Slone News - Private equity and venture capital funding in the fast growth molecular diagnostics industry puts a premium on leadership and talent from “day one”

Five questions for Bijan Salehizadeh M.D., General Partner, Highland Capital Partners.
This month Bijan Salehizaden, M.D. of Highland Capital Partners, talks to Slone Partners about the importance of executive vision and leadership talent as a key attribute when sourcing private equity and venture capital investments in the molecular diagnostics industry.

It’s all about the right people, and in our second article, we take a look at the importance of matching new team players with the rest of your talent line-up. Good decisions and tight integration at this intersection can advance the overall success of your business goals.

It’s more than just a job—it’s a team
Thoughts from Tara Kochis

What is a team? The answer is pretty obvious if you are talking about, say, sports. In baseball, each of the nine members of your defensive team—pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, third base, short stop, and the three fielders—has a specific role, a specific skill, and a specific spot among the others. To see them work together like clockwork is a marvel, and some people enjoy it so much they invent fantasy teams.

We talk about teams a lot in the business world, but rarely do we fill the word with the same complexity or excitement as when we are talking about sports. In business, “team” is often just another word for staff, and the team is expected to work less like clockwork and more like a mule-team, harnessed to the same plow. Have you ever invented a fantasy corporate team? Probably not, because in most of our frames of reference a work team is just not as exciting or formed for the same function as a baseball team.

Upcoming events

On Saturday, February 5, 2011, Slone Partners will be participating in the walk in Miami to raise money for CureSearch National Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Slone Partners will be actively involved again this year at the Executive War College Conference on Laboratory & Pathology Management event taking place, May 3-4, 2011 in New Orleans, LA USA.