Dr Somesh Sharma (left), Associate Director, Jubilant Drug Discovery and Development & Mr PC Pandian (right), Deputy General Manager (HR), Jubilant Drug Discovery and Development

The life sciences space in India is gaining visibility and enormous growth in the recent years. This is primarily because life science products and services are long term based, unlike any other industry that would bring in results in short term. From an expert’s view, this life sciences industry would play an important role in the global economic stability in the long run. It is well understood, that as long as the human life is in existence, the life sciences industry and its services would be in high demand.

India is increasingly contributing to this industry and the scope is widening with time. Indian scientists are already proving to the world, that their scientific bent of mind and analytical acumen; is a challenge to their peers across the globe. Though, India does not have many molecules in their kitty to showcase, many Indian scientists are part of the drug discovery process in various companies across the world. If India can provide these scientists enough opportunities, needless to say, the country can become a leader in the scientific space.

However, the key challenge is that not all successful scientists have become great managers in the past. The transition from scientist to a successful manager has been perceived as a difficult proposition.

In today’s scientific scenario, scientists will inevitably have to play the role of managers. Surprisingly, very few scientists have been successful in doing so. Analyzing why this  transition is so difficult, has led to many interesting answers.

There are scientists who have chosen their career path that does not involve managerial skills, by staying focused only on the specific aspects of science. But today’s life sciences organizations are in a serious compulsion for excelling in business, which is why they cannot have all scientists focusing only on science. This situation leads to the need for scientific managers.

The journey of a person in the scientific domain starts with meeting the challenges in science, posed by the organization. In turn, organizations demand more from the scientists. The scientists are asked to learn more on inter-personal and managerial skills. This is the time when there is a dilemma in positioning a scientist as a manager. This scenario creates many challenges.

It is the inherent nature of a scientist to be a lot more involved in scientific challenges which does not allow him or her to tackle day-to-day managerial activities successfully. Most scientists prefer to be focused in their scientific domain. They believe that adding managerial skill is simply a learn-as-you-go experience process. On the contrary, the organization expects that managing people is a skill, that by default, a scientist should possess.

It is very important to tell scientists at the time of recruitment, that their time will fluctuate between science and managerial roles. By and large, they are prepared for 1:1 mix of scientific and managerial skills. Unfortunately, after joining, slowly they find serious career discontent when most of the day-to-day work is occupied with challenges in the administrative issues of people and projects.

Generally, it has been observed that scientists would like to dive deep down when it comes to scientific challenges, and prefer to stay on the surface, for any managerial issues. From the various interviews with scientists, it seems evident that they are keen to transform into managers, but do understand the hurdles in this transformation, with people issues, particularly decision-making with HR processes.

There certainly is a way for them to become better scientific managers, and that is by evolving a continuous learning process by the organization. This can be achieved by intensive training programs designed such that there is a gradual shift in the viewpoint of scientists, in understanding their role as managers, and also ascertain their value as a scientist to the organization.

The need of the hour for life sciences industry is not mere managers but  “scientist-managers”. There is a great demand for scientist-managers and it will take a long time to find trained personnel for this new role. The hope here is that many scientists are open to the idea of becoming scientist-managers, yet neither the scientists nor the management have been taking the required training aspect seriously.

With such a dynamic environment prevailing these days, the life sciences industry is looking for more scientist-managers to excel in this space. There are instances where the industry has the money, but is not interested in investing in this process, due to high risk of exiting in a volatile atmosphere.

Today, organizations are taking active interest and ownership, in creating opportunities, by providing in-depth leadership programs to ensure this transformation is successful, Also they are  establishing a dual-ladder system for scientists – either to stay in completely scientific, or to move to scientific managerial.

The role of the top management and HR become quite crucial and critical in creating a radical change in the thinking process of the scientist-manager, making them indispensable intellectual assets of the company and recognizing them for their contribution to the organization. The top management has to identify the personnel to be so trained, and the HR should facilitate the process.

In addition to the investment on leadership programs, it is also important to be patient and help them with the right mentors to coach them on a continuous basis, so that scientists are transformed seamlessly into today’s scientist-managers and tomorrow’s leaders.