Incyte Corporation CEO Herve Hoppenot on Creating a Culture Employees Love

It's so great today to have Hervé Oppenjoord with us today. He's the CEO of Insight Pharmaceutical. And Hervé, welcome.

No, thank you for taking the time.

So congratulations on becoming a Most Loved Workplace, Hervé.

And yeah, we were very, very happy to see that.

Very happy that you did as well. I want to hear more about that. That excitement inside of Incyte and what, what that means to you to be a most loved workplace.

No, it means very much because obviously, um, you know, we— when you think about what we are trying to, to, to do, a lot of it has to do with the external world, which is how do we change the practice of medicine by inventing new products that will be helping doctors deal with all kinds of very complicated diseases, specifically in the field of cancer. And to do that, it's a long process, and you have to deal with FDA and authorities and governments because we live in a very regulated field. And that's all we have to sort of manage and make successful. Internally, being on this list, what it means is that we, the people of Insight, you know, the 2,000 of us around the world, are feeling committed to this mission that we have in a way that is sort of creating happiness, because that's what we are speaking about. And that's always a very good thing to see that, you know.

It's incredible, creating happiness with, you know, over 2,000 employees. And, you know, your latest annual revenue number of $2.5 billion and more at 2020, sites all over the country and headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, North America, Europe, Asia. It's huge. You have a global footprint. And how— tell me more about your global perspective and how that's helped kind of become more happy, more sort of understanding, and thus really connect more to your customer and your company perspective.

Yeah, what we do— well, I mean, I think what makes— if you think of what's driving happiness or love, if that's what we are speaking about, it's— I think the first thing is the mission. You know, companies need to do something where when we retire, we will look back and speak to our friends or our grandchildren and say, you know, look at what we did. I mean, that's Now, the treatment of— and you can pick the disease where we are operating— rare type of leukemia, myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, or GVHD, or colon cancer. This treatment around the world has been transformed by the work we did here in our lab in Wilmington, by the chemists who invented the new molecule, by the biologists who tested it, by the doctors who did the clinical trials. In Asia, in Europe. And then when this product became available for physicians to, to, to use it, it changed the ways they have been practicing medicine. And that mission is something that is so deep and so fundamental that I think it's a key driver of everybody's feeling fulfillment of their life. It's not the only thing that matters, but it is the, it's the core, it's the key thing is make the world better in some way, change the way medicine is practiced. And if we are able to continue to do that, and we have been very successful over a long period of time having these new medicines available for physicians, then you get to a sense of fulfillment that is absolutely a core to this idea of love or happiness that we have as an associate of the, of the corporation. I think the second part is success, is that It's very competitive. It's like being in a, you know, in a team where, you know, sometimes you win, sometimes you don't, and it has this excitement about competition and being able to be at the forefront of the science. You know, the entire world is trying to do what we are doing. There are people in Asia, in Europe, in Palo Alto, in Boston, everywhere, who are trying to do what we are doing. And when we are able to be ahead and you know, be the one that ends up succeeding in the, in the process, it is also an incredible feeling. And we, we know that it's creating emotion, it's creating something that is sort of lifting all of the difficulties we had to go through in a completely different perspective, because at the end there is a prize of being able to do what, what we are trying to do. And then there is the question of how do we work with each other. And that, I think, is, is fundamental to, to that same concept. I think it goes with success, is very close to the question of the missions that we have, is treating each other with respect and being able to deal with very difficult situations where it's not like a finger-pointing kind of exercise, where in fact we are in this together in a way that is deep. It's not just on a you know, on the surface, but we are in this together. And where people are working with that mindset of we are all accountable for the success of every other employee of the corporation. So it's this thing about I'm not just in charge of my own success, but I am in charge of everybody else's. And if I can do something to help them succeed, then it becomes my task. And this sort of cooperation literally is, I think, very core to this concept of How do you, how do you become successful, but also, you know, how do you have more satisfaction out of your own work?

When you're dealing with such incredibly high-stakes autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, leukemia, cancer, it, the mission is so deep, it's so important, And like you said, while others are trying, you're doing, and you're learning from mistakes. You're mission-driven. You're excited to get things done and get to the root of the problem so that you can solve it quickly, so it gets into the hands of physicians and into patients, because you know that must be done. Is there a sense of an understanding inside of your employees, with your employees, where they say, we must do this, we must do this?

