The importance of putting values at the heart of a global organisation.

Pharmaceutical giants probably don't spring to mind when thinking of values driven organisations, so it was great interest that I learned of the changes that are taking place in one of the world's largest drug companies.

I first visited Novartis five years ago. Then it was an organisation, like most others, driven by a culture of profit and individualism and where "work-life integration" had replaced any notion of "work-life" balance. The company boasted that its Campus had several restaurants, a supermarket and a post office so that domestic chores did not force employees to leave early and thus the firm could maximise the length of the working day. The performance management structure primarily rewarded results. The only hint of what was to come was that there was a recognition in their appraisal structure that an individual getting great results through poor 'attitudes and behaviours' was fundamentally bad business.

Novartis PRP Matrix up to 2014

Five years on and, after six months of company-wide consultation, Novartis have just launched their new values. The 23 values that were neither known nor understood by their employees have been distilled down to six core principles, two for each of the three areas:

1. Patient and Customer: innovation and quality;
2. Team: collaboration and performance; and
3. Self: courage and integrity.

The order of these values categories say much about the vision for the organisation for they put the needs of customer/patient first, and the needs of the team above those of the individual. The shift from a 'me' culture to an 'us' (team and society) culture is significant.

So how are these values worked out in the organisation? Well drugs companies do have a good story to tell. They do change lives. They do make the world a better place. Novartis invests billions in new drugs - of course they do it to make a profit, but without that profit there wouldn't be investment.

The organisation has shifted from valuing the individual to the team rather than the individual. Hence collaboration and team performance at the centre of the values structure. The clearest evidence of this shift is in the performance management matrix. The bonus structure use to reward results over attitudes and behaviours. From January 2015, that will not be the case. Results and values will have equal weight. 

Novartis PRP Matrix prior from 2015

The personal values of courage and integrity emphasise the need for individual employees to live up to their responsibilities and to operate within an agreed ethical framework.

Novartis is able to attract some of the world's greatest talent and they actively look to appoint high-fliers who have 'agility' i.e. who are able to apply their skills in different contexts as they around their global postings at two-year intervals. Interestingly, no one spoke of 'work-life integration', rather they had introduced more flexibility about working hours and locations (campus wide wireless VLAN).

The world needs ethical drugs companies.  
I shall follow Novartis' progress with great interest and wish them every success in this venture.

(I would like to thank the Talent Management team at Novartis Basel for their wonderful hospitality and for sharing their vision with a group of headteachers - priceless INSET.)

11 things that Young People don’t learn in school, but need to know about life.

Adapted from the American for an English Audience:

1. Life is not fair - get used to it!


2. The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.


3. You will NOT earn £60,000 a year right out of University. You won't be a vice-president with a company car and a mobile phone until you earn both.


4. If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss


5. Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.


6. If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.


7. Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest and set about cleaning up the planet from the mess your parent's generation have made, try tidying up your own bedroom first.


8. Some schools may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. The examination system may allow you retake exam modules as many times as you want to ensure you get the top grade. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.


9. Life is not divided into terms. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.


10. Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work.


11. Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

[Extract from Speech to Berkhamsted School Upper Sixth Leavers - Vale 05/07/11]

These 11 things have circulated on the Web purporting to be a speech that Bill Gates gave to High School Leavers - this is an urban myth. The rules are an abridged version of an original piece that was penned by author Charles J. Sykes' 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School

A return to values and duty

I must say that I was very impressed by Barrack Obama's Inaugural Address. He is an outstanding orator, but there is more to him that that - he really has something to say.

"Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility - a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task." [Inaugural Address: 20th January 2009]

There are core values here that are a secure foundation for every country, every school, indeed every person. Let us hope and pray that his Presidency lives up to the rhetoric - the world needs it.

Check out this SnowCloud of Obama's speech.


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