‘Success in Pharma’ Series: Leading Great People To Accomplish Great Things

Many leaders aspire to create a positive work environment for their teams. Mike Crosher, the Managing Director of Chugai Pharma UK, has made people his passion. The company were recently accredited as a “Great Place to Work” through the Great Places to Work survey and achieved a ranking in the Top UK Workplaces in April 2021, but it is very clear that they did not enter for the plaque but for the feedback from every individual in the organisation. Having known Mike from both working at Takeda years ago, I was very interested to find out how his team accomplished this so I invited him for a virtual interview and ended up getting to know him more in 45 minutes than I had in years of working at the same company.

Mike’s Background

?Mike is responsible for Chugai UK & Ireland. His passion is people and having the privilege to lead and develop individuals which shone through while we chatted. He is such a lovely person and you can tell how much he cares about his people. In fact, if I was looking for a job, I would want to work in a place similar to Chugai UK where people matter.

Mike joined Chugai 9 and a half years ago after leaving Takeda. He wasn’t initially planning on leaving Takeda as he enjoyed the diverse range of people he worked with but when the company decided to restructure, he decided to move on. It was actually a sideways step in position for Mike when he joined Chugai, but he said he saw an opportunity and he liked the culture and people within the organisation. Since then, he has had five different roles, many which were created for him. He started as a Regional Sales Manager, then Head of Business Development, Value and Access Director, Sales and Commercial Director and is now Managing Director. A testament to growth and success in pharma! This also shows that Mike isn’t afraid to take a risk if he believes in the cause.

?Putting People First

There are 43 individuals working in the company and Mike does his best to communicate with each person often, and this is one thing he would like to continually improve upon. He says that if people come to him he makes their needs a priority but he would like to pick up the phone as often as he can just to chat with each person, not to ask a question but to genuinely find out how they are. This keeps his finger on the pulse, he says.

He reflects back to a recent meeting with one of his sales representatives, “We had previously paid for her to complete a diploma in Health Economics and she came to me saying that she’d now like to do a Masters in Health Economics. I agreed, as in the future this could be a role for her to go into within the company. I don’t think too much about the alignment for the company now, but for the future.” He is clear that he doesn’t like to stand in anyone’s way but likes to help move them forward in their careers.

During the pandemic, Mike put people first. He stood up in front of the organisation and said, “This is a really difficult situation that we are in. Everyone’s home situation is different, and we trust that you will do what you can for the company but we want you to put family and friends first. Get the work done when you can.”

This is a rare and brilliant attitude for a company leader to have. Mike explained that a lot of their people were worried about losing their jobs as many pharma companies were putting people on furlough and even reducing salaries. Chugai did not put anyone on furlough, as a company they were still bringing in money so they didn’t see why they should do that.

It was, however, a huge change for their sales team, who were used to being out visiting customers five days a week, so Mike changed their focus. He encouraged them to work on their development, to join in on Executive Committee projects and a large majority of his staff took this opportunity. It was important for him to support the growth of his people, even during a pandemic.

Entering the Awards

?In order to gain a clear perspective of how all employees were feeling about working at Chugai, Mike entered The Great Place to Work Awards in 2021. Many companies enter awards for the prestige, but not Mike. His motivation was just to understand what they could do to be an even better place to work and sometimes employees find it easier to answer these questions anonymously. The process is quite simple, the awards company send a survey to the entire organisation to ask them questions, and then the company have to send in details about all their activities, policies and benefits. The company ended up achieving this award in April in both the UK and Europe categories which is a huge accomplishment.

?Mike’s Leading Traits

?#1 Leaders admit mistakes?

Mike says that he doesn’t get everything right, but it’s important to admit when you’ve messed up and then make it right. Mike says,“I’m more motivated by people giving constructive feedback as you learn and grow from it.”

#2 Leaders prioritise people

Mike aims to make Chugai an even better place to work all the time. Putting people first during the pandemic led to the company retaining 60% of their contact with their customers after the Summer of 2020. Proof that prioritising people, motivates them.

#3 Leaders listen

Mike’s advice to other managers is to just listen to people. He says, “As leaders, it’s easy to sit in an ivory tower and think we know what’s going on, sometimes we listen to the people who talk the loudest and make decisions based on that but what we need to do is speak to everyone in the organisation.”?

#4 Leaders are transparent

?Mike does his best to be open and transparent with his team. He says, “Within reason I’ll tell anyone anything.” Mike also expects this from his team as honest feedback is the only way the company can grow.

?#5 Leaders embrace change

?The pharma industry has changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic so Mike changed Chugai’s engagement model. For example, he changed their engagements to virtual meetings, changed their volunteering policy from a couple of days a year to 1-2 days a week so that people could take time off and help people who needed it and they have now changed their remote working policy so that people are only required to be in the office a minimum of four days a month.

#6 Leaders take on feedback

?Mike says, “I’m not motivated by positive comments, I find it embarrassing. I’m motivated by understanding what we can do better all the time so that we can continually create a better place to work.”

#7 Leaders are always moving forward

Mike is always looking to the future, “I’m the type of person who doesn’t like standing still and I’m always looking for areas in which we could do better as a company.”?

Reflection

Not many leaders want to hear the correct answers when they ask the hard questions. They ask the question because they want to hear what they want to hear. This is what makes Mike unique, as he wants to hear the hard stuff. He is a great observer of people and looks for a connection between words and facial expressions to ensure he’s getting the full story. He doesn’t want to be kept happy as the Managing Director, he wants to create a positive environment. He sums it up nicely in this quote,

“If you listen and act, this shows the people in your organisation that you care. I need to know what is going well and where we could be doing better otherwise I can’t do anything about it.”

Working for Mike at Chugai sounds like working in a family, a place where you are not just a number. This is what makes Mike a successful Managing Director and this is why they have been awarded a Great Place to Work!

Leaders of the Future

The pandemic has shown us that leadership is about humanity and treating people as individual human beings. It has also made us think deeply about what qualities successful leaders of the future will need to possess. I recently attended a HPA Summit about the future of leadership and my takeaways from attending the event and from interviewing Mike run parallel.

?In my opinion, leaders of the future need to be less egocentric and more ecocentric, they need to put people first. As a leader, you must trust your intuition and lead from your heart. It is important to not only manage your time but to manage your energy as well. As a leader’s energy can inspire a workforce.

Successful leaders in the healthcare industry of the future will not only be required to have extensive technical capabilities but emotional capabilities.?As leaders, they will need to be able to connect and communicate effectively as the “human elements’ of leadership are now the most important. Looking to future generations, Gen Z and Millennials value individuality and leaders should aspire to treat each employee as an individual with unique needs.??

Mike’s ability to understand individuals is the key to his successful leadership during difficult times. He has also been able to help his team adapt to remote sales and a new way of interacting with their customers, which we know is no easy feat. If you are finding adapting to digital a challenge, you are not alone, and we can help. Click here to see how the Cheemia ReSET has enabled global sales teams. https://www.cheemiareset.com/case-study

If you liked this story and would like to hear more stories of success, make sure to connect with me on LinkedIn, where I will be continuing my ‘Success in Pharma’ Series. https://uk.linkedin.com/mehrnazcampbell