Abstract

This primer enables professionals with technical expertise to collaborate with their business-side colleagues.  Emphasizing brevity and clarity, it gives technical staff answers to their most pressing questions about economics, finance, marketing, strategic decision-making, accounting, management, and related subjects.  It does not offer condensed 1st year MBA courses; instead, it presents streamlined concepts and insights that are easy enough to be accessible and challenging enough to hold one's interest.  Its examples from pharma, IT, aircraft/navigation, and other industries highlight problems that technical professionals face daily. Written by "one of them," its credibility makes it more useful than Internet resources. Because it concentrates on pragmatic (as opposed to academic) approaches to business, it empowers technical staff to stay with the conversation--and take it to a higher level.

Bertrand C. Liang, MD, PhD, MBA, is Managing Director of LCC Ventures and Executive Director of Pfenex, Inc.  He is trained in molecular biology and genetics (PhD) and is a clinician (MD) with subspecialty training in neurology and oncology, and serves as a Visiting University Professor at Liaoning He University, Shenyang, China.

• Creates frameworks and builds concepts enabling technical staff to work with their business colleagues
• Delivers content for pragmatic, immediate use, not condensed presentations of subjects from first year MBA curriculum
• Extends readers' grasp by posting additional resources at a freely-available website 

"If you're a scientist or engineer with typical technical training, you probably have not learned much about business.  And, if you are now working for a technical business, you may be very confused about some of your company's business decisions.  The Pragmatic MBA for Scientific and Technical Executives will introduce you to key business topics, and help you understand how your business colleagues think about the challenges facing your business.  As you advance from a technical role to one of increasing responsibility within your company, this book can be an important part of your continuing education.  Keep this book on your shelf - I think it's one that you'll return to again and again."

--Molly B. Schmidt, Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences  

 The book has a practical approach and is easy to read. I found it very interesting and will be using it in my student courses as lecturer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) and the National University of Singapore (NUS)."

--Gunter Festel, Festel Capital

"The Pragmatic MBA is the perfect Rosetta Stone for technical managers who want to take part in and shape the businesses around them."

--Michael Hough, Advance Medical, Inc.