Entrepreneurs Hear the Drumbeat Of Utah Gov. Leavitt’s Investment Campaign

SANDY — About 50 scientists and entrepreneurs who came to the Larry
Miller Entrepreneurial Center on Thursday to learn how to move their
discoveries to the marketplace found themselves drafted as the newest foot
soldiers in Gov. Mike Leavitt’s "1,000 Days" campaign to spur investment in
the state.
"It will take all of us working together [to make] Utah a high-tech and
entrepreneurial center," Leavitt’s chief of staff Rich McKeown told the
opening session of the University of Utah Engineering Experiment Station’s
two-day "Biotechnology Inventions to Commercialization" conference.
Counterbalancing McKeown’s get-on-the-bandwagon pitch with practical
advice, James Sonnett, Battelle Memorial Institute’s vice president for
innovation support services, offered insights into his own list of "lessons
learned."
"The first is that there is no substitute for commercial experience. If you
don’t have it, find it," he said.
Know when to pull the plug on a struggling project, and count on
difficulties arising. "The worst failure is to prolong a doomed initiative," he
said.
"And [a project] always takes longer and is more expensive than
expected."
— Bob Mims

http://www.sltrib.com/03152002/business/719435.htm