Q&A With Joseph Chimera

Q&A With Joseph Chimera

CBI recently hired Dr. Joe Chimera to bolster commercial contract revenues. As the new Senior Vice President for Sales, Marketing and Business Development he not only has the longest title in the company, he also has one of the most daunting charges in the company: restoring the revenue balance between the government and commercial sectors, which is too heavily weighted in the fickle government contract area.

We tapped Joe for this position following a national search and interviews with several outstanding candidates. In the exhaustive search process, which went well beyond the usual resume review and reference checks, we asked each candidate to critique our program - where were we lacking, and how should we consider changing -- and make suggestions for new directions. Some candidates found the exercise intimidating but Joe responded with candor and insight based upon his extensive experience. Some of our questions and his responses follow:

Joe, what in your background best addresses our need to grow commercial revenue?

There are several points. First, as you know from my resume, I have extensive training in modern molecular biology, including an advanced degree and post-doctoral training. I know the technology.

Second, I have spent my entire business experience in the service sector on both sides of the table. The service client is different than the client for instrumentation and reagents. The service client is typically the accountable individual in the drug discovery process. Their needs are focused on the quality and timeliness of the service since both impact directly on their progress towards, for example, a new drug candidate or diagnostic test. Bottom line, I know what they need.

Third, in all my previous positions, I have delivered.

What do we need to do differently?

It's not that the company needs to alter its offerings since they are in their own right, impressive. The skill set of the CBI staff is also a strong suit, especially when you interact with the client in the discovery process. Again, the service client is very responsive to anything that helps them achieve results. What I would do differently is more along the lines of packaging the product.

The service client generally is involved in a process, a continuum of steps that begin with determination of a target through the final FDA approval. Each step has its own requirements and, I believe, we will be able to engage the individuals better by presenting our capabilities in a bundling format, specifically designed to deal with their specific needs at that point in the continuum. We should make it easy for them to see the value by focusing their attention on the immediate advantage to their step, not to our overall process.

How?

Specific steps will need to be determined after I have had time to review all the current resources and to get better acquainted with the company. However, areas to be reviewed are the usual --- the website, literature, customer service, etc. As an example, the website, while it is well organized and loaded with good information, does not really make it easy to sort out what technologies would be best to bring to bear on the problem at hand. So the website may need to be re-organized. The same may be true for literature. Again, the content is fine. The presentation may need to be improved.

Commonwealth Biotechnologies, Inc. 601 Biotech Drive, Richmond, VA 23235 800-735-9224 (800-RELY-CBI) FAX: 804-648-2641 email: [email protected]