I can give you an example. I don't know if you heard about it, but there is a little thing called COVID. And, uh, and so a year and a half ago, I remember we're in March, March 2020, when the whole thing exploded. So it was like, oh my God, we have to evacuate the buildings, we have— everybody has to work from, from home, etc. And I received inbound from some of our scientists very quickly about the fact that COVID is leading to this lung inflammation, which is disproportionate compared to the effect of the virus itself. It was really a reaction to the virus that was leading to this very problematic lung inflammation, and which was leading a lot of people into emergency room and death in some cases. And it was absolutely amazing to see how, you know, from the team themselves, there was immediately a number of work streams that were put in place to find out if we had in fact solutions that could be helping this patient suffering from COVID in the acute phase. And in fact, we did. And today there is a product called baricitinib that is used very routinely in the US and in other countries as a way to modulate inflammation that is related to COVID. And that was something that everybody felt personally accountable, literally, for getting the studies done. And we had our own project with another molecule called Joraxolitinib. So it was very spontaneous, and we see that in many cases. We have scientists in the lab coming to us with their own ideas about, you know, which direction we should take on a certain type of mechanism, because they have their belief, and sometimes they do even experiments about it. Before they would speak about it. And it's, yeah, there is a lot of spontaneous emergence of new innovation, new innovative ideas that would be, sometimes will end up with application in medicine. We have examples of that with some of the indication we have today for our products that they came from people in the lab having their own ideas about the mechanism.

So this is incredible, Hervé. This is remarkable. That during COVID you and your employees created pharmaceutical interventions that modulated inflammation for COVID patients. You've been a part of the, uh, the sort of revolution against COVID. It's incredible.

Yeah, we have been part of the improvement of the, the improvement of treatment. Well, you know, you see in COVID there is a prevention, the vaccine. I mean, that's something that we are not involved in, but on the treatment side, I mean, all of this inflammatory mechanism is something we worked on very actively during the world crisis.

I mean, what else could be more sort of courageous and strong to bring people together than COVID itself? And you've been a part of that, part of the treatment itself of those symptoms.

But, you know, cancer, we have been in the field of cancer for all these years, and frankly, We don't compare the, you know, different things, but the feeling of being accountable for being successful— when we invite patients here to the office very often to speak and to everybody, and it gets everybody on their feet running back to their work because the clock is ticking and patients are waiting for us to hopefully find us. It's not just Insight, it's, you know, a lot of companies are obviously involved in that, but that perception of patients are looking at us and waiting for us to be successful is something that is very strong in the way we deal with, you know, all the difficult aspects of the work we are doing. It takes 10 years to get a product through the whole process, and, you know, it goes in phases where we have great success and then we have issues and then we go back and we solve them, and that's part of the, of the process. But back to the happiness, and you know, the why people appreciate the work we, we do, they do, is because there is this enormous prize, is that when we are successful, people, you know, are going to have a treatment for something that before did not have any treatment, which is the case for most of the products we have on the market today.

And that, that happiness component that you're, you're describing, um, what's interesting about it, and the love component specifically with biologicals and pharmaceuticals. There's a, uh, there's a, a, uh, author, his name is Matsumoto Emoto, and he, he did, uh, a study called Molecules of Emotion, and he found that, uh, water molecules can gain, uh, a definition to them based upon love versus anger. And he, he literally wrote on the test tubes love on one molecule, on one vial of test tube for water, and the other one was anger and hatred. And we looked at the molecules, he looked at the molecules under the microscope and found that it was very beautiful with love. And with others like anger and hate, it was very structured. Exactly, exactly.

We don't have a pill, we don't have a pill for that yet, so we'll see.

I mean, that could be So interesting, isn't it? And it sounds like that's part of your success though, this, this kind of happiness, consistent happiness, people who love being with you and being with Insight and for Insight, and that really drives you to success.

No, it is part of— I mean, obviously you— we all know we are competing with everybody to attract the best talents in the world, and it's not like, uh, it's reality, you know. We have people working here in, in Delaware coming from all over the planet. And, uh, and obviously they have chosen to do that, and we have, you know, decided that they would be the right person to work here. So that group of people, uh, is— are the ones who are speaking about Insight to their colleagues, to— for the next, you know, wave of people who are going to join Insight. So there is a sort of a, you know, self-fulfilling cycle where The more people who are working in the organization have positive feelings about what's happening, the more quality people you will get, uh, from there. Because most of the recruitment we do— and we, we increase headcount by like 200 to 400 people per year over the past few years— most of the new people joining have joined because they spoke to somebody from inside and have been connected with somebody working here. So yeah, it is very important also for for the future, to continue to get people who are on that kind of mindset of trying to do something that has never been done before.

Absolutely. Well, this is wonderful. And you know what I love about what you're describing is that people really believe in what you do, and people believe in each other, and they're giving the ability, the option for others they believe in, like family, to come over to you and work with you as well because they trust what you do. So it's very good. I appreciate it. Your town hall, how was the town hall when you talked about Most Loved Workplace? Tell me more. I heard you talked a little bit about it.

