The Leadership Sphere blog just reviewed the classic business book "Good to Great," with some insights on leaders and one pharma industry leader in particular. The best leaders combine personal humility with intense professional will and resolve. Read the entire post, excerpted below:
They set up successors for success, make sure that those who follow them are poised to continue a successful path or to exceed the expectations that result from that success, and they are compellingly modest. In contrast to the very I-centric style of some other leaders, Level 5 leaders do not typically talk about themselves, preferring to direct attention to other individuals, or to the results of the company as a whole. They don't aspire to be larger-than-life heroes, or to be placed on a pedestal. They are seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary resultsWhen George Cain became CEO of Abbott Laboratories, the company occupied a lowly space in the pharmaceutical industry. Cain didn't have an inspiring personality to galvanize the company, but he did have a steadfast intolerance for mediocrity; good was simply not good enough. He destroyed the company's most glaring causes of its mediocrity - nepotism - by rebuilding the board and executive teams with the best people available, not just those who had family connections or had been with the company longest.Pharmaceutical Executive Editor Patrick Clinton wrote about the changing of the guard and the company's current CEO's objectives a while ago.
One question I have for Abbott Labs' public relations team. Why are you so unresponsive to inquiries from the industry trade press? Ditto for BMS. I don't mean to single out these two companies, because it's true for many pharma companies in general. At a time when pharma companies and the industry are in need of inspiring stories, the biggest hurdle that many of us journalists have to clear is often the corporate P.R. department. Maybe it's time to change this approach.
-AMS
