Best Business Practices From The Gates Foundation

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

By Rob Wright

At the last two conferences I attended, I had the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At the most recent event, it was Kim Bush, a member of the foundation’s global health program leadership team. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation to serve as the director of life sciences partnerships, he worked for Baxter International Healthcare for 25 years. His most recent position had been as the President of Baxter’s global vaccine business.

Personally, I have been very impressed with how the foundation has turned the ailing pharma R&D program upside down, spearheading innovative projects that most pharma and bio companies would be hesitant to touch (and venture capitalists reluctant to fund). But even more impressive is the foundation’s ability to attract top talent. Perhaps it is the desire to rub elbows with two of the richest and most powerful people in the world — Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, or, perhaps it is something bigger, something grand … and better.

Surround Yourself With Top Talent
According to the Forbes’ World Billionaire list, Gates has a net worth of $61 billion, and Buffet $44 billion, placing them 2nd and 3rd on the list behind Carlos Slim Helu & Family. On a listing of the world’s most powerful people, Buffet ranks 20th, while Gates is in the top five, behind (in rank order) the President of the United States, Russia’s Prime Minister, China’s President, and Germany’s Chancellor. Even more telling is who he ranks in front of — the King of Saudi Arabia, the Pope, and the Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve Board. But having wealth doesn’t make you powerful — it is what you do with it.

In the case of Gates, it is his ability to give it away. At the age of 56, Bill Gates is already the most generous person on the planet, having given away $28 billion to make a difference in the world. I choose to believe that it is this desire to make a difference — to leave a legacy as Stephen Covey used to say — that is the reason the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has been able to attract not only top people, but folks with the necessary skill sets to not only tackle, but succeed in accomplishing world health issues. Want to help eradicate polio in India? (An objective recently accomplished with the help of the Gates Foundation) You probably want to have some people on board with international vaccine experience such as Kim Bush. But that skill alone would not get the job done. You need a variety of skills, such as international relations, international finance, and technology, just to name a few. Thus, the foundation’s leadership team includes members who have executive-level experience having worked for The United Nations, Citibank, Merck, Novartis, The World Bank, medical device companies, technology companies, and so on.

The Gates Foundation leadership team should be the envy of every organization on the planet, and serve as a model for successful team building. Gates does not have experience in the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry, and is not a trained drug development researcher, but that didn’t stop him from finding the talent necessary to be successful in this endeavor. Successful team building is just one of the best business practices demonstrated by Gates in creating the foundation which bears his name. Want to know another?

Have A Purpose-Driven Mission
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is guided by the belief that every life has equal value, and works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, it focuses on improving people’s health, giving them the chance to lift themselves out of hunger and extreme poverty. The foundation has four guiding values – optimism, collaboration, rigor, and innovation. I believe it is these core values, combined with the chance to make a difference in the world and work with exceptionally talented people, are what attract people to the foundation. I am sure rubbing elbows with two of the wealthiest and most powerful people in the world doesn’t hurt either. The only question that remains for me is how Melinda Gates was able to get Warren and Bill to see the light, rather than buy an NFL football franchise?