Corporate intelligence in biotechnology.
'Know thy neighbor' is a critical component of today's biotechnology practice. The industry is extremely rich in science and business information, and the pace of change is dramatic. Successful participation in biotechnology will always depend on good technology, management and money. In addition, an ingredient that needs more attention is competitive information- gathering and analysis. Competitive intelligence can be defined as actionable information that requires the ability to filter and synthesize relevant knowledge for the benefit of the company. Why is this necessary? How can it be done well? What examples are there? These are good questions that are inevitably faced by all biotechnology practitioners, and some answers are provided herein.
Competitive information gathering and analysis in biotechnology
Corporate biotechnology feeds on information about science and business developments that are constantly changing and that are leveraged by all participants to achieve a competitive edge. Given the vast amounts of information involved, it is important for companies to have some systematic way to gather, filter and respond to information that is relevant to their development. This can be achieved by establishing either dedicated or virtual competitive intelligence systems, that deliver intelligence digests to decision makers within their companies. Other industries, such as the manufacturing and service industries, offer useful models of such systems that they use every day. These systems can be emulated by most biotechnology companies without undue strain to their limited resources.
Modeling of chemical reactors—XXIX mixing-cell model for packed bed reactors. Steady state considerations. Problems of multiplicity
Abstract The axial heat and mass transfer in tubular catalytic reactors may be described by mixing-cell model and diffusion model as well. The diffusion description yields for a strong exothermic reaction and adiabatic conditions three steady state profiles, on the other hand the mixing-cell model gives rise to more than three steady states. A simple numerical and graphical analysis for mixing-cell model is presented.