An extra[not]ordinary community fueling innovation to impact patients’ lives

Written by? Christopher Cozic , EVP & Chief People Officer

Having spent my career in human resources in the healthcare industry, I’m often asked how to shape organizational culture.??

Every culture is distinct. A confluence of factors – both tangible and intangible – form the collective personality of an organization. It’s not “owned” by anyone specifically nor can it be molded by one individual, but it’s felt and experienced by everyone, every day. It’s hard to build and easy to lose, and you know when culture is strong and feel when it isn’t. If you’re part of an organization, you’re contributing to its culture, whether intentionally or not.?

Ultimately, everyone can and should make efforts to cultivate their organizational culture. Like tending to a garden, when we enrich the environment in which we work, we create fertile opportunities for individuals and the business to thrive.?

When I joined Genmab just over five years ago, it was clear the seeds of success and rich culture had already taken root. With a bold vision to transform the lives of patients with cancer and other serious diseases, the organization was on an impressive growth trajectory. And it was clearly because of the warm, fun and dynamic community that lent their expertise, time and energy to Genmab, its purpose to get knock-your-socks-off (KYSO) antibody medicines to patients and the culture they had built.??

Since then, our culture has continued to be our proverbial “secret sauce.”?

Why has it worked? I believe it’s because we’ve been thoughtful in our approach of being impact-driven and belonging to something bigger, where everyone – no matter where they sit in the organization – feels connected to the impact our work can make for patients. It’s a community which admires being a little unconventional as we seek out and embrace the opportunity to build new and bold futures as a biotech innovation powerhouse. When curious people come together with a common purpose to solve problems without traditional silos or barriers, special things can happen.?

Although it can be challenging to define a culture, we recognized that we needed to capture the special ingredients and benefits of working at Genmab – defining what makes our team unique and ensuring that as we grow and inevitably evolve, we hold true to certain core values that we want to continue to embed and nurture.??

In true Genmab fashion, we deployed a highly data-driven process to uncover our company’s cultural DNA by working with social anthropologists to decode our uniqueness. The process entailed 120+ hours of conversations with our colleagues and many external expert interviews on the trends shaping the future of culture and talent development.

After analyzing the data, we had incredible insights into the type of workplace our colleagues value. And that led us to create a new word – “extra[not]ordinary” – reflecting that we go way beyond what is usual or expected in everything we do, that we’re proudly unique and authentically Genmab.??

It also led us to create our Commitment, which summarizes the key tenets that make up the distinct value we deliver for those who are part of our team. It’s about Empowerment – being able to build and support to put new ideas into action; Authenticity – not being afraid to share our opinions and being able to bring our full self to work; Care – knowing that Genmab has a people-first approach and gives us flexibility to attend to life beyond work – appreciating the full person and not simply an employee; and Impact – the pride that is sparked by making a difference in patients’ lives and for each other.?

When we look to the future of Genmab and everything we aim to accomplish, we know that achieving our 2030 vision is only possible with an exceptional culture and community dedicated to our purpose. In 24 years, we’ve grown from 20 to 1,600 colleagues globally – and we’re continuing to build our unstoppable team . As we build, our Commitment will pave the way for a community where everyone feels supported and inspired by their colleagues, empowered to innovate and build solutions and become a critical part of changing the lives of patients through transformative antibody therapies.??

Learn more about Genmab and our extra[not]ordinary team here: https://bit.ly/3HHKDs5 .