#114 Transforming the Pharma Industry: Leadership at the Intersection of Science and Strategy

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Hi everyone, and welcome back to the Proteus Leadership Show. I'm your host, Marie-Olive. Today's episode is a special one for me personally. My guest is Kelsey Achenbach, Vice President of the Pharmaceuticals Business at DSM Firmenich, President of the Decade, and a dear friend. I've had the pleasure of knowing for over 14 years since we were global MBA classmates at London Business School and Columbia Business School. Kelsey brings a rare combination of technical expertise and business strategy to her leadership. With a background in chemical engineering and experience spanning operations, marketing, and commercial strategy, she's led transformational initiatives across global healthcare and organizations. including Roquette, Silanese, and now DSM-Fermeny. In her current role, she's helping lead a major shift in how pharma organizations innovate from ingredients to impact and is redefining how healthcare companies can be both science-driven and patient-centric. Kelsey, I'm so thrilled to have you here. Welcome to the show.

Thank you, Marie. It's such an honor to be here. I really appreciate your time today.

Now, let's start with the big picture, Kelsey. Your background spans engineering, operations, commercial leadership. How have those diverse experiences shaped your approach to leading transformation in the pharmaceutical space?

When I started my career, I never imagined that I would move from engineering now to business leadership. I had several steps along the way. It was really driven by curiosity and all the dynamics of the business, all the different parts of it, and how it comes together to ultimately serve customers and then patients at the end. So I'm really fortunate to have strong leadership along the way that helped guide me through that. But what that experience does give me now is an appreciation and understanding of all the different parts of the business.

Mm-hmm.

So I've worked in a manufacturing plant. I've had the hard hat, the steel-toe boots, night shifts. So I can really understand what those team members are going through when they have to work long hours and make sure we get product out the door. I've interacted a lot with our quality organization. I can understand the pressure they have to release material and to help the organization evolve in continuous improvement. And I work day to day with our regulatory team, work with our sales team, our product management team, our supply chain team. So all these different parts of the organization are essential to us serving our customers and our patients. I just feel an extreme honor to be able to have seen different parts of the organization. Mm-hmm. Understanding the day-to-day activities of those parts of the organization and understanding their goals and objectives also helps me understand the impact of my decision-making. So in an organization, I think all roles are important. All roles are critical in order to ultimately serve your customers. But as you move up in the organization and have more impact and influence, the impact of your decision-making is greater. And so, we need leaders in organizations that truly understand the impact of their decision-making and the cascading effect of those impacts.

Now, I love the fact you said that it starts with curiosity. When I was also like you in operations with the safety glasses, I was challenged by the finance guys, and they didn't want to give me the budgets I wanted. I need to crack the code of finance to really expand my impact, and I believe we both did an MBA to fill the gaps of skill set and be ready to expand that impact. So it's also that it requires self-awareness in terms of what we don't know and what we need to learn to get to the next level. What do you think?

Yeah, I, long ago, I stopped thinking that I can know everything. When you're young in your career, you think you know everything, and then you realize, oh, there's a lot out there I don't know. And also I've really adjusted my way of thinking to, I need to know everything, to, I need the people around me that can fill those gaps. And that's really helped the organization come together and help the people around me also succeed and be part of the decision-making.

Absolutely. Now, going back to DSM, what have been the most important shifts you've seen or driven during your 4 years there? What's changing in pharma in a broader market? And what are the implications for how companies operate and lead?

Yeah, it's been a really interesting time. You know, through my time at the organization, we've had a lot of changes. We had a major organizational change that prepared us for the biggest merger in the history of both DSM-Firmenich. And that was DSM-Firmenich coming together. So Started at DSM, major organizational changes, prep for a merger, DSM-Firmenich came together. Then shortly after, we announced a separation of one of our major business groups within DSM-Firmenich.

Mm-hmm.

That also was a major change for the company. So through all those changes, I know they can be exciting, but they're actually pretty hard on the people. There's a lot of uncertainty. There's a lot of distraction, and that distraction causes Focus internally versus focus externally on the market and our customers. So, on one hand, you really build resilience in people going through all those changes. And you do build deep bonds for the people that go through those changes together. You actually build stronger teams. But you really have to roll up your sleeves and come together as a team through those changes in order to make it out on the other side.

I'd love to talk more about that because change is hard. And I'm glad you're saying that because We're seeing it over and over again as Proteus, when we drive change and support organizations get changes successful, that a lot of mistakes are made during those major changes. What are people missing in general? And I know from working closely with you that you don't miss those important elements to make a change successful.

Yeah, change management is always a big topic and everyone has a different perspective on what change management actually is and the effort it takes. I would say there's one big element is one, just showing up every day. As a leader, and if you're going through major changes as an organization, you don't always have the answer. You have a vision of where it can go. You have an idea of how you're going to get there. But you're thrown curveballs every day. And if you show up and you're with your team side by side, It just helps everyone see that no matter what comes at us, we can handle it. So I think that one of the biggest aspects is just showing up, being there for your team, listening to the team, understanding, being empathetic, and then keeping people moving. And I would say mistakes are made, mistakes will be made, and it's not because people mean to make mistakes. It's because people are making decisions with the information that they have and the best decisions that they can with that information. And information changes quickly when you're going through transformations. So I focus less on mistakes and I focus more on the learning from that and how do we come out the other side.

