When Was The Last Time You Worked On The Front Lines
By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
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By Rob Wright
When I met Jeff Williams, CEO of Clinipace, the intent was to learn about the business. But in so doing, my natural curiosity got the best of me — inquiring how he got started in the business. Turns out he once worked as a pharmaceutical field sales representative. If you ever did this, you probably refer to your sales rep experience as “having carried a bag." Williams still places great value in the experience of working at a level where there is close contact to all the “action.” On the commercial side of the pharmaceutical industry, this means field sales. On the drug-development side, it might be working at the bench, or on the front lines of executing a clinical trial. When filling a position at his current company, Williams prefers to put people — even when hiring at the executive level — in positions initially to expose them to front line processes. According to Williams, there is tremendous value to understanding the challenges faced at these levels when developing strategies and tactics at the executive level. There is also value in having a diverse network when it comes to understanding a problem at its essence, and developing solutions.
Remember Your Humble Beginnings
I have met a number of execs who have had the privilege of carrying a bag, such as Fred Hassan (current chairman of Bausch + Lomb), Brian O’Callaghan (CEO of Sangart), and Pamela Demain (executive director corporate licensing at Merck). All have relayed stories of what they learned from their sales experience and how it shaped their leadership style. For some, being exposed to the front lines involved sales. For others it might be working on the manufacturing line, storeroom, or as a bench-level research scientist. For example, Jim Robinson, VP of vaccine manufacturing at Merck, relayed to me the importance of having process intimacy with “the line” to best understand the manufacturing process. Charles Forsaith, director of supply chain security for Purdue, explained how working as a police officer shaped his approach to creating supply chain security initiatives at his company. MedImmune’s executive VP , Bahija Jallal, stays close to the science by working on one “pet project” each year. In doing so, not only does she keep her hands in the science, it helps her to publish scientific papers instead of just reading them. When you become an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, there is value to staying connected to what is happening on the front lines.
Lessons Learned From Getting Back On The Front Lines
In a recent conversation with an executive in the pharmaceutical industry, I had the opportunity to ask what they learned when they took a career detour from working for one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, to join the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The executive said there were four primary learnings — urgency, innovation, partnerships, and measurement. The person explained that the level of urgency is not the same in the pharma industry as that which was experienced when working for the Gates Foundation. “When I was in the field, I would come into contact with mothers holding babies that were on the verge of dying or mothers whose babies had died. Recognizing that this happens seven million times a year unnecessarily and from preventable causes gives you a real sense of urgency.” According to this executive, the industry could benefit from a heightened sense of urgency. The second lesson learned was related to innovation. While working at the foundation, this executive described the importance of working on problems that didn’t seem to have any viable solutions. The industry needs revolutionary innovation, and this requires risk taking, a willingness to fail, and creating an ecosystem of challenging dogma. The third lesson this person brought back to the pharmaceutical industry after having worked at the Gates Foundation was the important role partnerships play in getting things done. Finally, this executive had the lesson of measurement reinforced while working at the foundation. “It is easy when giving a lot of money away to assume you are doing good, but in fact, you actually have to measure the impact of what you are doing.” Just because a pharmaceutical company invents, manufactures, and markets a drug, doesn’t necessarily mean it is benefitting society. Instead, the pharmaceutical industry needs to get better at the concept of measuring the impact that the development of a drug truly has on society. Want to get better at developing drugs? Make sure you are spending enough time on the front lines to have the sense of urgency necessary to create solutions.