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Drawing on the Young

BGI is divided into a number of parts, and all of them are powered by young researchers and staff, Bioentrepreneur's Trade Secrets blog writes. BGI, it says, has more than 4,000 employees spread across its different parts, including BGI Research, BGI Tech, BGI Healthcare, and BGI Agriculture as well as spinoff companies and a college.

Wang Jun, the executive director of BGI, tells Trade Secrets that the average age of a scientist there is 23 and the average age across the company is 26, as it plucks people straight out of college. "There is no existing talent; they all have to be trained," Wang says. "And the best way to train them is to recruit them from the top universities and to throw them into real projects. The ones who have more experience, you need more creative thinking from them, instead of just training them what to do."

This, the blog adds, mirrors the strategy that some dot-com companies took, saying that "in a competitive and fast-paced field like genomics, having the best — and most energetic — talent on your team is the best strategy to keep hitting winners."

The Scan

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