Patrick and the rest of the executives appear to lack a complete understanding of what it takes to execute the start-up of a GMP BioManufacturing facility. There's a complete lack of resources in order to effectively and efficiently start-up a facility. They hear from the management team the resources that are required, but positions aren't being created or filled. The Executives and HR make excuses for why they can't create, recruit and fill roles, and refuse to understand what needs to change in the culture in order to retain staff. They've seen massive amounts of resignations and just keep blaming that it's a start-up, rather than identifying the root causes and addressing it. They've brought in management with strong experience from area biotechs, but the Executives refuse to make the needed change. They're going to keep nickel and diming the start-up of the El Segundo 605 Douglas facility, rather than spending the money to get the facility GMP and operational ready. The team lets the executives know what is needed to truly have a reliable, compliant GMP facility, but Patrick and the executives seem to just want to cut corners to try and make it work. The HR department also lacks the understanding of how to implement an appropriate on-call policy to appropriately compensate employees that need to be ready to come in at all hours due to a lack of appropriate staffing.
Patrick owns so many companies that he doesn't have the time to ensure that NantKwest is on the path to success. He needs Executives that have worked in big biotech that have actually led the START-UP of GMP Manufacturing, and needs to give them the authority, and financial & personnel resources to get the job done.