[throwaway729]

> They still can't build proper software. Academics (including mathematicians) are notoriously bad at writhing production grade software. This leads to handovers of 'proof of concepts' to seasoned software developer team who than struggle with the (often complex) mathematics/science behind it.

So you want employees who can understand complex mathematics and science but are also good software engineers.

Those people exist, but you have to pay to get them.

(As an aside, lots of Ph.D.'s -- especially in CS -- build systems that are as good or better than a lot of industry code. All of the best and worst code I've read has come from Academia.)

[jgamman]

My theory of bell curves. Academia accepts a much wider distribution so that it can get some few at the far right. Business hates the variation as it wreaks havoc on building your brand/growth etc and wants the average just to the right of profitable.