Interview by N-SIDE’s Life Sciences Marketing Manager, Sylvia Haller
Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with the core members of N-SIDE’s Incubation team to discover more about how this team is part of driving innovation in our Life Sciences solutions at N-SIDE. During this interview, I also learned how everyone at N-SIDE as well as how our pharma partners can be part of this innovation process.
Could you explain why the Life Sciences Incubation team was started?
Yafit: We started this team in order to increase the focus on this type of initiative and to take our innovation efforts to the next level. We have a structured process in place and it helps to involve the right stakeholders at the right time and ultimately speed up innovation. We believe it is very important nowadays to ensure the momentum in creating new products and bringing them to market as quickly as possible.
Cyrille: I think this initiative is also bringing back the roots of N-SIDE to the forefront. Innovation is where everything started at N-SIDE, and all our success of the past years have been built on that.
One of the main reasons for creating this team now is to be able to bring more value from our expertise that we have built over the years and expand our scope of impact for our customers and for Life Sciences Research and Development.
How are you collaborating with our life sciences partners?
Benoit: That’s also a very important point, even if we like to innovate as a company, we like to do it in the context of the real needs from the market. And as soon as possible, with a real application.
Cyrille: The goal of the team is to have a proactive approach where we reach out to Life Sciences companies with ideas and ultimately work together to help turn ideas into reality.
You are the incubation core team. How are you working within N-SIDE and involving different team members within these projects?
Yafit: We are centralizing the ideas and following up on the different initiatives. We are working as a big virtual team focusing on projects and ideas.
We are involving first of all whoever has an idea. If someone within N-SIDE has an idea, he can bring it to us, and he will be following with us the project from assessing the idea, to discussing with clients, and hopefully moving the idea to becoming a project or product. We have technical support as well. People from other teams are assigned to work with us part-time on a project-basis. They help us assess the opportunities, see which technologies we have that can apply to the project, for example.
But our scope also extends beyond N-SIDE. We also receive ideas from our pharma partners and they can contribute to this too.
What have you each learned since starting on this team?
Benoit: Being able to be very flexible is key – in working according to the opportunities that arise and adjust accordingly.
Cyrille: The eye opener for me is how many opportunities there really are out there when you are looking for them. Once you change your mindset, opportunities keep coming to us naturally. On a personal note, it is very exciting to see us being able to realize our clients’ dreams beyond our current projects. This is definitely something very exciting for me in being part of the team.
Yafit: I always believed that the sky’s the limit, but actually now deep diving into that, I can clearly see that there are a lot of opportunities for us. The number of opportunities is really impressive. And I do see some very good projects in the very near future and some new products for N-SIDE.
Is there something specific of N-SIDE’s culture that fosters the work and goals of the incubation team?
Benoit: An important aspect is that N-SIDE gives freedom and puts confidence in its people. We are free to find ideas and organize ourselves the best way to achieve our goals.
Cyrille: Two things come to mind. First, the fact that we don’t set boundaries for ourselves. Having free rein to use our skills to the best of our abilities allows us to dream big and make things happen. Also, the strong partnership that we have built with our existing clients. Our pharma partners, they are not just customers. That allows us to be the trusted partners with which Life Sciences companies can invest their time and can truly be part of this innovation journey.
Yafit: When we are working with clients, we are looking at each other as partners, looking for the win-win situation. From the start of the relationship, we are not handling clients, but working together with partners.