Effective collaboration between the scientific and business sides of a biotech requires first and foremost mutual understanding of the other team's role, opportunities, and challenges. One will not work without the other, as successfully delivering medicines to patients in an economically sustainable way requires both scientific and business contributions. Ensuring regular opportunities for teams to interact, collaborate, and understand what the other is doing is vital to fostering that progress.

When biotech and business teams struggle to find common ground, fostering collaboration is essential for success. Begin by creating cross-functional teams that blend expertise from both areas, promoting diverse perspectives on projects. Regular communication is crucial; establish frequent meetings to align objectives, clarify expectations, and resolve misunderstandings. Additionally, implement mutual training sessions where team members can learn about each other's challenges and terminologies, enhancing empathy and communication. By cultivating a culture of collaboration and understanding, you can effectively bridge the gap between these teams and drive innovation forward.

Bridging the gap between biotech and business teams requires a shared vision and mutual respect. Start by aligning both teams around a common goal, highlighting how each side contributes to the project’s success—scientific breakthroughs from the biotech team and market insight from the business team. Facilitate regular cross-functional meetings where scientists can share the “why” behind their research, while business team members can explain market needs and strategy. Building this understanding cultivates respect and collaboration, enabling both teams to see eye to eye and work toward a unified objective.

Colonization of teams and attempting to build a bridge between them is an incorrect communication model. A linear relationship can lead to serial operations, but on the other hand, parallel operations may not manage resources effectively. It seems that all staff involved in a project should learn two levels of skills: the main expertise as their major skill, and another as a minor skill, enabling them to switch roles and develop a sense for making proper decisions at critical points. That is the circular model.

From the perspective of a life science vendor (selling products, services, instruments, and software to biotech/pharma companies and research universities), science and sales are simply different sides of the same coin. The business teams (sales, marketing, business development) are customer-facing and understand the market. Of course, not everything that the market wants will align with a vendor's core competencies, but there should be enough overlap with the scientific teams (R&D, operations, quality). Find that sweet spot, focusing on your strengths as a vendor AND the market needs. That requires collaboration from the commercial and scientific teams, which can be tough sometimes, but remember the goal is the same: serving researchers.

Cuando los equipos de biotecnología y negocio no se entienden, creo que la clave está en construir puentes. Aquí van tres ideas que me parecen prácticas: 1. Equipos mixtos: Unir perfiles de ambas áreas en proyectos comunes fomenta el aprendizaje mutuo. 2. Comunicación continua: Reuniones regulares son esenciales para alinear objetivos y resolver malentendidos a tiempo. 3. Formación cruzada: Enseñar a cada equipo los retos y el "idioma" del otro fortalece la empatía y el trabajo en equipo. 4. Unir perfiles: contar con profesionales de la biotecnología en los equipos de negocio. Desde mi punto de vista la colaboración es esencial para el éxito. ¿Qué estrategias usáis vosotros para conectar equipos diversos?

The gap between biotech and business teams is fundamental and starts much earlier than the workplace—it begins in universities. Biotech courses often focus on technical depth but overlook business essentials, missing the golden years to shape well-rounded professionals. Bridging this gap starts with integrating business topics—like market dynamics, project management, and commercialization—into biotech curriculums. This foundation empowers future scientists to communicate effectively with business teams, fostering mutual understanding and collaboration from the start. It’s about preparing students to navigate both worlds seamlessly.

One key factor for R&D and business teams to align is by committing on their shared goal, which should be to bring much needed medicine to patients as quickly as possible. Each team must acknowledge the vital role other plays in achieving the goal. Once you have mutual respect, you can understand the perspective of the other team and reasons why each team function somewhat counterintuitive to other. This understanding will allow the teams to then build processes for optimizing knowledge sharing, collaboration and communication.