India has the potential to become a “global innovation hub” for the biopharma industry, but without greater investment and regulatory reforms the opportunity may not be fully realized.

A report by The Boston Consulting Group released last week says the country must encourage greater investment and activity in bioinformatics, applied research, and translational research to maximize opportunities for R&D in the life sciences.

“India can become a global innovation hub, but there are several challenges to fully realizing its potential, particularly around policy, infrastructure, and creating collaborative partnerships,” said Kim Wagner, a BCG senior partner and coauthor of “Biopharma R&D: Moving the Needle in Innovation.”

The report was released at last week’s USA-India BioPharma & Healthcare Summit. Commissioned specifically for the day-long conference, the report — and the conference — put a special focus on oncology as a promising area for greater collaboration and investment by global pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms.

Three areas where India can play a major role in oncology R&D were identified in the report:

Building and Maintaining Unique Assets. India can help develop a vast cancer-specific genetic-information database through studies in genomics and proteomics. Once built, the database could be used to identify new biomarkers for personalized medicine, as well as better clinical-research models for more accurate R&D.

Creating Process Efficiency through Translational-Research Hubs. With faster patient-recruitment times, a large population of orphan diseases, and lower costs, biopharma can be faster in deriving proofs of concept and getting results in relevant drug R&D.

Driving Applied Research in Emerging Science. India can increase funding and infrastructure support for ongoing research in emerging nanotechnology-based applications in drug delivery and diagnostics.

The conference, held Friday in Cambridge, Mass., brought together leaders of several biopharma firms, academics, life science financial sector representatives, and Indian government officials. The annual event, sponsored by the USA-India Chamber of Commerce, included such topics as drug R&D, cross-border M&A, clinical research, funding innovation and trends.

“India offers vast opportunities for drug discovery and development for global pharma companies,” said Srikant Kumar Jena, Indian minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers. “The summit gains more prominence in view of developing global partnerships to deliver affordable innovations to the masses through strategic thinking and ground breaking solutions.”

We’ve all had them. Jobs we did just for the money. Maybe you took it thinking it might grow on you — and, for a lucky few, it did. Or figured you could parlay it into something you really wanted to do. In no time, even if you didn’t hate the work, you found it was boring or unrewarding, and you were going through the motions.

Contrast that with your dream job. You found it exciting, fun, and stimulating, and hopefully still do. Mondays are something to look forward to. The days rarely drag.

Now think, where did you do your best work? In what job were you most productive, most creative, and made the biggest contribution? No matter how conscientious you are; no matter your work ethic, it’s only human nature that we do the best job when we love what we do.

Employers know that people who love their job, are most likely to be their top performers, which is why they want to hire people who are passionate about the work. It doesn’t mean you enthusiastically embrace every last task; after all, how many people really enjoy filling out weekly reports? Nor does it mean that jobs won’t sometimes surprise you into a new career.

An employer who hires someone who already knows they like the work, cares about it and will find it rewarding and stimulating, that employer knows they are already ahead.

Is it realistic, though, to expect everyone to ignore the demands of adulthood to follow a dream? Hollywood is full of aspiring actors and actresses. Few earn a living  that way. Most eventually move on, discovering the world is full of other jobs and other careers.

Marc Cenedella, CEO of The Ladders and a career recruiter, blogged about doing what you care about. “I know it’s not a choice everybody can make, but I do believe it’s one everybody should,” he wrote, “Do what you love.”

Just a few days old, now, his post has gotten well over 100 comments, some agreeing, but many saying, in essence, “Nice thought, but not necessary.”  As one poster put it: “I think people are happier or more fulfilled when their career goals align with a personal interest or passion of some sort.

“Therefore, maybe the message is not exactly ‘Follow Your Dreams’… but rather: ‘Can you align your career goals with a personal interest or passion?’”

To that, Cenedella said, “It’s about applying your passion in your work. Unrealistic goals are unrealistic even if you’re passionate about them.”

This is to honor the nurses of America.  You are the women, and the men who staff our hospitals, tend the sick, comfort the dying, perform triage at disaster sites and emergency rooms, and manage the hundreds of details that make modern medicine function.

This is your week — National Nurses Week — the seven days when the hundreds of millions of us, thank the 3.1 million of you for being there when we need you.

It’s amazing that it took almost three decades from the first seed of a suggestion that nurses should have a special day to the Congressional act declaring May 6th National Recognition Day for Nurses. In 1990, the day became a week that now includes May 8th as National Student Nurses Day.

Nursing has come a long way from the days when Florence Nightingale made her nighttime rounds of injured soldiers during the Crimean War. The work is still demanding, the material rewards are better, but it is the calling that is still the same. “God,” wrote Nightingale, “called me in the morning and asked me would I do good for him alone without reputation.”

Today, the calling comes in many ways and takes many forms. As our population ages, the calling increasingly comes from hospitals, and doctors’ offices, and clinics, and hospices, and from staffing companies like we, here at Green Key, who help to fill the need.

