9 Tips for Navigating the Inevitable Unexpected: Secrets from a Biotech CEO, With Stan Rose

Filed in Podcasts, Previous Episodes on May 9, 2024

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If there’s any guarantee in business, it’s that you should expect the unexpected. The bad news is that in a five-year business cycle, a startup will likely face more than one inevitable but unexpected event. The good news is that there are specific skills entrepreneurs can master to increase the likelihood of keeping their enterprise afloat.

It’s not if something happens, it’s when. Inevitable unexpected events are a major cause of an otherwise great business’ collapse. 90% of startups fail in the first five years. 63% of tech startups will tank. Despite a brilliant team creating, scrutinizing, and refining the models; or passionate, supportive investors; or stellar plans and vetting, if leaders can’t adequately address the unforeseen, they put the entire operation at great risk.

Biotech executive Stan Rose offers wisdom from decades of navigating the trenches of this rapidly growing field. But his essential practices apply to any industry and entrepreneurial venture. They help leaders best prepare for the unexpected, increasing the odds that they will be able to overcome hurdles or leverage opportunities they never saw coming. They also help build a total approach and awareness that extends into other challenges, forming a playbook for success.

Tune in to hear Stan’s thoughts on:

  • Talk about your own trajectory — you were an MIT scientist. How did you shift to becoming an entrepreneur?
  • What about the challenges that face startups — why do so many fail?
  • What would you say is an entrepreneur’s most common (and damaging) blind spot?
  • Does the pace of change and the pace of growth today have an impact in terms of using the usual strategies to scale a new company?
  • Talk about the term “inevitable unexpected events” — it almost sounds like a paradox, but it isn’t. Can you explain it?
  •  Have you seen any recent instances of a well-known firm or entrepreneur facing an unexpected event? Did they prevail, or could it have been better handled?
  • What can entrepreneurs and leaders do to avoid these events?
  • And much, much more!

 

 

About This Guest: ()

Stan Rose, PhD is an MIT biologist turned life sciences executive and entrepreneur who has created and led multiple businesses in the emerging fields of DNA analysis and genomics. After several successful ventures, he was suddenly diagnosed with a life-threatening genetic disease. Some of the same technologies he had helped bring to the clinic became critical to his own survival. Following a kidney transplant, he's continued to contribute to science and medicine. His firm, Rose Ventures, Inc., works with early-stage companies developing innovative, high-impact life science products and services. His new book is, "Can't Tame a Mongoose: Memoir of a Genomics Entrepreneur".
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