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From Research to Revenue IV: Capturing Business Opportunities in Asia

Bonnie Kuehl, Scientific Insights Consulting Group

It was a truly eye opening day for most of the 150 attendees at Research to Revenue, held last week at The Living Arts Centre in Mississauga. Throughout the day, one theme resounded in every presentation and in every panel discussion – cultivate your business relationships. Cultivating your business relationships starts by preparing the field. Ask for introductions to other businesspeople, foster friendships, build relationships and trust – business opportunities will follow. Relationships should be the basis of any solid business opportunity but are especially important when looking at doing business in Asia. The experts shared with us that, in Asia, the best business practice for success is to partner with a trusted person, group or business in the country of interest. Partnering will provide someone to “mind the store” in the foreign country as well as providing an expert to help guide you through the cultural and legal challenges specific to every country. At the same time, they also warned of the dangers of giving business partners too much control.

Conference Photos

Here are my key thoughts from Capturing Business Opportunities in Asia:
1.     China is developing its research strengths and excels at manufacturing and bioprocessing- they are weak in product development.
2.     India excels at development and processing – they lack focus on research.
3.     Strategic partnerships are key to business opportunities in Asia. Government incentives and VCs invest in companies with cross-border/ multi-national strategic alliances. Money needs to be spent in every country involved in the alliance.
4.     Recognize that there are cultural differences and be prepared for surprises.
5.     Fostering relationships in Asia takes time, think weeks and months. Be prepared to go and visit and spend time meeting people.

Andrea Mandel-Campbell spoke about Adventures in Emerging Markets. As one of those people who has met a bear in the wild, more than once, I agree with her insight that we
Canadians fail to turn our competitive advantages into our key strengths. We need to learn to look outside our borders, vast as they are, for people who will buy our products and then we need to cultivate that trade and to sell to them. She suggested that we build on “being” Canadian. Worldwide Canadians are trusted and are seen as peace keepers and brokers. We need to use “being” Canadian to our advantage as we sell our products to the world. Check out Andrea’s book Why Mexicans Don’t Drink Molson for more of her observations.

Bonnie Kuehl
Executive Director Scientific Insights(R) Consulting Group Inc.
bk@scientificinsights.com
http://www.scientificinsights.com

Program-Wednesday, December 3, 2008

7:30 - 8:30
Registration and breakfast

8:30 - 9:30
Conference Opening and Keynote Speaker
Outsourcing in Asia
Madhav Murti , PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

9:45 - 10:45
Analysis of Asian Markets
Moderator: Gail Garland, Axela Inc.
Sarah Frew, McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health
Paul Stinson, CAPRA International
Ron Choudhury, Aird & Berlis LLP
Hadi Salah, Frost & Sullivan

11:00-12:00
International Commercial Collaborations: Moves for Success
Moderator: David Shindler, BioDiscovery Toronto
Stuart Wilson, ISTPCanada
Adi Treasurywala, Arrowcan Partners
Yu Zhang, CAPRA International
Christoper Paige, Shanghai-Toronto Institute for Health Research

12:00 - 1:45
Luncheon
Mississauga: Canada's 3rd Largest Life Sciences Cluster
Larry Petovello City of Mississauga

Keynote Speaker
Adventures in Emerging Markets
Andrea Mandel-Campbell

2:00 - 3:00
Strategic Case Studies
Moderator:Joel Cheng, XPhase Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Bin Huang, WEX Pharmaceuticals
Fulong Qiao, Beijing Farmunity Inc.
Sean Thompson, YM Biosciences

3:15 - 4:30
Impact of Regulations: How They Affect People on the Ground
Moderator: John Kelly, MaRS Landing
Valerie Bell, Bell Alliances International
Ashley Roberts,Cantox
Xuefeng Yu, sanofi pasteur
Paul Jones, Jones & Company

4:30 - 5:00 Conference Wrap-up

5:00 - 7:00 TBI-R.I.C. Centre Networking Reception

Conference Slideshow

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