Guy Bate: Innovation Is a Journey of Discovery and Development

I’ve always loved the biosciences, and I’ve had a diverse career around the field. I’m originally from the United Kingdom. In high school I really enjoyed biology and chemistry, so I pursued a bachelor’s degree in physiology at the University of Manchester. I long thought I wanted to be a doctor, but biomedicine became my focus. Before my final undergraduate year, I earned a research scholarship to study neuroendocrine-immunology. I became hooked on doing research.

I attended the University of Liverpool and received a Wellcome Trust–sponsored PhD (Wellcome Trust is a large global health charity) to do research in cellular and molecular physiology. I was studying the biosynthesis of hormones in the stomach and how they’re involved in various pathologies. Toward the end of my PhD, I determined lab research and the biomedical academic career track weren’t for me. I was increasingly fascinated by the pharmaceutical and human biotechnology industries because my PhD research focused on therapeutics.

After completing my PhD, I joined a small boutique consulting firm in Cambridge. I spent a year in Cambridge and another year in New York as an analyst/consultant working across numerous client projects at the intersection of R&D and health economics. From there I joined PA Consulting, a technology consulting firm where I worked in London, Princeton, and Boston on pharmaceutical client projects. Biotech was growing and I was recruited to become a London-based equities analyst focused on biotech firms for the French investment bank Société Générale. When the biotech bubble burst in the early 2000s, I joined IMS Health (now IQVIA) working on projects ranging from early-stage pharmaceutical R&D to managing in-market product life cycles. I was promoted from senior consultant to principal then senior principal, and I moved to Australia to lead IQVIA’s consultancy practice in product and portfolio strategy.

After IQVIA, I had my own consulting business for a few years. A client, a small biotech firm, recruited me to help commercialize part of its R&D pipeline. LEO Pharma acquired the firm, and I became head of strategy and operations for LEO’s Australasian business. Then my wife and I moved to New Zealand, where I resumed my independent consulting work. At the same time, I became acquainted with several professors at the University of Auckland Business School and in the faculty of science. I became a sessional lecturer, which was my (re)introduction to academia. I completed a second PhD in management, then joined the faculty full time. Now I teach strategy, innovation, and technology commercialization across various programs at the business school. I am also the program director for the Master of Business Development and academic lead for the Center of Innovation and Entrepreneurship’s Researcher Hatchery program, where we coach and mentor researchers to commercialize or translate their research.

Innovation is about movement, and that has always fascinated me. Innovation occurs on multiple levels—it’s iterative and cyclical, and innovation at one level creates momentum for change and innovation at other levels. We don’t just latch onto a new technology and push it through with the same old systems and structures. We must consider how to innovate across levels—what processes, practices, and business models are needed? This can then shape new markets, in turn opening up opportunities for new product and service innovations. Understanding these dynamics and how they can be leveraged on multiple levels is crucial.

What happens in innovation mirrors our careers. We have to embrace change, learn, and be able to pivot. We’ve got to know why we want to pivot and then embrace it. It helps to be self-reflective and see what story we’re building, because often there is a good story. We work in multidisciplinary environments where cross-functional teams and collaboration need to be the norm, requiring flexibility and agility. And steering careers in an agile way allows us to build broader awareness and a broader skill set, which, as we develop as managers and leaders, will empower us to share and synthesize knowledge across divisions and bring teams into creative dialogue.

I encourage early career professionals to focus on networking, but not necessarily on trying to sell themselves—rather see the networking journey as part of the education experience. Ask questions, learn about people’s roles, show interest in them, and then decipher how you can then apply that knowledge to develop your relationships. Mentorship is also vital. I encourage everyone to find people whose behaviors, managerial practices, and perspectives inspire you, and try to build meaningful, sustainable connections.

For me, innovation is not only about developing new products, services, processes, organizations, and markets, it’s also a personal journey of discovery and development.