Five Transferable Skills Academics Bring To Entrepreneurship... ... And The Bonus Skill No One Seeks

Universities across the globe are facing some uncertain times. Researchers, many of whom are on fixed term research contracts or facing job losses, are finding that the academic setting is becoming a very itchy, scratchy comfort blanket. Enterprising routes were once seen as the destination for the brave or perhaps foolhardy. It is time to reassess where the true career risks lie. And academics might be more prepared for planet entrepreneur than they think.

Bringing in the money
Those outside universities might not realise that to be an academic means constantly applying for money. Researchers need to be adept at convincing public funding bodies, charities and industrial collaborators that their idea is the best thing since sliced bread in a highly competitive market. With success rates well below 30%, compelling written and oral pitches are essential that can be pivoted to provide the right value proposition for each funder. Building traction is essential through providing pilot data before funding appears creating the ability to squeeze value from every last penny. Academics are well aware money is sticky with seed funding leading to bigger grants. They are already running their own enterprise. In short, the academic environment breeds an inventive, opportunistic and careful money mindset.

Creativity in problem solving
The world is full of problems. Businesses are a response to answering these for their customers. But truly innovative solutions require brains that can step beyond what has been done before. Enter the academic mind. Creativity, originality, initiative, idea generation, design thinking, adaptability and reflexivity with problem identification, problem solving, innovation, expression, communication and practical action. No small list! And one we might routinely dip into to describe entrepreneur 'types'. This is how the QAA (the UK's quality body for tertiary education) defines being enterprising, realising our universities are full of entrepreneurial potential. Anyone who has been through the process of a PhD (the majority of academics) has survived a four-year epic journey developing these skillsets. A PhD sets out to explore a knowledge niche, where at the finish you (and possibly you alone) will be the expert. There is no roadmap. The aim is to disrupt and innovate. Sound familiar? It is not the knowledge per se, unless in the form of a spin out, that transfers to the entrepreneurial arena. It is the heady mix of being able to formulate the issue at hand, interrogate a range of data sources and then create a new path forward.

Hard work
University students might get long summer holidays but academics do not! As teaching loads drop, it is an opportunity to double down on research. Most researchers I work with find a 9-5 schedule very alien. When your primary tool is your brain, it can be a little difficult to park it at the lab or library. So mental switch off is difficult. But the standard academic 'day job' is long and demanding with everything from marketing to procurement to university administration to staff wellbeing before they even get started on teaching and research. They are used to long days and making the most of their time, effectively running laboratories and groups with very little administration support.

The passionate trickster
In stories the trickster archetype is often portrayed as a cunning, witty, humorous, and unpredictable character who challenges the status quo and causes unexpected events. Some big names in the entrepreneur world leap to mind here. But would it surprise you to know this archetype is very common in the research world? Ivory towers make the perfect backdrop for some of the greatest maverick stories. It takes a certain amount of audacity to challenge the current state of the art in any discipline. Chaos can be a ladder to the tricksters. But this archetype becomes unstoppable when coupled with the intrinsic passion to know, cure or solve that drives most researchers. For me, like so many I work with, research was a vocation: a call to understand.

Tenacious curiosity
This trait can be a two-edged sword. If I had a pound for every overworked researcher who has said yes to far too many projects because they were all so interesting … A classic ice breaker on my career workshops is to ask what were researchers favourite toys as a child. Puzzles, Lego, microscopes coupled with a passion for books and documentaries. Researchers never grow out of the 'but why?' phase dreaded by most parents. Careful channelling of this trait is needed in an entrepreneurial setting. Marketing expert Finola Howard identifies the inability to focus on one thing at a time a huge threat to entrepreneurial ventures. We all need to focus our curiosity into one customer, one product and perfect that. Ideas for other products or markets need to wait. Commercial reality can be an excellent guide rail here. Show an academic the data, get them curious and they will drill down until they have the business solution.

The unlooked for bonus
All of the above are excellent traits to take into the world of enterprise whether starting a university spin out, operating as a consultant, creating a start-up or joining an existing venture. These skills have been honed doing some very difficult things. It is the nature of research to go wrong. Experiments with mysterious results, difficult collaborators, missing patients, publication rejections, fellowship rejections, really difficult maths and the fire brigade are just some of the edited 'highlights' from my own research career. Academics are some of the most resilient, flexible people I know. Some have celebrated this by publishing their CVs of failures – documents that are much longer than the official achievement-based items!

If you are looking to expand you venture your perfect next hire might be hidden on the local university campus. If you are an academic looking to make the move to planet entrepreneur you may well discover that you already have many of the traits and skills in place that are perfect for venture success. Yes, there will be a lot to learn … but that is what you do best!