Seems that my earlier admonition to get the companies themselves involved is being echoed by the Minneapolis bioscience council. Formed last May, it’s now asking executives of local bioscience companies to come on board. People whose lives and financial fortunes are not intimately tied in with results will never have the same passion and commitment as those who live in the trenches everyday. Medtronic is just one of the companies being invited to come on board and basically “make the bioscience council work.” In Northeast Ohio that might translate into having successful local biomed entrepreneurs sitting on the governing bodies of–or at least advising them–the several groups (Jumpstart, NorTech, etc.) that are being given money by the conglomeration of local foundations to build the region up for bioscience.

Just as the lines are being blurred between countries with global marketing, so the lines between business and medicine and business and nonprofits are growing ever dimmer. That means big challenges and, if handled well, new opportunities.