Wanted Technologies, which tracks online job ads, says demand for registered nurses is growing. The three year decline reversed at the end of 2010, and, except for a short period late last year, has been rising. In the first two months of this year some 120,000 jobs were posted online, a rise of 8% over the same period in 2011. About a quarter of those ads came from staffing firms.

In the coming years, the need for nurses will continue to grow. Not only will the aging U.S. population need more caregivers, but nurses themselves are getting older and will be retiring. The average age of working nurses today is 45.5; the largest age group is 50-54. By 2025, when that group of nurses will be at or beyond retirement age, the profession will be short some 260,000 nurses, says the American Nursing Association.

It may be even more acute, once the national health coverage program is fully implemented.

Fortunately, the problem is at least being recognized. Halting progress is being made to increase the number of students admitted to nursing programs, and reduce the 75,587 qualified applicants who had to be turned away last year because of faculty and facility shortages.

“The nursing shortage is likely to re-emerge and nursing is going to continue to be a good occupation choice for young people,” says Douglas Staiger, a Dartmouth College economic professor and author of a nursing employment.

So as National Nursing Week winds down, ending tomorrow, the anniversary of Nightingale’s birthday in 1820, remember to thank a nurse for hearing the calling and taking the pledge  to “do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession.”

Avoiding regulatory and compliance issues when building or discussing operational infrastructure of an alternative asset program is a mistake, says Deborah Prutzman, CEO of The Regulatory Fundamentals Group. “A proactive approach differentiates a manager from the pack,” she says, “and can allay those often-unspoken investor concerns that frequently delay an initial allocation, reduce its size, or prevent it altogether.” FINalternatives

The question of whether outside pharmaceutical sales reps should get overtime  made it to the U.S. Supreme Court last month. A ruling, which will affect the estimated 90,000 reps working in the U.S., is expected by the end of June. Two federal courts came to opposite conclusions on applying the Fair Standards Labor Act to the pharmaceutical industry. The FLSA exempts outside sales people from overtime requirements, so the issue before the Court is whether PSRs are covered. SHRM

Hiring by staffing and employment agencies continued its upward trajectory during April, but even the strong showing couldn’t overcome the generally sluggish hiring by American businesses last month.

The U.S. Department of Labor in its monthly report out this morning said 115,000 new jobs were created in April, well below the 160,000 or so that economists, on average, were expecting.

The report also showed the unemployment rate dipping from 8.2 percent to 8.1 percent, mostly due to workers leaving the labor force.  The share of Americans now in the labor force is at the lowest level since 1981, The New York Times reported.

Hiring by staffing agencies alone added 21,000 jobs during the month. Hiring by employment services (nurse registries, etc.) accounted for just under 7,000 more.

Even so, the staffing industry has been averaging 24,000 new jobs a month since the beginning of the year. That’s 50% higher than for the same period in 2011, when the average was 16,200.
Manufacturing jobs also grew, increasing by 16,000 jobs.In other areas where independent recruiters and search firms have a strong presence, new job growth showed significant strength. Hiring for legal services, accounting, computer systems, engineering, and other professional and technical services was up by 27,500 jobs.

The government numbers — and the temp hiring growth — offered more evidence that the becalmed recovery isn’t about to spark, but neither is it about to slip backwards. In releasing its initial April estimates, the government revised upwards job number for February and March by a combined 53,000. That put the average monthly growth since January at 201,000 jobs, more than half again the average of the same months a year ago.

“We’re still growing just gradually,” Nigel Gault, an economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, told Reuters. ”Hiring is coming back into line with what you would expect with sluggish growth.”

“It’s a pretty sluggish report over all,” said Andrew Tilton, a senior economist at Goldman Sachs.

Governments continued to shed jobs, losing 15,000, offsetting the 130,000 private sector jobs added in April. (ADP earlier this week, predicted the economy added 119,000 private sector positions.)

Retail added 29,300 jobs, mostly in general merchandise stores; hiring by hotels, motels and food and drink establishments increased by 26,700 positions.

The biggest loser was transportation and warehousing, off by 16,600 jobs. Other sectors showed small losses (construction was down by 2,000) or were unchanged.

In April, workers on private nonfarm payrolls averaged 44.5 hours unchanged from March, though manufacturing workers averaged an extra .1 hour to 40.8 hours, and factory overtime rose by the same amount to 3.4 hours.

Average hourly earnings for all employees increased a penny to $23.38. Over the past 12 months, average hourly earnings have increased by 1.8 percent.

Who hasn’t thought of launching a startup?

With the business press awash in articles about startups fetching valuations in the millions, not to mention the behemoths like Facebook being priced in the billions, it’s a wonder everyone isn’t tinkering in a garage.

What we rarely hear about though, are the failures. Incontrovertible data is hard to come by, but those who study business success say the failure rate for startups can be as high as 95%. If merely surviving for five years is your measure of success, the odds are about 50-50.

No wonder, then, that so many of the online ventures are captained by 2o- or 30-year-olds. It’s easier to risk everything when there’s not all that much in the first place.

If the prospect of seeing your dreams turn into nightmares hasn’t dissuaded you, then before you go quitting your day job spend a weekend considering 11 questions.  These aren’t the detailed business plan questions you can find in a thousand places online. Those come later and take longer.

