoming challenges in a dynamic environment.
2. Curiosity and adaptability are essential for learning and adapting to the rapidly changing healthcare industry.
3. Self-motivation and drive are key to achieving success in a demanding role like CEO of a biotech startup
Transcript
What skills are most important for a job like yours?
As we're in fundraising mode, it's not a pretty process. You need pretty thick skin. Even once our company is a bit further along, I think the key skills are still pretty important.
Being resilient is extremely important, and being persistent. Good things don't come easily. There are always bumps in the road in any growing company or any development project.
I've been involved in this for 20 years, and I've never seen any form of development program go without some significant challenges. The key is to not get too excited on good days and not drink too much wine on bad days.
Really, just try and keep a level head and be curious. I think it's so important, particularly in the healthcare industry, which changes so quickly. You've got to be willing to learn and to adapt, and learn from different people.
It's very important not to just have a narrow focus. You'd be amazed what you can learn from all kinds of different folks. Be adaptable, and above all, be self-motivated. To really be successful, you've gotta have a fair degree of self-motivation and drive.
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