Uncover The Power Of Passion And Purpose - an exploration with Claude Bertrand, the EVP of Servier

Thank you, Tom. Thanks for the invitation. It's really delightful to be with you today.

So that is the million-dollar question. There are plenty of things to be said here, but the first thing is to always remember where you're coming from. Thank you for trusting me to be humble and to work with humility in what I do. I fundamentally think it comes from the education you receive and the path you've been through until you reach your career and eventually a management position. I don't know if I'm doing it so well, but I never forget where I came from. There are a couple of characteristics: I would not say I had a tough life, but I had obstacles as a child and in my family, and that helped me develop characteristics that still help me now. Some of those are: first, to be humble. I was educated that way; I show off no publicity about whatever you do. It's really to look at life in a humble way. To be very open, to be extremely curious – that's not just education but part of your DNA – and that helped me a lot to be ready to fail and learn from failures. I never planned my career; for me there is a lot about learning as you walk. If you combine curiosity and learning as you walk, it's amazing what you can do and achieve. Absolutely focus on diversity, not one size fits all, so being always aware of different ways, adaptability, agility. The world is moving fast, so you have to be adaptable and a giant. I think all these characteristics help to evolve, especially when leading others and giving them confidence in this moving world.

Not entirely. In different parts of my life, I had certain medium- and long-term objectives. When I was a horse rider, I was progressing towards competition. I have a terrible bias of wanting to win, so that is a driver on its own in whatever field. But I never had the objective to be a French champion. The objective was: how can I do best what I enjoy at that moment? It was horse riding, then when I decided to move towards the pharmaceutical industry, I was passionate about my university training. I gave myself the objective to do that piece the best way possible, and that dynamic is how things eventually follow. During this time together, we'll talk a lot about purpose. For me, purpose and passion are two words that drive many things I've done in my life. Even in an environment where my mother and grandmother admired me, they were very supportive. I found in myself the passion and purpose in everything I've done – building a family, having kids – it's always the same recurring theme: what's your purpose and how much passion can you put into what you're doing? Those traits are really important for leaders.

First of all, I must say I enjoyed that podcast; the guy had so much energy and the company raised a lot of interest to me. Back to your question: I think the world has been evolving all the time. If I think about the evolution and revolution in the last century, the 20th century, they are tremendous. I tend to agree with him that VUCA is a bit of a buzzword of the moment. Things have been evolving all the time. The big difference is the dynamic and the acceleration of change. We see that now with climate change and the digital revolution. It's like a slow evolution and suddenly an acceleration. We are changing, but not at the same speed as before. We have to deal with adapting to change at a very different pace. So it's not more VUCA today than 20 or 30 years ago, but it's accelerating drastically. We need to adapt much faster, be agile, and be calm. You have to impose on yourself to observe, be curious, and not feel forced into change just because everything around you is turning crazy. In the work environment, we see burnout, people quitting because they are fed up with the speed. They need periods of calm to take distance from the washing machine. A leader has to impose moments where people can think and take distance, rather than being overwhelmed by information and crises. So for me, it's not a change in evolution but an acceleration that we need to deal with.

It's a very good analogy because when you have lots of changes, excitement, even crisis, the last thing to do is jump in. Ten or twenty years ago I would have jumped. I've learned the value of taking the right time to analyze the situation and avoid big mistakes. Sometimes you just follow the flow with a bit of touch in key parts of the organization and you'll get to the right place and achieve your goals. When people are uncertain, they look to their leaders. If they see a leader who is grounded and calm, that calm is infectious, as is panic. I see that as a real responsibility of leaders. I witnessed that with you – that sense of groundedness is really reassuring. I learned from observation. I remember at Ipsen during a major crisis, the CEO Mark de Garidel taught me about taking time to think and staying calm. He gave the impression we'd go through the storm and be fine. Similarly, today with my CEO at Servier, Olivier, he shows that same character. They have peaks and troughs like anyone else but don't show it, and when things are tense, they appear even calmer. That is extremely reassuring for the leadership team.