Think of this as more of a feasibility exercise. That’s what Richard Sellers, chairman emeritus of the 2,000 member Marketing Executives Networking Group, calls it. “Doing a feasibility study will help you determine whether your new business idea is worth pursuing,” he says.

First on the list: “What do you want to achieve by starting your business?”

This isn’t just one of those big picture, deep thought questions, although you are encouraged to think through the lifestyle choices and the societal implications. What the question is aiming for are specifics like: How much money do you want to earn? How much do you need to earn? Are you looking for an out from an 8-to-5 workday?

The other 10 questions are equally as direct, yet equally broad enough to get you thinking about the cents and sense of it all. It’s a reality check, put together by a group of SCORE consultants. (SCORE is a non-profit mentoring and advisory group for small businesses.)

The idea is to get you thinking about all the things too many impulsive entrepreneurs skip by. An idea, no matter how brilliant everyone tells you it is, is still, just an idea. Execution is everything, as every one of the sharks in the tank tell those hopeful entrepreneurs every week.

In fact that’s not a bad idea. Watch a few episodes of Shark Tank. Then answer the 11 questions. You may find yourself happy to go back to work — for someone else — when Monday morning rolls around.

You’ve built your network, developed a brand, and polished your resume. You’re ready to conquer the job market. But hold on there, says Allison & Taylor, the professional reference-checking firm. Your references are a valuable part of your marketing program, so don’t overlook them.

Even the best references can seem ordinary if they don’t actively sell you. HR departments will typically limit what they say to verification of the essentials: name, rank, and employment dates. Sometimes ending salary. And very occasionally, a reference checker may be told if you are eligible for rehire.

Consider HR mostly for verification of what you’ve said on your resume, job app or in an interview. A real reference is someone who knows you; knows your abilities, and will champion you to the caller. That’s not going to happen in HR, where corporate policies get made and enforced. Instead, or in addition, “provide references that can actually speak to your abilities,” counsels Allison & Taylor.

Here’s where you need to invest some effort. You want to make sure you talk with your reference long before you put them on your list. You want to make sure, of course, that what you think they’ll say is indeed what they will say. Once you’ve verified that, it’s a good idea to remind them of your accomplishments, and the special projects you worked, and the results you got. It’s easy for busy people to forget things, especially if it’s been a while since you two worked together.

If you’re on LinkedIn or other business networking site, suggest that they review what’s there. It may jog their memory, or, you may find they don’t recall things quite the same way you do. Better to amend your profile now, before you start interviewing.

This is as helpful to the recruiter as it is to you, since it provides a clearer — and honest — picture of your abilities, and may even fill in some details you overlooked. You  may need to prompt your reference into volunteering information, particularly if they’re not accustomed to reference checks, or if they lean toward the laconic.

Depending on the position, it can be completely appropriate to use co-workers, customers, subordinates, even suppliers as references. As workplaces grow ever more virtual, the people who best know your work may be other members of your team. Use them, but follow the same guidelines: ask permission; review your accomplishments; let them know who may call, and; follow-up with a thank you.

It’s also wise to have multiple references. People go on vacation, get sick, or leave without telling you. So be prepared with alternatives in case your recruiter is unable to reach someone. If you are job searching in more than one field, having different references who can talk to your expertise in specific areas only makes sense.

As you reach out to prospective references, brief them on your job search. They become part of your network and may even be just the referral that leads to your next job.

Are you an extraordinary boss?

That might as well be one of those rhetorical questions, since who would answer ‘No?’ Truth is, most of would fall into the average group. We’re pretty good at some things; not so good at others.

But business writer and sales guru Geoffrey James has a different take on what it means to be “average,” and “extraordinary.” In a recent post on Inc., James lists eight “core beliefs” of extraordinary bosses. Drawn from his years interviewing countless CEOs (including, presumably, many who are merely “average”), James paints a stark picture of the difference between average and extraordinary.

An extraordinary boss, he says, “treat(s) every employee as if he or she were the most important person in the firm. Excellence is expected everywhere, from the loading dock to the boardroom. As a result, employees at all levels take charge of their own destinies.”

Average bosses, “see fear — of getting fired, of ridicule, of loss of privilege — as a crucial way to motivate people.”

His portrait of the average boss seems better suited to the poor boss. At the opposite end, his description of the extraordinary boss is one no human could fit day in and day out.

That doesn’t diminish the significance of the point James makes: Extraordinary bosses see the workplace and the people who inhabit as a positive. They inspire and lead, rather than order and direct.

In his view, extraordinary bosses “see work as something that should be inherently enjoyable–and believe therefore that the most important job of manager is, as far as possible, to put people in jobs that can and will make them truly happy.”

Talking with a recruiter doesn’t always mean you’re looking for a job. While recruiters aren’t a substitute for a career coach, talking with one can help you gain insights about your career, and industry trends. It can also be an opportunity for you to help a talented friend who is looking for a new job. So, even if you aren’t looking for a change yourself, or if you are, here are five reasons to talk with a recruiter the next time one calls. RecruitingBlogs