There are some distinct parallels between the World Cup and the biotech biz, or so says Bruce Booth of Atlas Venture in an entertaining but spot-on recent blog post. As we enter the frenzied final days of the international soccer tournament, we’d be well-served to hang onto some lessons learned from the sport (before America forgets about futbol for the next four years).
Soccer is a game of endurance, in which long periods of time can pass with little real action. A 90-minute game can be punctuated with maybe five minutes of excitement – as can be seen in the mind-numbingly lengthy drug development and approval process. “Patience is clearly a virtue for the soccer fan, as it is for the biotech investor,” Booth wrote.
It’s all about teamwork: Successful soccer teams operate as one, as do successful biotech companies – “laughter and fun, as well as challenge and sacrifice, are always part of [teamwork] on the field and in the lab.”
You really can’t fake it ’til you make it in soccer or in biotech – crying wolf with those infernal flops can hurt a team’s reputation, much as overpromising and failing on delivery can prove disastrous for a biotech. There are no short cuts.
“All of us who love soccer cringe when a dive is rewarded, just as we cringe when a smoke-and-mirrors bogus biotech gins up an exit worthy of a con-artist,” Booth wrote.
Booth raised many more comparisons – so check out the post, and think on it. If anything, pondering such parallels is a good way to rationalize watching the games during prime work hours…
[Photo from Flickr user Jonathan Sosa]
