How to manage through change and challenges

They say that change is one of the only constants in life and in business. However when you’re faced with change, conquering it can sometimes seem like a daunting task, especially at the outset.

Today, change is top of mind for countless executives as so many industries are going through transformational business model shifts. Healthcare is on the cusp of a digital revolution that will change every aspect of how companies operate, innovate and sell their products, with new players and unlikely collaborations emerging almost daily. In finance, new payment platforms are disrupting many parts of the world, and consumer goods companies are facing the vast acceleration of ecommerce.

While challenges like these can seem insurmountable at times, I have found that with the right mindset, a clear strategy, and a united team focused on a shared goal, it is possible to overcome even the most difficult situations.

Take the expiration of the patent for the Novartis anti-hypertensive drug Diovan?, for example. When I joined Novartis in 2007, Diovan accounted for $5 billion of the entire pharmaceutical division’s total revenue of about $24 billion. And in just a few short years, we were going to lose that patent protection in various regions. We needed a plan to counter this. I asked our senior leaders to bring me their best ideas and we generated a list of 100 projects, ranging from new product development to potential acquisitions. We couldn’t do all of them, so we narrowed it down to the most promising ideas, and after much discussion and debate, we decided as a team to focus on three of them. We decided we could accelerate growth by investing more in oncology and in some key emerging markets, as well as beginning our transition to an outcomes-based approach to selling medicine. Our strategy paid off, and the team did an outstanding job of offsetting the Diovan patent cliff.

Over the years, we navigated other challenges. For instance, a second large patent expiration was looming on our largest Oncology drug just two years after we lost Diovan. We successfully managed the patent expiration of Gleevec?, by accelerating R&D with new technologies, and acquiring fast growing Oncology medicines from GSK to fill the gap. By the time I left Novartis, we had totally rebuilt the pipeline to include 12 potential blockbusters. And Fast Company just named Novartis on its “Most Innovative Companies” list, likening the recent launch of our CAR-T therapy Kymriah? to “landing on Mars.” When you hit your stride, with a clear strategy and the right team in place, shareholder reactions can be quite strong. For example, during my tenure, total shareholder return was +121% USD, which led the European Pharma. 

I attribute our ability to navigate through change and challenges to the strength of our team, and how we were able to rally around a shared goal and work together to achieve it. We did this time and time again, and it showed me that an organization is really only as strong as its talent. It also became clear to me that a team needs to be focused on very simple goals that are achievable and clearly laid out. As part of this, I learned the importance of listening to ideas from across all levels of our team, particularly the more junior members. It was a process to get people to be comfortable telling me what they thought, but it proved to be invaluable in thinking about our challenges with a new and different lens.

I believe the future is bright for those who aren’t afraid to face challenges head on no matter what industry you’re in. You must make bold decisions, and activate a team to deliver against a strong plan that gets ahead of industry pressures. Because with the right mindset, one can overcome any challenge.