Pivoting from Processing to Action

Moments Matter. It’s been a long-standing theme for me. We are experiencing a crucible moment in history more significant than any we will likely ever see again. The collision of a pandemic with a societal awakening. Crucible moments are those rare, defining events that transform us. When persistent disruption hits normalcy, it results in innovation that permanently changes life, creating the next normal. In 2020, there will be defining moments, for leaders, for companies, for individuals that will create our next normal.

Over the past few weeks we at Elanco, we’ve been talking about the wrongness of social injustices, how we make Elanco a safe harbor for our people, and how we use this time to unite us and strengthen us to improve our company and our communities. We need to do more. We need to listen more. We need to reach out more. We need to challenge perspectives more. We cannot waste this time and opportunity to make our next normal better.

 Elanco will be a safe harbor. But in order to do better, we need to listen more. Elanco aspires to have a culture and community where all employees globally can bring their whole selves. Our values of Respect and Integrity and Excellence aren’t just words on a wall. They come to life daily in how we care for each other, in how we embrace everyone and their unique backgrounds and beliefs and how we make our toughest decisions. We cannot allow the divisiveness of the world to seep inside our walls.

 We took the occasion several weeks ago to host a company-wide dialogue forum where we listened to our Black colleagues, about their deeply personal experience of being Black in America, and in Elanco. The stories were frustrating and emotional. The injustices are wrong – and Elanco will stand against human inequality. We will be a place where our teams can be raw, vulnerable, and work together as a team toward a better future. It must unite us and make us stronger. This dialogue will continue as it did yesterday morning in a session highlighting Juneteenth. There our Elanco African American Network spent time educating our teams about the history of Juneteenth and shared more about their lives and challenges. Colleagues challenged us to reach out, to understand more, to self-evaluate and move to action.

 Personally, I’ve had constant dialogue – from sharing these compelling stories at the dinner table with my kids to powerful, intentional conversations we’ve had with our Black colleagues, friends and community leaders. I know many of you are doing the same, and I challenge you to if you’re haven’t. 

 It’s all about people.

The many crucible moments in the first few months of 2020 led to the realization that real, lasting change is all about the people. Building a great company, no matter size, scale, or output, is dependent on people. In the past few months, as we’ve built our leadership team for the future combination of Elanco and Bayer Animal Health, it’s become crystal clear that what matters most is a person’s character. I’ve learned to truly understand a person’s story and how it shaped who they are and their perspective provides insights into how they think at another level.

 We are pivoting from processing as a team to taking action that will drive change in our company and our communities. While we have some work to do, our leadership team is committed to take authentic action that can genuinely make a difference in our organization, and in the lives of our people. Specifically, Elanco will:

1.     Educate and Participate:

• We will continue to learn as a team – from hosting listening sessions to creating trainings and tools to help our people become confident “Upstanders”— someone who acts in support of an individual or cause, particularly someone who intervenes on behalf of another person at the moment of truth when discrimination or injustice is happening.
• Our 2nd annual Elanco Multi-Cultural Summit planned for fall will be a pinnacle moment to converge all this thinking.
• We will ensure our teams have paid time off to participate and show their support during key commemorative days, including making sure they have an opportunity to make their voice heard on election days.

2.     Invest Internally and Externally: We will resource these internal efforts appropriately and extend this beyond our walls.

• We will dedicate resources to ensure our talent assessment, succession management, and diversity & Inclusion work drives tangible progress in developing and promoting diverse talent.
• We will establish and publish supplier diversity goals and our progress toward them.

3.     Measure and Hold Accountable: We will be transparent about and hold ourselves accountable to achieving our goals.

• We will publish our U.S. minority representation in internships and campus new hires.
• We will publish later this year the aspirational goals for female and US minority representation in leadership we have been working toward as part of our Healthy Purpose commitments. While we’ve made strong progress over the past five years, we have significant work to do.

Our future strength is not just what we are saying and doing now, but how we are changing to be fit for the future. That means listening more, relying on our people and not backing down from a challenge—no matter how big, or transformational, it may be.