Tip Sheet Volume 1:4

Face-to-Face Meeting Reminders
(and things to forget!)

Face-to-face meetings can be a very effective way of getting to know your industrial research counterparts. Or, they can be the quickest way to ensure you will never work with that industry again. The following tips have been compiled from a variety of presentations given by industry personnel on how to effectively work with industry:

DO REMEMBER THAT:
First impressions matter

• Dress and act professionally.
• Be on time.
• Bring business cards.
• Understand that teams of people are taken more seriously than individual "cowboys".

Timing is everything

• Don't give a scientific presentation before you have data to back it up.
• Do meet your deadlines.

Proposals are important

• Propose a realistic timeline and deliverables.
• When visiting an industry, prepare and bring several copies of the proposal and a SEPARATE budget. This allows flexibility on the distribution of information.
• Be prepared to discuss the "unknowns" and how you are working to make them "known".
• Give the right presentation to the right audience. Give scientific presentations to scientists, and investor presentations to investors.

Industrial resources count

Recognize the value of resources other than money (minds, technologies, materials, protocols, etc.) that the industry contributes.

DON'T BE IN A HURRY TO:
Be a sheep

Each relationship is unique. Just because someone else did it "this way and for this much", doesn't mean that you should, too!

Let the dollar speak first

• The dollar speaks AFTER the research. The research plan drives the dollars, not the reverse.
• Do not ignore budget constraints.
• Money is important, but it is not the ONLY thing.

Overdo the sales pitch

Natural enthusiasm is fine, but excessive hype or hostility, particularly in written form, does not seem believable. Be prepared to back up the hype with lots of data.

Threaten to work with someone else

"If you don't do this, industry X will", will likely send you right to industry X. The industry needs to be kept informed of your actions, not threatened with them.

Forget what industry gets from this

The deal structure should reflect that the relationship is a partnership. The attitude that the university brings the brains and gains the resources, while the industry provides the 'bucks' and might gain knowledge, does not cut it anymore!