So first, don't stay in your ivory tower as a leader. Be present down there with your team. I think the second one is so important to understand the impact on the individual team members. We talked about that in the past in terms of that change arc and how people need to move through the change arc. And often leaders like you, they're already all the way there. They understand the change, they understand the why, they have the vision, but then people haven't been through the steps. And so, you know, as a leader, we really need to get into helping them understand that the change and the behaviors will be easy, practical. rewarding normal versus all that kind of uncertain, or it's too hard. And so, we need to really change mindsets in our team and be patient.

And I think one of the biggest missteps leadership has in that change management curve that you talked about, you said it exactly, the leaders have had a lot of time to understand why this change is happening because they initiated it. They started going on this curve sometimes a year or 2 before the the rest of the organization. And so, the expectation that the rest of the organization can go on that same curve at a higher speed is an unrealistic expectation.

Yes.

It's a really hard thing to remember. And I think it takes strong leadership that can manage both up and down to help people along that curve.

You get it so deeply. I think for the leaders who are so ahead of the vision and they understand and They need to watch their own mindset because I hear, you know, people resist change. They don't get it. They don't want to go on that journey with us. And in fact, they need to really change their mindset to a more positive one when they understand why we're doing this, they'll go along on the journey. And those are the steps I need to take to get them there.

Starts with Why, still my favorite book, Simon Sinek. And then along those same lines, as changes were happening, Over the past 4 or 5 years as I've been at DSM-Firmenich inside the organization, changes are happening outside as well. The world came out of COVID during that time. There was a lot of geopolitical conflict at that time. So the changes happening in the pharmaceutical industry are quite significant as well. There's much more focus on the supply chain and geopolitical concerns, supply chain resiliency. It's one of the major points of a lot of the tariff conversations that are going on now. And it's—

Yeah.

Really interesting. I think since COVID the world has really woken up to the pharmaceutical supply chain and both the challenges and the opportunities with pharmaceuticals.

You make me think about another change where patients have access to more data through AI. So how does it impact you? Because now they come to patient care with a lot of knowledge because they have Yeah, it's a really interesting topic.

It's a great thing that people are taking more ownership over their healthcare, and in general, that's beneficial to global health. There can be some negative repercussions where people are getting misinformation about their health, but I'll stick to the positive side. I think it really is positive for people to have more information on what they can do about preventing diseases, preventing health issues. And for a company like DSM-Firmenich, we really feel strongly about preventive health as well as treating patients. We have entire business units that are focused on preventative health. And I think it's so important for companies to look over the entire lifespan of a person and say, how do we help with that? And the pharmaceutical industry sometimes gets a bad reputation for only focusing on sick patients. I do see that shift to focusing on more preventative health.

Mm-hmm.

But I do think it's quite important that patients have access to information They're taking control of their health and they're feeling ownership for it.

Yes. That leads me to think about doctors. I was with a few women in the healthcare industry, a few leaders, and what they were telling me is when it comes to AI, some doctors are also resisting that change.

Yeah.

I'm curious about how you're seeing that because patients come with all this information now. Doctors, are they leveraging AI in their way? Are they sticking to what they know? What's the mindset in that population?

Yeah, it's a tough question because you have a big variety across the physician population. I would say that where we have more of an opportunity to utilize AI is actually within our healthcare systems and making sure there's continuity and information sharing within compliance of patient confidentiality. I think there's a lot of opportunity there. I think from a physician perspective, there's a lot of physicians that are really using it for their benefit. You've seen that for many years with dictation and even just the simple things to make their lives easier. That also has a downside because it's forcing, depending on the workplace of the physician, it could be forcing higher productivity and less time with patients. So there's all kinds of dynamics you can look at there.

Yeah.

But overall, I think I think when we're thinking about big shifts in innovation and big shifts within the industry, there's 2 places that topics like AI and artificial intelligence can help. One is with the information around patients and sharing across healthcare systems within patient confidentiality. The other is in the creation of new medicines.

Mm-hmm.

So we're seeing a huge shift how fast medicines can be created because you're utilizing the power, all this data that's been generated over the years with the power of AI, you can come to solutions much faster. Wow. And there's a lot of topics around that right now. There's an industry debate around IP-generated information. So what can you patent protect if it's generated mostly by AI and not a human? Very interesting conversation. Very.

Well, I know, but thank you for sharing that because we're thinking a lot about patient information, maybe doctor using AI for diagnostic, but what about new drug creation? I think that is a big area and that raises opportunities and concerns around IP, as you said. Big topic, but I want to go back to healthcare and pharma and how much those markets are under pressure to be both faster and patient-centric. So how do you balance—

Yeah.

innovation with regulatory rigor? And what are some of your biggest leadership challenges you face in bringing new solutions to market responsibly?

Yeah, it's a really big topic as well. And I think, like I mentioned, AI is really helping with that because it can also bring the cost down of generating new medicines and bring innovation to the market much faster. There's always a discussion around the cost to the patient.

