Ironwood Pharmaceuticals' Corporate Culture — Just Don't Suck

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

From The March 2016 Issue
The Building Of Ironwood Pharmaceuticals 

“I’ve got to confess,” Peter Hecht begins, “Though I was trained as a research scientist, my passion resides around people and culture.” The Ironwood Pharmaceuticals CEO (subject of Life Science Leader magazine’s March 2016 cover feature) attests that his day-to-day motivation resides in trying to figure out how to make the team better. “We keep challenging ourselves to figure out what problem to solve next, how to collaborate better, be more productive, and all while raising the quality of the team,” he shares.

According to Hecht, there are two sayings heard with some regularity around Ironwood: “Just don’t suck” and, “Keep the bar low, step over it, and keep going.” For Hecht, this means creating an employee mindset that doesn’t dwell on mistakes. “Failure from mistakes can be great teaching lessons,” he explains. “The trick is to not make them too many times in a row.” Personally, Hecht doesn’t like leading Ironwood by focusing on what took place in the company’s rearview mirror. “I tend not to look back, and I don’t have a long list of my failures.” As a former math major, he views the world as being full of optionality. “You try to make the best decisions you can at that time, knowing the puzzle will change.” Hecht claims Ironwood has made a million mistakes. “But, you can’t go back and fix them,” he concludes. “You do the best you can each day and try to learn and move forward.”