Strategic Agility in Action: Test, Prove, Retire Risk

This interview series is designed to inspire game-changing strategic leadership - an elite level of performance estimated to be achieved by about 5% of leaders today. Leaders like Indra Nooyi, Herb Kelleher and Howard Schultz.

It features insights and experiences from innovators, creators, leaders, authors and strategic leadership experts - each working at a current edge of discomfort to amplify their strategic impact and transform the future of leadership. Each guest is invited to take my Strategic Impact Quiz, which identifies where they are on their journey to game-changing strategic leadership - are they a THINKER, PLANNER, CREATOR? Or have they achieved the elite performance level of a TRANSFORMER?

I hope their stories inspire you, each day, to be just 2% more of that trailblazer you are called to be.

For this edition of The Game Changer Series, I connected with Dara Wright, CEO and President of Madison Medical (part of Madison Industries ). Dara is a growth-oriented leader, whose combined technical and business background has helped her create commercial success in a highly competitive field.?

Q.? How have your natural strategic leadership strengths helped you create commercial success in the life science industry?? ? ?

One of my passions is market research, market mapping, and segmentation. I have always been an incredibly curious person, with an innate desire to understand how things work and how choices are made.??

Applying a systematic approach to market analysis and opportunity mapping has helped me and my teams reposition portfolios for growth, drive new product development, and find differentiated ways to serve market needs.??

The common thread that unites the successes throughout my career (there are failures too, of course!) is when we’ve found a unique way to apply market insights to expose ‘product-market-fit’ growth plays and create distinct market value.?

Q.? How has your strategic leadership evolved over the years? Have you found a significant difference when developing clarity and cohesion in different types of organizations????

Each company culture is different, and my personal experiences have been diverse – from venture capital-backed to Fortune 100 public companies.??Yet at the end of the day, the universal truth is that companies are made up of people.

The universal truth is that companies are made up of PEOPLE.??

People typically want to contribute and add value, and they want to be part of a winning team. What is most critical in every situation is to understand those motivations, and to engage each internal and external stakeholder in a way that aligns to their motivations and value creation objectives. ?

Q.? Life science research and technology continues to evolve at a rapid and transformative pace. For leaders who thrive on analyzing historical data for patterns and success indicators, what advice would you give them when leading in the forefront of new developments where there isn’t much historical data to lean on??

It can be daunting to try to assess opportunities for novel technologies which don’t have good proxies. That said, I would posit that there are always references - both from inside and outside of the life science industry - that can be used as indicators.??

Innovation and disruption in science and healthcare often comes from other industries and fields (e.g. optics and imaging, industrial fluidics, microchips, computer science), so it is very important to also look to non-obvious markets for indicators which can ‘read’ on science and healthcare.

A technique that I routinely use to wrestle with ambiguity is the ‘what has to be true’ approach.??

Essentially, we first presume success and document what ‘had to be true’ for the strategy to have been viable. That helps expose the variables that should be tested, validated, or documented as risks to be retired. Even with emerging technologies, there are typically hypotheses around their potential. Figuring out how to test these hypotheses to expose the drivers and moderators to success is the name of the game.??

Q.? When navigating the complex landscape of life sciences, you’ve had to create competitive advantage in the midst of uncertainty. How have you personally been able to navigate VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity), even when your credibility as a strategic leader was on the line???

Nobody has all the answers, and no one can predict the future, especially in the life sciences field. I think it is important not only to be humble, but to also practice a strategy development framework that supports testing hypotheses and managing risk based on the specific value creation thesis for the company and its stakeholders. Risk management in strategy development and deployment is critical and is different for every company based on their individual tolerances.?

Q.? Most leaders recognize their responsibility to lead toward success, yet they must also accept the inherent risk of failure. How does this shape your approach to strategic thinking and decision-making, when the stakes are high and the path forward is unclear?

I like to take a structured approach to ‘test, prove, retire risk’ (repeat).? Each company has a different risk appetite and downside exposure, but in my experience ‘betting everything on black’ is not a good approach.? I always want a plan B, C, and D and having a strategy that is somewhat flexible is important.??

We don’t want to be pivoting all the time, because that can be exceptionally disruptive to an organization, but having decision points along the journey is critical.

Q.? Transitioning from strategic thinking and planning to impactful execution can be a formidable task. What do you find as key ingredients to success? Any advice for navigating obstacles that you have encountered?

I prefer a structured approach to strategic execution. Plans must be detailed with action plans, operating mechanisms, and measurements that help us understand OBJECTIVELY how well we are doing and can enable course correction as needed.?

Strategy development is not just an annual exercise nor a document to put in a drawer. It is a North Star for daily execution.??

In my opinion, a perfect strategy not executed is worse than an okay strategy systematically deployed.

Q.? What advice would you give leaders on how to manage the tension between delivering the short-term results for investors with the long-term strategy and value creation for your customers (and investors)??

Value creation for investors and customers should ideally be aligned, but if they are not, that is important to explore, understand, and balance as much as possible. Ideally, a strategy builds alignment around value creation for all stakeholders in both the short term and the long term with scenarios that navigate risk factors along the way.

Q. Most strategic leaders encounter internal resistance to change at some point or another.? How have you created alignment and commitment, despite initial resistance?

Universally, people at all levels want to know ‘Why?’, ‘What’s in it for me?’, and ‘Does it align with my value system?’ As strategic leaders, the more clarity we provide to those questions the better alignment and commitment we can foster to navigate change and challenges.?

Q.? Lastly, most leaders tend to rely on either conviction or connection when leading. Which of the two comes most naturally to you, and how have you managed to find a balance between the two??

I tend to lean more on connection. That said, I also rely on conviction to ‘get things moving’ towards execution. Nobody has all the answers, so my conviction is couched in a ‘what must be true’ and ‘this is what we know and what we don’t know’ approach. I think that creates some level of safety for people within the organization to test hypotheses and experiment appropriately.?

In my career, I’ve had the most strategic impact - and enjoyment - when personal engagement, connection to the purpose, and execution discipline was aligned.

Thank you for participating in the Strategic Impact Quiz, Dara, and contributing to this series.

Readers, have you been at the helm of some exciting emerging tech? How have you led your organization through unpredictability?

Take the Strategic Impact Quiz to discover if you are a CREATOR, PLANNER, or a THINKER. And let me know if there are any strategic leaders, at whatever stage of their journey, that you’d like to see in the Game Changers series.

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