PLANT YOURSELF IN A NEW FIELD: TRANSITIONING TO AG BIOTECH

Heiri Gugger, PhD

Managing Director

Kincannon & Reed, RTP

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Ports of Call

Context • Kincannon & Reed and Executive Search

• The growing field of Agricultural Biotechnology

• RTP a leading agbiosciences cluster, domestically and internationally

Finding your sweet spot • Skills and gap inventory, transferable skills

• Itch to start your own company

• Pursuing new opportunity is a big project

My lessons learned • Some to do’s and not to do’s

• Transitioning between industries

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Mission For more than 30 years, Kincannon & Reed, a global leader in retained executive search, has focused exclusively on a singular mission:

We recruit leaders for organizations that feed the world and keep it healthy.

Core Differentiators Deep Sector Experience. We work exclusively in the food value chain, from farm

to table, including seed, biotech, finance, and international development.

High-Value Expertise. By design, the ranks of Kincannon & Reed include principals who were successful senior executives within the sectors we serve.

Global Collaboration. We operate as a single office from about 30 locations in 15 countries around the world.

Guarantee. If candidate is terminated for performance in first year, we redo search at no retainer fee.

First Takeaway: FOCUS, QUALITY and DIFFERENTIATION

Kincannon & Reed snapshot

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K&R client needs – your opportunity matrix

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General Managem

ent 26%

Sales and Marketin

g 25%

R&D / Regulator

y 19%

Finance 10%

Intl Dev and Other

9%

Operations

12%

Functional Roles

Crop Inputs 34%

Animal 13% Food

15%

Biotech 6%

Non-Profit/

Intl Dev 17%

Grain / Biofuels

5%

Other 10%

Industry segments

• Major global players made it their North American home and all have heavily invested in people and infrastructure over the last few years

• The university system (including the community colleges) produces a highly skilled life sciences and biotech workforce

• Unique and functioning partnership between State, Academia, private sector and increasingly capital

• The tireless role of the Biotech Center as a resource, educator, convener, broker and startup supporter

• Renewed early stage and entrepreneurial momentum through e.g. NC State’s Plant Science initiative, or Alexandria’s AgTech Accelerator RTP plans.

Why is RTP and NC a global Ag-cluster?

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Context: The Global Food Challenge

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Source CALS Battelle report, Dec 2014

Plant Sciences for yield increase…

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Source CALS Battelle report, Dec 2014

… add reduce waste, enhance nutrition, food product and processing innovation: big picture!

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Source CALS Battelle report, Dec 2014

• Intersection A (Plant Science and Food Manufacturing): Potential to apply plant improvement technologies to identify traits and develop cultivars for improved post-harvest quality and resiliency characteristics that reduce waste, or morphology and other characteristics that improve downstream processability and product innovation.

• Intersection B (Plant Science and Functional Foods): Potential to apply plant improvement technologies to identify traits and develop cultivars with enhanced functional nutrient content and improved sensory characteristics.

• Intersection C (Functional Foods and Food Manufacturing): Development of product innovations, processing technologies, food safety and preservation systems, etc. that preserve functional nutrient availability and quality throughout the production and distribution chain. Creation of value-added advanced food products and processes.

• Intersection D (all): Improvement of plants with high nutritional value and functional health characteristics for processability, post-harvest preservation of nutrition content, food product innovations, etc.

Intersections as Transition Targets

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Source CALS Battelle report, Dec 2014

NCBC Report lists more than 80 ag biotech companies of all sizes in North Carolina, some with multiple sites in the state, working within a number of agricultural sectors (and some in multiple sectors) including:

Animal Health and Nutrition (18)

Aquaculture and Marine Sciences (3)

Biofuels and Biomass Conversion (13)

Crop and Plant Biotechnology (17)

Crop and Plant Protection (18)

Crop Yield and Health (12)

Environmental Biotechnology (5)

Food Processing and Production (4)

80+ companies with 8200+ people

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Source: AgBiotech Economic Growth Report, January 2015

• Do you have the passion for this industry and mission?

• Where do you want to make a difference and contribute based on your current skills?

• Where are the weaknesses in your armor, and what are you going to do about them? (e.g. after reading a job profile, or not being selected after an interview)

• If e.g. a scientist, which ones of your skills are transferable? • Science leader or leader of scientists

• Strong regulatory or intellectual property background

• Fundamental lab methods used in human as well as plant sciences

• Worked in global or multidivisional company with broad exposure

• If sweet spot not in one of the four main circles, have you looked closely at the interfaces with your space in the CALS pictogram?

Re-potting yourself into this exciting space?

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• Both are biological sciences, but:

Pharma does not have to deal with environmental impact like ground water, bees, air quality

Pharma products do net enter the food chain

“People” want more and better medicines, but less of everything in pest control and tools to secure safe food supply

Economics

Margins are much higher in pharma, which lowers the sensitivity towards raw material and processing cost

Along with the better marginal profitability go better pay scales

Unfortunately, this at times translates into the perception that pharma is higher class

Thoughts on Pharma and Agriculture

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Don’t just jump and form your own, here is what I would do: Get educated (e.g. CED, Biotech Center), seek advice, talk to people

that have done it, network

Formulate a business plan (“what you can’t articulate and write down, probably isn’t thought through enough”). It forces you to consider all aspects, not just the shiny objects.

Seek out friends who can give you constructive critical feedback Do you solve a real problem?