I could spend hours talking about our industry. Sometimes I feel how unfair people are against the pharmaceutical industry, which is actually wonderful and saves lives. During the health crisis, we immediately went back to our main purpose: to save lives. Since we were not in infectious disease, we asked what we could do to help. At Servier, we are a non-profit foundation – the first company I work for that has no shareholders. That allows us to do things others cannot. We quickly decided to help as much as possible: we donated PCR equipment for diagnostics globally, and we moved machines around. But the most remarkable thing was that every medical doctor in the company immediately raised their hand to help. They went back to hospital emergency rooms, and we released them for up to six months. That all came down to purpose. We knew why the founder created this company 70 years ago, and everybody aligned quickly. Another challenge was remote work in a very Franco-French company. It was fantastic how efficiently we moved from no Teams to Teams overnight, with IT aligned to ensure we continued to deliver drugs and conduct clinical trials. Cancer and other diseases didn't stop. Our purpose was clear: no rupture in delivering drugs and clinical trials. That urgency was energizing. There were many learnings, but the key is to have a vision and a purpose, which is easier in pharma than other industries.

It's probably back to some of the traits I mentioned earlier. Certain things are so unpredictable that you have to be extra sensitive to your environment and surround yourself with as much diversity as possible. In a humble way, there is no wrong or right answer; there are many answers. The more diverse, open, curious, and listening you are, the better chance you have to find your way and move forward efficiently. You learn these over a long period. I've been very lucky to work in different countries and cultures, which helps open up and realize there is not one way of doing things. In a company with a strong culture, there is a fine balance between preserving your DNA and being open to new dimensions and diversity. There's no magic recipe, but listening, being curious, and opening up to diversity will make you successful.

I totally agree. That's a major change from management of the '60s and '70s. It's interesting to compare the leaders we look up to now versus 20 or 30 years ago. How do you get to authenticity if you don't know yourself? You need to be absolutely clear on what you want to achieve on this Earth and how you want to do that with your team. Let's start with the objective: to have an impact. We're on this planet for a short time. Purpose is to have an impact and do something useful. In our industry, it's maybe easier. To do that, you have to be authentic. People are not stupid; they will not follow a leader who does not display authenticity. You cannot fake it – either you are or you aren't. It starts by being open and transparent about yourself, knowing your strengths and weaknesses. The most important thing is to know your minuses, not make them disappear. That groundedness helps you know exactly who you are and where you want to go, which makes interactions with others simpler.

To make it short, we try to differentiate ourselves scientifically, but the major difference is that Servier is a foundation. In a world where profitability and shareholder happiness are the main objectives, Servier's foundation governance allows us to go into areas others avoid because they are too long, too risky, or not yet proven profitable. We take on projects that affect just one child if we have the capabilities. In my 30 years of experience, that's unique. For example, in oncology, big companies often require at least $2 billion in potential sales, but that's not our approach. We need profit to survive, but we reinvest it all into R&D. Our ultimate beneficiary is the patient, not shareholders. That allows us to pursue pediatric cancer and rare diseases where there is little treatment today. It's a tough road, but we can take it by balancing our portfolio with easier projects. This is in the DNA of the organization. I wake up every morning excited, and even more so now because of that ultimate purpose.

For many reasons. Personally, you have to believe it's meaningful and want to do something about it. As a scientist, I look at the evidence: is it true or just a cycle? The executive committee at Servier has invested more time in understanding before acting. It's super important, especially for a foundation because it's linked to our values. But the most interesting angle is attracting young talent. If you don't embed social responsibility in your strategy and objectives, you have no chance of getting talented young people. Look at our kids – they care about where products come from and how they are made. You cannot attract smart thirty-year-olds without a huge effort to convince them they can help the company make a difference. I sponsor many initiatives from diversity to eco-packaging. I feel responsible – we can't say we didn't know. We have participated in the mess we are in; the least we can do is prepare for the next phase and slow it down. I trust humanity and believe young people will solve it, but we must involve them and make it part of their purpose.

I spend a lot of time on this topic. We are moving all our French R&D facilities to a single site in Saclay, which we hope will become like Boston or Cambridge. Moving people geographically is a big change, so we asked: what would make someone stay and even move their family? We surveyed our people – especially the younger generation – and learned a lot. Our generation thought work hard all the time, but now work-life balance is one of the first things in interviews. They don't work less, but they want a different balance. So we aim to create a workplace that feels like home, where you can alternate work with sports, shopping, seeing a movie during the day. Our new campus will have that. We are working with the region on infrastructure like a pool. Beyond CSR, it's about making life at work qualitative and integrating the company as part of overall life. I invented a Chief Campus Officer focused on making the campus attractive, fun, with events. The ultimate goal is the 'missile syndrome': people on Zoom should wish they were on site. That's how we will attract and retain talent in the long run. In pharma, we have long cycles, so low fluidity is important. The new site also allows proximity to nature, which younger generations value – people are leaving big cities for that.

Thanks, Tom. You have participated in the evolution of the leader I became. So I thank you for that too, and thank you for having me today.