No, I mean, we have, we have a number of, uh, of settings where we, we are trying to sort of break the lines of command, you know, the sort of the pyramidal view of a company where, you know, things are going from one level to another, etc. So we are trying to, to get to stay away from that and to have a system that is far more horizontal with far less layers of management. So when you look at the 2,000 people at Insight, we have very little intermediate management layers in the system. And obviously part of it is communication coordination. So we have a number of settings where we speak directly with everybody in the company. One of the settings is just small meeting. I meet with groups of 10, and I do enough of them so that I can meet with everybody on our— I mean, during COVID it was a little bit of a, of a different type of meeting by Zoom, but in general, is to have person-to-person meeting with everybody working at Insight over, over a period of a year or a year and a half., in small groups. And I must say, it's extraordinarily productive because it's not what I say that matters, it's what in fact all of these employees have ideas on how to make Insight a better place. And the fact that everybody, you know, it's a sort of a crowd wisdom, the fact that everybody would think about how to make Insight a better place by itself is extremely positive because it is individual accountability. They think of it as my insight. And when they see something that's not right, you know, whatever is happening, somebody is, is not doing the right thing, or there is a problem, or blah blah, I think the first reaction is, you know, how do we change things so that it will be better next time? And people feel very strongly about that. So that's, that's the core. The town hall are more like meeting with everybody in the room and video and Zoom in Asia and and Europe. And it's an open Q&A, so it's totally open to any questions that people may have. Where we get some of them are stinging a little bit, and some of them are, you know, more, more classic, classic question. But it's— I think it's very useful because it shows that there is no unacceptable question. There may be some unacceptable answers, but the questions are always welcome, and we can we can work with them. So it just took place. We spent 2 hours together and it was a great experience.

I love what you said. There's no unacceptable questions, there's only unacceptable answers. It's so true, isn't it, that when the truth doesn't meet the question itself, it's— I love also, I was interested in what you mentioned about small groups. And I do believe, I know research shows that small groups does bring in a lot of great ideas and a lot of amazing thoughts and dialogue that enrich and makes the, the sort of experience richer and the respect much deeper. And I see that you've done that as well in small groups.

And it's bringing great ideas. I mean, it's not, it's not just a gimmick to just sort of say, oh yeah, we do the Meet the Leadership kind of thing. It's where we got a number of ideas from these discussions And people know it because they are in one of these meetings and then 3 months later they will see a big announcement and that's exactly what they wanted to do. And there are, you know, things that we are blind to certain aspects of what we do. We just don't realize it and we don't see it. And that's a way to get, you know, people who are a little orthogonal to the way we look to just come to us saying, hey, why are we not doing more of this?. And then suddenly it becomes a project. So it is really, really very useful.

Yeah, the design of innovation comes right from your employees. They bring it forward for you. Yeah. Hervé, thank you so much for your time. And you've said it all. Is there any other sort of final remarks you want to bring to the world about Myself Workplace or your company? New things happening?

Yeah, well, I think the The last aspect is really to look at what matters to people in their professional life. I mean, people spend like, you know, one life, and half of it, or a big part of it, is in professional activities. And so we spoke about the mission, we spoke about the respect, obviously, but there is also all of the question of the benefits and how we are basically helping people make this professional activity something that is not always under the threat of, you know, medical problems. So we have been very proactive. We have the best health benefits, I guess, in the nation. I don't know if I can say that, but some of the best. And I believe it's something that is really, really important that we have seen over the past few months is that in the sort of deal with a group of people who want to work for your company, for Insight in that case, there is this mission, there is respect, the fact that people will not be treated the wrong way, but there is also the fact that we will take care of, you know, basic things that are so fundamental to being able to have a family and everything that goes with your personal life, not the professional aspect but the personal part. And I think it's something that sometimes we tend build a wall between the two and say, okay, that's none of my business, you can choose to do whatever you want in terms of health insurance. In our case, we say we owe you to give you health insurance that will be covering, you know, far beyond what the basic things are. And, and that part I think is also very, very important in the US today.

It's incredibly important. You offer benefits like 100% health insurance coverage for employees, 95% for dependents, and since 2017, parental leave for all situations. It's incredible.

I don't know if it's incredible. I don't— I don't— I frankly, maybe it's my, uh, you know, where I come from, I see it as, as, you know, basic things that are part of this, of the commitment you give to a corporation, to a company. And I like the word company because it also speaks about you know, people being together in a company. And when you give your time and your energy and your creativity to a company, I think there are certain things that you can expect. And that's one of them that I put at the top, in fact, is certainly the healthcare and the type of benefits that are related to that.

I love what you— I like what you said. You said where you come from. Tell me more. Where you said—

I come from France. I come from Europe. I came to the US 30 years ago. I'm now very much transatlantic, but there is something on the— on maybe the way we think in Europe about, you know, health as a right more than— that is something that I think can be applied everywhere in the world. Unfortunately, there are a lot of places where it's not yet the case.

Well, we see that in your company, certainly, with that, that 100% healthcare coverage and parental leave and seeing those kinds of values come through here in Insight. Thank you for your leadership, your and you're being a great CEO of a company that is loved.

Thank you. Thank you for the time.