Does the problem you solve meet a true market need?

Do the economics work, can you scale up (is it product or business?)

What differentiates your concept from existing ones?

Can you prevent others from doing the same or better?

Do you have the Freedom To Operate (e.g. necessary licenses?)

Start talking to investors about the feasibility to get financing

Inspired, but company doesn’t exist yet?

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• Treat it like a project with deliverables and be disciplined

1. Excel in your current job, if you still have the luxury

2. Focus on and expand your network

3. Keep yourself marketable

4. Have your materials updated

5. Develop a plan B

6. Take full responsibility of your career (and those depending on you)

• Narrow down field and roles of interest

• Willingness to relocate goes a long way

Job search is a full time job

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• Don’t ask for job – ask for advice and guidance! Give and take.

• Not a flash in the pan, but continuous effort

• Have a crisp elevator speech ready at all time.

• Come across as energetic (maybe stand up when calling?)

• Use social media as multiplier: e.g. LinkedIn, but learn first

• Get involved in your field (event organizing, co-chair sessions, offer advice, earn your way in with sweat equity)

• Respond to recruiters, even if not interested and refer

• Find people working for companies of interest

• Remain visible, participate in events (CED, NCBC, job fairs for HR contacts)

Professional networking priority #1

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• Keep building new skills or deepen existing ones (look at LinkedIn list and see what you can claim…)

• Look carefully at “lateral moves”, as they too add to your capabilities (e.g. adjacent fields, applied vs basic science)

• Seek to represent your company in associations • Add courses/degrees to your resume (e.g. business oriented ones

complementing technical skills) • Consider founding (or develop links as contractor to ) consulting

company or scientific service provider • Look through your publications and patents, create a pitch around

them • Have a good answer for the question “what would you want to do

when you grow up?” - Why do you believe you have what it takes?

• Again: high energy and positive attitude is key

Stay Marketable – employed or not

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• Do your homework – learn everything you can about them in the public domain (including SEC, USPTO filings, press releases, scientific publications, conference appearances)

• Network with company employees

• Have well thought through answers to the questions: • Why are you interested in the company?

• If a specific role is under discussion, why interested in this role?

• Why do you think you are prepared for this? Why should they hire you?

• Why are you willing/motivated to leave your current position?

• Write a tailored cover letter creating connection to company/role

• If unsolicited, convince a friend to hand carry your application to hiring manager or HR and serve as your proxy. Avoid sending letter to HR without personal contacts.

Targeting a company

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Dealing with Recruiters If contacting a recruiter, understand what industries and geographies they serve, what roles and level they focus on. • Reality 1: Recruiters work for paying clients, not candidates. Their job is

to present the client with the best slate of candidates possible, giving the client viable choices.

• Reality 2: Be selective and resist the urge to send your resume everywhere. For clients and recruiters alike, broad availability of your resume makes you less attractive. It is not “shots on goal”!

• Reality 3: Recruiters (and hiring managers) are busy people with short attention span. Have a crisp elevator speech, get your most important points in early when you get a chance to make your case, so they want to learn more about you.

A much better bet than recruiters at this stage are your networking efforts, or outplacement services with access to databases, networking events, resume help and coaching.

Create the story of your career

Many careers come to live a lot better with a narrative, “explaining” • Your career progression, especially if you had a few shorter jobs

lately • What is the “theme” of your career – your brand • Reasons behind job transitions or time gaps • What have you learned from the different roles • Where do you want to go over the next years

Remember • the importance of “GO TO” vs “AWAY FROM” • Most things will get fact checked down the road • To tailor it to your audience • To stand out without being flamboyant

Support the story with compelling resume

• Purpose of resume is to get you the interview. You developed story and themes. Now you need to provide crisp evidence • Focus on results, achievements and not titles and activities

• Describe scope of your jobs (responsibilities, projects, people, budgets, challenges)

• Use active words like “led, completed, developed, implemented” over contributed, participated

• Be prepared to describe your personal contribution in interview

• Keep it to two pages maximum. No small font. Average resume reading time is extremely short. Make it easy for a hiring manager to want to learn more about you.

• References: think about who could “testify” to your strength, or mitigate potential areas for improvement. Don’t include them yet – you want to keep your powder dry.

• Passion for what I do, and courage to change course • PhD in Chemistry, Postdoc in Physics • Scientist to business guy • From electronics to agrochemicals to AgBiotech and life sciences • From Switzerland to Global • From large corporation to start up

• Self-awareness with confidence • Accept that I am by far not the smartest person in the room • Try to know my limits, but have can-do attitude and jump on challenges

• Strong belief that leadership success comes from • Attracting, motivating, challenging, developing and rewarding people • Have a compelling plan, but even better execution (Focus, Quality and

Differentiation) • Remove obstacles, so the team or individuals can succeed or fail • Learn from failures, and make new mistakes • When in doubt, trust my instincts

If I could do it, you can! My lessons learned.

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OK – remember now

• Ag-tech and plant sciences are an exciting, future oriented field

• Network, network, network

• “Go to” and not “away from” (the signal effect is dramatic)

• Have crisp elevator speeches for all important points (you might literally not have more time)

• Eat the frog early (takes pressure off the rest of the day)

• Smiling and dialing (be a mean dialing machine and yes, smile while you talk!)

• BLD

• Be professional in appearance (live or electronically)

BEST OF LUCK!

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