Recap: Scientific Mindset in the Business World

Business is an intriguing career path for many freshly minted PhDs and it is not uncommon now to find scientists who have made the transition into management, consulting, finance, venture capital, market research, intellectual property law, and entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, some of you might be wondering what about a background in scientific research lends itself to a career in business and how one breaks into the field without doing an MBA. Paul Tumpowsky, chairman of the board of InSITE and CEO of Square Zero, addressed these questions when he came to the Academy on May 13 for the Science Alliance event Leveraging the Scientific Mindset in the Business World.

Paul started his presentation by citing the many reasons why the scientific training is valued in business. For those regarding themselves as only being equipped for bench research or pipetting, you will find it reassuring to hear that the skills acquired in pursuit of a PhD are desirable outside of science, as well. For business, in particular, he highlighted the strengths of scientists in dealing with complex problems and in possessing analytical skills that have been cultivated by the scientific method. I think we scientists take these skills for granted not appreciating the uniqueness of our scholastic pursuits- i.e. years spent engaging in deep intellectual thought and regular problem solving- when, indeed, these talents are coveted in the "real world" for handling tough business questions and devising innovative solutions and can be leveraged when applying for business-type positions.

Paul also discussed the differences in mindsets and approaches that scientists can expect to encounter in the business world. He noted that while attention to detail is good in science, much of business is focused at the macro level and analyses tend to be more qualitative than quantitative in nature; therefore scientists, in order to be successful, often need to adapt to making decisions with incomplete data and on shorter timescales, not having the luxury to exhaustively research every topic. Paul also emphasized the collaborative nature of business, pointing out that projects rely heavily on team efforts and are not solitary endeavors like science can be at times. It is important then, to be a good team player and, for the budding entrepreneur, to be especially thoughtful when assembling a group for a start-up venture.

For scientists eager to make the transition into business, one hurdle is that it can be difficult to gain experience and training before applying for jobs; the second portion of Paul's talk introduced one potential avenue, through the NYC-based InSITE entrepreneurship fellowship program. The two-year program trains graduate students through a series of workshops and real-world consulting cases. Although their fellows have historically all been business and law students, they are opening their doors for the first time to accept applications from doctoral students and postdocs in NYC this fall. Given the sixty-plus scientists who turned out for this event, there is definitely signficant interest in this kind of opportunity and business careers, in general.

More information about their program and the application process can be found on their website: http://insiteny.org. You can also read a blog entry from one of the InSITE fellows who attended this event here.

In addition, I would recommend checking out the Business and Law section of this website for additional resources and references on this topic.