Cultural differences between the business community and the academia, the two major spheres of modern public life, are under scrutiny in this paper. In particular, specifics of their transformations under conditions of knowledge economy are addressed. A number of expert focused interviews have been conducted, in which the multilayer causal analysis method has been applied in order to find out which barriers prevent constructive dialogue between the science community and the business, as well as demands of these two society sectors to each other. The author formulates principles of interaction for representatives of academia and business in profit making innovation projects.