Executive Board Advisor & Consultant. International scaleup. Go-to-market options. Optimising international scaleup through distributors. Improving business development success in complex sales for B2B service providers.
I had a stunning career spanning more than 20 years at AstraZeneca. For me, it was a game of two halves (as they say in football speak). The first half began with ICI Pharmaceuticals UK as a medical rep which then became Zeneca (when it was de-merged from ICI). We had to create a new brand that nobody ever heard of before. This was followed by the second half with a decade that began in 1999 with the merger with Astra to create AstraZeneca. The culture changed overnight. The first half saw me in the UK business. I had spent ten years with a smaller pharma company in the UK business before ICI. After 20 years of selling and launching new products and numerous new indications in the UK NHS, I was itching to move into the International business. The UK GM lost his job. In the eyes of a new senior leadership team, the door opened for me to move into international. It was wonderful. I realised how narrow the view was when working with the UK affiliate. I moved to global manufacturing in the Supply Chain & Logistics business followed by Programme Management across 18 European Affiliates. My vision took on a longer, broader focus on the business landscape. I worked with inspirational leaders (many were Swedish that I admired and they respected my ability to deliver results and deliver the numbers). In my final seven years, I headed up 18 countries in the MEA region with full P&L accountability via 8 GMs and 2 Finance and Logistics Managers based in those markets. When I saw this announcement, NOTHING surprised me. As a senior black book leader, I was accustomed to being stretched to the boundaries of my capabilities and then stretched beyond some more! We were great at setting ambition and what stood us out from the other Big Pharma was that we went on to deliver those ambitions. We did not take lightweight passengers. Those on the bus were there for a purpose, and they HAD to deliver these ambitions. AZ will deliver this ambition to be $80bn in revenue by 2030. It would put them as the first $200bn valuation company ahead of Shell. My VP International who reported to the CEO spoke in his French Corsican accent all the time how "We need to set and deliver zee ambeeshon" as I kicked off my business review presentation of my markets at Stanhope Gate when the MEA region was presenting. He was forensic with the numbers. That is probably where I learnt my master craft. I was taught to be cautious, with a risk-assessed approach allied to ambitious numbers. He tested my thinking for rigour, he drilled hard, and the thinking had to be cohesive and thorough. But that's what it takes to deliver and exceed the P&L for seven successive years with ambitious targets. If that same focus and rigour are still present, these ambitions can and will be realised. The share price last week exceeded £121 per share! What a pity that the UK government has slapped a huge Capital Gains Tax on me when I sell shares each year from my considerable holding.
Amit Vaidya
7mo
If there is one startling finding from my experience, it is that cognitive bandwidth might be lacking at regional level. But it is even less at Executive Board level at Corporate HQ where distributor models are concerned. These corporate folk rely on the low bandwidth of regional seniors, until I have to tell them that those regional seniors don't know what they are doing! That's when the proverbial hits the fan! Light the blue touch paper and stand back to see the flares of the fireworks.
Executive Board Advisor & Consultant. International scaleup. Go-to-market options. Optimising international scaleup through distributors. Improving business development success in complex sales for B2B service providers.
7moThis is certainly NOT the scene in AstraZeneca. We focused on having the right people on the bus before deciding where to take the bus! We kept it lean. Many others started by driving an overloaded bus. I started lean, kept it lean and ensured I had the right people on the bus (this is a feature of Jim Collins' book, "Good to Great" and not original AZ speak). I was amazed that in every client I was engaged with on projects, they had too many people, doing too little or nothing and seniors accepted it or (even worse) were oblivious to it. Many had the wrong passengers AND the wrong driver for the bus. Was it any surprise they could not deliver their numbers? My book has a whole chapter of several sections on how to pick the right driver for the bus and how I went about this task. What I saw on client engagements would never have happened in my corporate life at AstraZeneca. Perhaps that's why clients called me in to sort it out. I always saw AZ as being ahead of the curve on so many levels, from strategies and initiatives and with a laser focus on execution to making things happen. Execution is key at AZ. It helped us to stand out from the others where seniors started things but struggled to finish anything.