Creating a culture of innovation

Innovation has become something of a buzzword in recent years but to us in the pharma industry, it has always been the foundation for success. Global pharma’s mission is intrinsically linked to delivering innovation a very clear and tangible form — new drugs to improve the lives of patients around the globe.

Those of us working in the industry often came into it with a desire to do our bit, to help deliver new ideas and solutions that make a difference to the lives of people suffering from different diseases. This is certainly something I am very aware of in every business I run. Fostering a culture of innovation is critical to every pharma leader, in fact to any leader in any organisation. But what does that really mean? Clearly, we cannot and need not?all?be inventors, creating new drugs, machines and methods.

To me, innovation means that we should all be proactive and open to finding new and better approaches to how we do things every day. This is not just about R&D, it can also cover anything and everything from manufacturing processes, how we train our team, how we sell our products, how we interact with our customer, and how we can reduce cost.

Being innovative is not a task, it should be our way of thinking every day. Challenge conventional ideas and never take for granted that things should be done in a certain way simply because it has been so.

Of course, the other big factor is empathy and trust within teams. We have to accept that people have different levels of confidence and different concerns, be it because they are new within a team, because what they are suggesting is untested and may not work or for any other reason. As research by McKinsey puts it, in order to bring the kind of ideas that drive innovation to the table, people have to “understand that their ideas are valued, trust that it is safe to express those ideas, and oversee risk collectively, together with their managers.”

This is why equality, diversity and team spirit are so important to me and why I am so excited to see real communities and friendships spring up within teams at work.

Innovation is what keeps a business ahead of its competitors. Can you imagine the power of thousands of employees who all come up with and implement changes for better quality, increased revenue and more speed? As leaders, it is our job to empower people to deliver that.