Philippe Lopes-Fernandes, on being a leader in the Biotech Space

So Jordan, I had a sprint journey because I'm not a scientist. I joined my company because they were looking for the OTC business for people that are not MD, PhD, or MD, so I qualified. And then, you know, what was supposed to be only a two-year period in pharma OTC, and you know, before I joined another fast consumer group, and being a 25-year experience in pharma, which has been fantastic.

Well, the difficulty of our industry is, you know, basically it's easier to put a man on the moon than to solve cancer. So it's a very, very difficult industry. I don't think that the leadership style is really different, but the type of decision that you make, that you may need to make, is very complex. And you need to allow the complexity and the fact that you have a ton of data at your hands to make decisions that are going to cost a lot of money and influence the lives of patients in a huge way. And it's that you don't have the answer, you know, you don't necessarily have a perfect decision process, and you need to allow yourself to lead with that context, and that's sometimes very difficult.

You need to have a purpose, and the purpose is clear. You know, that's the advantage of this industry. It's all about care about patients, so that's great. But you know, in the search of some great outcome for patients, you need to make decisions that involve billions of dollars, and that's very complex.

Mentors are extremely important. I've had several mentors, and they've shaped who I am. It's absolutely critical to have mentors. I would say mentors, not just one, but you need two or three because they complement each other and they bring a good perspective. You need to also pick them well so that they challenge you and push you out of your comfort zone, so that they really give you something that is different from what we are on a day-to-day basis. Especially as a leader, a lot of time you're a bit isolated, and I think these mentors are really, really efficient.

Well, it's not about people that you admire. It's about people that can really be committed to helping you and to give you the true perspective of who you are and what you need to improve. I mean, you don't want a mentor to tell you you're doing great. You want a mentor to tell you you're doing great, but here is what you need to improve. And these type of people, you need to have the right people that can tell you that, people that are going to be credible enough for you to accept their feedback. And you need people that are going to be willing to spend the time and effort to give you that feedback. But then when you find these people, it's great.

That's a tough one. I think what you need is to look at every possible innovation, including these small steps. People think very often on innovation like, 'I'm going to solve cancer.' Okay, great. I mean, of course we all want that, but what about every small step? Even if you improve the journey of a patient, if you improve a process, if you speed up something like 10%, that gets you a product on the market a quarter earlier, you're going to save lives. So every small piece of innovation is valuable. It's not always focus on the super big innovation, but let's look at all the small steps that can be improved. And at the end, if you improve continuously like that, it's a very small step, but the multiplying effect is going to result in...

It's something that I find naturally important. I have a small team, about 50 people, and I think 15 nationalities, 55 percent female. It's not for trying, but it's to make sure that we have different perspectives. It's not just gender or cultural balance, but also a balance of people that are from a science background or business background. Having a different group of people, especially when you're facing complex projects, is helping you in a fantastic way to solve it. If you have people that don't think alike, you're not just listening to yourself.

The key piece of advice is be curious, be humble. So rate, ask questions, go beyond your scope. If you're a scientist, learn about business, learn about finance, think strategy, pricing. Especially now in the industry where all these parameters are important. And if you're a business person, look at the science, talk to scientists, understand what they're facing, what challenges they have. Ask questions and get to know the other side of the coin that is making our companies work. The broader picture you have, the better understanding of what it takes to achieve our goals, and the very old it will be great.