ABSTRACT
Biotechnology encompasses a wide variety of scientic, business and operational endeavors in the life sciences. It is applied across a broad range of specic disciplines-plant, animal, medical, microbiological, biopharmaceutical, agricultural, environmental, to name just a few. Biotechnology is practiced worldwide and at many institutions such as small private rms, large public corporations, nonprot organizations, universities and research institutes. Those practicing biotechnology include individuals with diverse skills and backgrounds, namely, entrepreneurs, scientist, business persons, managers, product developers and other highly educated and motivated specialists. As seen by the uninitiated and at the macro level, biotechnology appears to be a vast, three-dimensional matrix, broad and oftentimes baf£ing in scope and operation. However, to those experienced in biotechnology, there is organization and rationale. The keys to successfully managing a biotechnology rm are to focus on carefully crafted plans and efforts to accomplish a specic objective and integration of operational activities within the operational matrix. This is especially true for biotechnology product development operations where the objective is to increase the value of specic products by moving them through sequential phases and to the marketplace.
