How being small helps one business react quickly
Being small is helping GlycoForm to manage risk effectively
Tuesday 03 February 2009
Related articles
After a successful career spanning more than 20 years in the pharmaceutical industry, David Scales, 56, decided it was time to change direction. Rather than remain within "big pharma", Scales opted to move into the biotechnology sector in 2000 and work with smaller companies. And in July last year, Scales was appointed chief executive officer at GlycoForm Ltd, a company that specialises in synthesising complex sugars and incorporating them into other molecules, especially proteins. Since a protein's ability to have a drug-like effect is often dependent upon it having the right complex sugars as part of its make-up, GlycoForm's technology has obvious value in drug development.
"GlycoForm is a small company with only 10 scientists," says Scales. "But that team is the best in the world at what it does – and the reason I wanted to lead the business." Since joining, Scales has set about refocusing the company's scientific projects and has raised additional finance – no mean feat in the current funding climate. Although in common with other companies that operate high-tech laboratories, running costs are high. "We don't have the buying power of large companies and so it's difficult to get much of a discount on laboratory consumables," explains Scales.
However, that problem was solved for GlycoForm through its membership of OBN, an Abingdon-based network organisation for bioscience companies (www.obn.org.uk). OBN's purchasing scheme allows member companies to pool their orders and achieve meaningful discounts from suppliers. "We predict that over the year we will save in excess of £10,000," says Scales. "Not much in big pharma terms, but for small companies that can mean the difference between survival and closure. There's no doubt that OBN's purchasing scheme is really important for our business."
Looking to the future, Scales intends to maintain this prudent approach to cash while the company develops its technology. An income stream from licensing that technology to large pharmaceutical companies will then follow. And that revenue will, in turn, be used by GlycoForm to develop its own potential drugs. The future therefore looks exciting for GlycoForm, but what about the risk?
"Job security in large companies is no longer what it was even a few months ago," observes Scales. "As a small business we can react to new opportunities and take decisions quickly. That makes us able to manage risk more effectively than many large businesses." Wise words: in these difficult financial times, small really might be beautiful.
Glycoform Ltd (01235 820463; www.glycoform.co.uk)
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 News in pictures
- 3 Leveson threatened to quit after public attack by Gove
- 4 In pictures: The bewildering face of China
- 5 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 6 Ed Miliband: 'Cameron is the last gasp of the old guard'
- 7 Savers start a 'jog' on Europe's banks as Greece votes
- 8 For whom the bell tolls: £20m 'Memo' project takes shape on Dorset's Jurassic coast
- 9 Still standing: George Galloway reveals why his staunchly Leftist outlook is still invariably right
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness
- 1 Massive stage collapse before Radiohead concert kills one
- 2 Patrick Cockburn: Greece's day of reckoning dawns in a climate of anger and uncertainty
- 3 The Blagger's Guide To: The best (and worst) fathers
- 4 We just click: How Lego keeps building on its success
- 5 Revealed: Harry Potter is the Antichrist!
- 6 The Leveson Inquiry: We're in this together!
- 7 Osborne: The people’s damning verdict
- 8 David Flatman: Over and out
- 9 Frank Zimmerman and me: The truth about the troll who tormented Louise Mensch
- 10 Aung San Suu Kyi: A lesson in the value of kindness

Experience the Heineken Hub
Get free wi-fi and exclusive i content while you enjoy a tasty pint of Heineken at participating pubs.

Win a sumptuous three-night stay in Austria
Get away from it all in the fresh mountain air at the four-star Hotel Edelweiss & Gurgl.

Win a five-star foodie weekend to Liège
Spend two nights in gourmet heaven at a top hotel in the capital of French-speaking Belgium.

A home to be proud of with Halifax
Download the Halifax's brilliant, free new Home Finder app, and take all the pain out of finding your dream home

Playing a game-changing role during the Games
Cisco is providing the solutions for London 2012's complex IT needs.

Enter the latest Independent competitions
Win anything from gadgets to five-star holidays on our competitions and offers page.

Business videos from commercial thought leaders
Watch the best in the business world give their insights into the world of business.
Career Services
Day In a Page

Still standing: George Galloway

Daniel Radcliffe as drug-taking Beatnik poet

Objets czar: David Usborne’s collection of myriad objects

World's richest woman: Gina Rinehart

Comments