Mm-hmm.

And if you look at really breakthrough technologies, like everything that's happening with cell and gene therapy, as an example, this is the technology where you harvest a cell from a patient, you create a medicine specifically for that patient, you bring it back as an individualized medicine, basically. That will be the future of medicine, but there's a lot of development that still has to happen, and it's expensive. So how do you get to a point point that you can really harvest that technology and bring it to patients in a way that everyone can access it in an affordable way. I think we're about a decade away from that for cell and gene therapy. But you can see that if you even bring that back to medicines that are now accessible for patients, you end up with an interesting conundrum. Most medicines that people are prescribed are generic medicines.

Yeah.

The genericized medicine world is there for a reason. It's right to have a lot of drugs out there accessible for most of the world's population. But the cost pressure that is being put on the pharmaceutical industry from governments or even patient advocacy groups means that it's very difficult to produce those generic medicines in a cost-effective manner. So you actually see the complete opposite effect in the generic medicine world. Where the price pressure being put on the companies manufacturing these medicines is causing them to actually leave the market and is a cause for drug shortages. So I do think we have a lot of opportunities to think about patient access and how do we really create a system that can allow more access for patients, whether it's a generic medicine or an innovative medicine.

Oh, it's fascinating to think that now you might be able to get a drug that is designed for you.

Yes.

Your DNA, for your cells, for your specific symptoms. Fascinating. Now, over the last 14 years, you know, I've always admired your purpose, the mission you have to improve health. And you've demonstrated that through all our interactions. Sometimes I feel a bit surprised that pharma doesn't always get credit for its impact. So how do you connect your teams, It always surprises me too.

I think the pharmaceutical industry is an easy one for the general public to blame for the high cost of medicine. And there's much more in the healthcare supply chain between healthcare providers, et cetera, that causes the cost of medicine to be high. But honestly, for all the people that I've worked with within the pharmaceutical market, The majority of people really are there because they're driven by this purpose. They enter the industry because it's a career path. They stay in the industry because they see the purpose behind it. And that's what happened to me. I entered the industry as coming out of operations engineering, fascinated by this world, and I've stayed in it and I'll continue to stay in it because I see the impact of what we do every day at our company. directly on patients and patients' access to medicine. And the majority of people that I work with, that is exactly what keeps them there. And that's what keeps the team going. I talked about some hard times with changes, and I'm so proud of how our team has been able to really come out of that much stronger and really in a way that we're helping our customers reach more patients. Every time we had a difficult situation, We would come together and think about what is the impact at the end of this. And that really rallies the team to say, no matter what, we're going to get this product out the door. We're going to make sure our customer can get this so they can make their medicine so they can get to that patient. You will have people staying late, working harder, making sure that delivery is done because of that purpose. And I don't know too many other industries that have that. Hmm.

Now, that's beautiful. You know, it's back to the why. And to go through those hard times knowing why you're here, why you're doing this work, why you're doing those long hours is what keeps you going.

And most of our team can relate. We know exactly what drug products we're going into. And we have many employees that come up to us and say, hey, do you know my mother was in the hospital and they used this? I saw it in the hospital bed. My child had an accident and they were prescribed this. And it just— that sense of pride that we were part of that, it's really amazing.

I think if young graduates listen to this podcast, they will want to go to your industry. It's a wonderful industry.

I love it.

GE Healthcare is where I started for the same reasons. Now we have a signature question on this podcast, and it's practical advice for our listeners. So when you think of senior leaders who want to drive meaningful transformation in a complex, highly regulated industry, such as healthcare or pharma, what are 2, 3 things they can start doing today?

Yeah, it's a great question. I love it. First and foremost, I would say listen. Listen to the market, listen to your customers, and listen to your people. There's so many times we just want to run towards a solution, but the solution's already there. It's just waiting to be discovered through your people. So listen. The second is really roll up your sleeves and be part of the change.

Mm-hmm.

If you want transformational change at your organization, you need to be part of it. You need to be in the weeds. You need to know the pain points. You need to really understand your people, because as soon as that happens, You can help lead them through it and see the silver lining at the end. And through that, really allow time for learning, allow time for mistakes. Again, mistakes will happen. It's natural. People will not understand the big picture at first. People will think they're making the right decision with information they have. It's okay. Learn from it, build on it, use it as a learning tool, and continue to build from that, continue to improve. So listen, roll up your sleeves, allow time for learning.

So powerful and so aligned with our values at Proteus. So, you know, I cannot agree more, Kelsey. Thank you so much. Your insights into transformations, leadership, purposeful innovation are truly inspiring. And for our listeners, if you want to learn more about how Proteus supports leaders in transformation and beyond, just visit produce-international.com. Thanks for tuning in. And until next time, here's to creating the leadership the healthcare world truly needs. Thank you, Kelsey.

Thank you so much, Marie.

We hope you're feeling better equipped to create the career, the business, and the life you want. To find out more about how we support our clients in leadership, learning, and change, visit us at proteus-international.com. Have an excellent day, and thanks for listening.